How to Make the Vodka and Apple Cocktail – Robb Report

Imagine someone telling you that sunsets are passé. Out of fashion. Nobody watches sunsets anymore. And also out of style, since you asked, are hot showers, cheese, and the question “Who’s a good boy?” to an excited pup.

What would you say to this person? How dismissive of her idiotic opinion are you preparing to be? There are obviously some things that are subject to the vagaries of taste and fashion and others that are not. And we contend that despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Green Apple Sour — better known by its stage name Appletini — is an example of the latter.

The Appletini was born on July 4, 1997 at the Lolas in West Hollywood. As with so many cocktail creation stories, it wasn’t so much a flash of divine inspiration as it was a bartender glancing at the back bar, seeing a bottle they didn’t know well, and thinking, “Hmmmm.” The bottle in this case was DeKuyper’s Pucker Sour Apple Liquor, brand new at the time, the “Pucker” line, unique in the then ubiquitous neon spectrum of liqueurs in that it was both sour and sweet. The bartender in question, Adam Karston, poured equal amounts of Apple Pucker and vodka and topped it off with a spritz of Sweet & Sour, essentially making a boozy Sour Patch Kid that was no less appealing because it was ecto-cooler green ( those were the 90s). , after all).

It was explosively popular. “The cocktail was so successful it had to be taken off the menu,” it’s often said, which admittedly doesn’t make much sense, but everyone agrees it was a hit. Within six months, virtually every bar in LA had an Appletini on their menu.

“The long, muggy summer of the chocolate martini is finally behind us,” she wrote New York Times in October 2000 “its replacement is a crisp new cocktail made from vodka and a sort of apple brandy.” The appletini was a transitional drink and not only from summer to autumn. It’s tempting to lump it in with the chocotini and the sex on the beach and all the other boring and chemical and overly sweet drinks that preceded it, but there’s one important difference: the appletini was sweet, yeah, but he was also angry. It was the first mainstream cocktail in a generation to have a near-adequate amount of acidity, a crucial step toward the sweet and sour balance of things like margaritas and daiquiris and whiskey sours that we not only enjoy today, but expect .

What’s interesting about the Times Article is that as early as 2000, New York bartenders were using fresh ingredients instead of the neon green liquor. Diane Gordon mixed vodka, cinnamon, apple juice and Calvados, the French apple brandy. Ian Schrager made Zubrowka, the Polish herbal vodka, with honey and fresh apple juice. Julie Reiner, who “refuses to use any liqueur at all because it makes the drink taste like a Jolly Rancher,” infused vodka with fresh apples and topped it with sparkling apple cider. These bartenders recognized the Appletini’s inherent appeal—that Granny Smith apples are delicious and blend seamlessly with the sour cocktail template.

It was true then and it is true now. While the relative acceptance of white-hot green liqueurs has changed, not a bit has changed the fact that vodka, apple, and sweet and sour flavors, when shaken together, are as simple and deeply delicious as anything you can find, and no less in or out of fashion than fall itself.

Appletini

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 8 to 10 seconds. Strain the ice into a martini glass and garnish with a few slices of apple or just for fun with a cherry.

NOTES ON INGREDIENTS

Vodka: The craft cocktail bartender in me would love to tell you that pisco or mezcal or something makes the best appletini you’ve ever had, but that’s not true. I’ve tried this recipe with all sorts of spirits and I still like it best when the spirit gets out of the way and lets the apple juice sing. That means: vodka. As for bottlings, you can keep up with an apple-distilled one like Upstate Vodka if you want, but vodka is mostly here to provide the canvas for painting.

The other thing to note here is that there is a traditional Polish vodka called Zubrowka that is infused with the herb bison grass, which offers a lemongrass-like warm herbal sweetness. It’s traditionally taken with apple juice because those flavors go fantastically together – the brand of Zubrowka available here is Zu, and if you’re into appletinis it’s worth picking up a bottle.

Fresh apple juice: You could certainly use plain bottled apple juice, but I don’t recommend it. It won’t be green for starters, and bottled juice typically isn’t Granny Smith, meaning it’s sweeter without that sharp leading edge.

That’s the annoying part of my advice: you have to juice apples for this. Or rather, if you want it to be green and stay green, you have to juice apples for it. The good news is I have a trick: apple juice will oxidize and turn brown within minutes, but if you juice it into a container with a small amount of ascorbic acid — pure vitamin C, a cheap and common canned ingredient — to prevent oxidation . You don’t need much, just 1-2 tsp per liter of juice and make sure you stir. With this trick, you can make a large batch of apple juice, store it in the fridge, and it will stay bright green forever.

Simple Syrup: This allows the apples to speak as loudly as possible. Very talented bartenders sometimes recommend honey syrup, which obviously works and offers a warm, sweet finish that mingles with the vicious bite of the apple, and you can do that if you like.

If you really want to blow doors off, my absolute favorite sweetener I use here is lemongrass syrup, which adds the same kind of herbal sweetness that zubrowka does but even more.

To do this, combine 1 cup each of the sugar and water in a small saucepan, stirring to combine. Heat to around 160-180F – you want to think of the herbs like tea and not scald them – then remove from heat. Roughly chop 2 stalks of lemongrass and once your simple syrup is hot you can either add the lemongrass to the simple syrup, cover and allow to come to room temperature or if you want a louder flavor add the hot syrup and lemongrass to a high speed blender and 10 Blend on high for seconds, then cover and allow to cool. Strain the solids and refrigerate.