Tag Archives: Apple Brandy

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Jersey Daisy (for Deragon)

One evening while working at Heaven’s Dog, I was graced with the presence of another man who lives a double life in Tech and Booze. John Deragon was, at the time, working for PDT and at the same time maintaining a second life as a highly placed Information Technology worker in some aspect of the Hearst organization.

I had made him my version of the Aviation and he was next interested in a cocktail of a more aromatic bent. Thinking something Brooklyn-ish, I wondered about what I could make that he hadn’t already experienced. He suggested a cocktail which I believe was of his own devising, The Jersey.

Composed as follows, it turns out to be quite delicious, amazingly taming two rather extreme liqueurs by pitting them against one another:

Jersey Cocktail
2 oz Laird’s Bonded Applejack
3/4 oz Carpano Antica Vermouth
1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
1/4 oz Fernet Branca

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an Orange Twist.

Looking through the Daisy recipes I’d made so far, I felt they were strangely amiss without one based on Apple Brandy. Thinking back on Mr. Deragon’s Jersey, I came up with the following.


Jersey Daisy (for Deragon)

1 oz Rittenhouse Bonded Rye*
1 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy*
Juice 1/2 Lemon
1/4 oz Rich Simple Syrup
1/4 oz Fernet Branca (for float)

Peel lemon as for Crusta and line wine glass with peel. Half fill with Cracked ice. Shake all ingredients other than Fernet Branca with ice and strain into glass. Fill with Soda and float on Fernet. Garnish with strawberry and mint and serve with a straw.

*In the event of actual New York Bartenders, please bump the Laird’s and Rye up to at least 1 1/2 ounces each.

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Third Rail Cocktail (No. 2)

Third Rail Cocktail (No. 2)
1 Dash Absinthe. (1 dash Lucid Absinthe)
1/3 Bacardi Rum. (3/4 oz Montecristo White Rum)
1/3 Calvados or Apple Brandy. (3/4 oz Clear Creek Apple Brandy)
1/3 Brandy. (3/4 oz Pellehaut Armagnac)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Simply splendid. Better than 11,000 volts.

Splendid?! There are words which come to mind when trying this all booze concoction, but splendid isn’t really one of them.

However, for me, it mostly reminds me of a band called The Rain Parade who released an album called, “Emergency Third Rail Power Trip,” in the early 1980s.

At the time I was living in Madison, Wisconsin, and listening to a lot of the listener sponsored station WORT.  One of my favorite DJs was a woman who called herself Michele K-Tel and claimed to work at a Buddy Nut Squirrel Nut Shoppe.  She hosted a show called Earwax and was extremely fond of bands in the so-called “Paisley Underground“.  Initially, it took me a while to grasp her fondness for the neo-psychedelic music of bands like Rain Parade, The Three O’Clock, Plasticland, Green on Red, and The Long Ryders, but sooner or later, she had me singing along to the radio on songs like, “This Can’t Be Today” and “Jetfighter”.

Little did I know, a few years later, when I worked up the courage to volunteer at WORT as a Jazz DJ, that I would meet Michele K-Tel, we would hit it off, date, and run off to California with our giant piles of Albums, Tapes, and those new fangled Compact Discs.

Some times touching the Third Rail can be worth it.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

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Depth Charge Brandy Cocktail

Depth Charge Brandy Cocktail

Depth Charge Brandy Cocktail

Depth Charge Brandy Cocktail (6 People)

Carefully shake together 2 1/2 glasses of Brandy, and the same amount of Calvados to which has been added 2 dessertspoonsful of Grenadine and 4 of Lemon Juice.

Adapted For 1.

Generous 1 oz of Maison Surrenne Petite Champagne Cognac
Generous 1 oz Clear Creek Apple Brandy
Teaspoon Homemade Grenadine
Juice 1/4 Lemon

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

The Cognac is really the dominant element here, with the other ingredients playing supporting roles. Really an enjoyable cocktail, being much more spirit forward than the traditional Sidecar or Jack Rose.

I guess I am puzzled as to what it might have to do with the preceding “Depth Charge Cocktail“.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

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Castle Dip Cocktail

Castle Dip Cocktail

Castle Dip Cocktail

1/2 Apple Brandy (1 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy)
1/2 White Creme de Menthe (1 oz Brizard Creme de Menthe)
3 Dashes Absinthe (1/2 barspoon Verte de Fougerolles Absinthe)

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass.

An interesting combination of flavors. Very much a dessert cocktail, however.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.