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In apple season, apple-based spirits are all the rage. These apple-flavored drinks can be used to add a little zing to your cocktails or simply as an after-dinner drink. In this blog post, we will go over some of the most popular apple liqueurs, apple brandy and other ways you can infuse apple flavor into your drinks!
Contents
Apple based spirits
Let’s start with some of the most common types of apple based spirits and a few that you might not have heard about.
Apple Brandy
Apple brandy is apple based spirit distilled from apple cider, and can be served neat but is mostly used in cocktails. It is often amber or clear in colour and aged for a period. The apple based spirit brandy can be served neat but is mostly used in cocktails such as A Farewell to Arms, an Old Fashioned riff from Grey Ghost Detroit.
Pommeau
Pommeau is a classic French aperitif made from apples in the Brittany, Maine and Normandy regions. Each region has an AOC certification and is made roughly with one-quarter Calvados and three-quarters apple must. Made from raw apple juice, Pommeau can be made by either slow fermentation or rapid fermentation. It is then distilled and aged in a wooden barrel.
Ageing requirements vary across the regions for example:
- Normandy and Brittany – the spirit must be aged in oak casks for at least 14 months (with an added 30-day bottle age for Brittany) before release.
- Maine – the spirit must be aged a minimum of 21 months in barrel and 30 days in bottle.
Applejack
Applejack is apple-based spirit that has been produced in the United States since colonial times. It can be made from fresh apple cider or by freeze distilling it, where apple cider was frozen and the top layers of ice scraped off for a high proof alcohol – known as ‘jacking’.
Today producers like Laird & Company make their products with stills instead of jacking. They have also produced blended applejack and apple brandy variations.
To keep it separate from apple brandy, producers will age it for years in barrels. Blended applejack needs to be at least two years in oak barrels to be classed as this.
It is famous for cocktails such as the Jack Rose, a favorite of Humphrey Bogart.
Calvados
This apple-flavored liquor can be made from either cider or apple wine, but it must undergo the “élevage” process which includes aging for at least two years in oak barrels. This will give you an apple brandy that has hints of vanilla, apple and apple pie.
Calvados is a French DO (Denomination of Origin) located in Normandie – it is both the name of a department and of a spirit. Calvados obtained its first Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) in 1942. The French classification, AOC is closed to the European protected geographical indication status also known as PGI.
There are three standards:
1. AOC Calvados. It is the basic Calvados and is usually aged for at least two years and made with a single column distilled. It accounts for about 70% of production and often has the name of the distilling location added to the title.
2. AOC Calvados du Pays d’Auge. It is the higher Calvados quality and has to be made from cider with apples from the Pays d’Auge region. Pears cannot be more than 30% of the blend and it must be double distilled in a pot still. It can be two years or more in the still and sometimes as high as 70% ABV (alcohol content). It accounts for around 29% of Calvados production.
3. AOC Calvados Domfrontais. It must contain 30% of pears and both fruit must come from the Domfrontais area. It is made in continuous stills for at least three years. It accounts for just 1% of Calvados production.
Apple Liqueurs
These liqueurs are made from apple cider, apple wine or apples that have been distilled with sugar to create a sweet liquor. They can be used in cocktails as well as sipped on their own after dinner for dessert.
Variations include both red and green apples, sour apple liqueurs and schnapps. You can also get apple apertifs that are herbal liqueurs infused with apples and other flavours. Apple vermouth is an example.
Apple vodka
Apple based vodka is different from apple flavoured vodka or apple brandy as it is smoother with a sweeter finish. It is made from distilling fermented cider twice but can be made with different neutral grain spirits as with any vodka.
Apple is also used as a botanical in some gins.
Tasty apple based spirits
These tasty apple based spirits are great for mixed drinks and cocktails while some work well on their own as aperitifs and digestifs. Plus there’s cider, which isn’t really a spirit but perhaps the best known type of apple alchol.
So what’s your favourite? And what makes your ‘must try’ list?
