In which an apple competition becomes an applejack competition

Calvados tastes like apples. I think we can all agree on this. Also, it is delicious. And then there is its backwoods cousin, the one that watches NASCAR for the crashes and doesn't care for booklearnin', applejack. I am perhaps being cruel, since there is really only one company, Laird's, that makes applejack and they make only three products that I can find here. One they call applejack, one they call straight apple brandy (it doesn't have the neutral spirits that their applejack does), and one they call old apple brandy.

Of course, there's no intrinsic reason that Laird's wouldn't be as good and full of apple flavor as a calvados, but the fact of the matter is that it isn't. The apple is there, sure, but the barrel flavor competes with it instead of supports it. The trick to using the straight apple brandy, as I see it, is to fill in the bright apple notes that aren't present and to change the finish to something nicer than what is kindly supplied by the brandy.

Applejack comes up in plenty enough classic cocktails that it wasn't hard to find tasty-looking drinks. What became hard was finding drinks that I could make without going shopping. I eventually settled on a classic preparation called a Star Cocktail and adapted it slightly:

Star Cocktail

• 1 oz. Apple brandy (Laird's bonded)
• 1 oz. Sweet vermouth (Martini and Rossi)
• 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Stir with ice.

It's not something I'd pull out often, but it's actually not a shabby drink. That initial winey flavor in the vermouth sets a nice stage for the applejack and the finish is made markedly better by the Peychaud's. I'll be curious to do this again once I get a new bottle of Cinzano, since I think the vanilla in that will play even better with the apple.

My original drink went in a really different direction. For some reason, my thoughts immediately went to smoky flavors. I also expected that pomegranate and apple would go well together, so I had made some grenadine earlier in the week based on recipes seen online. I couldn't help but go with a not-terribly-original and far too cutesy name. Apologies.

Pomme-pom

• 1 oz. Applejack (Laird's straight apple brandy)
• 0.5-1 oz. Anejo tequila (Don Eduardo)
• 1/4 oz. Lemon juice
• 1/4 oz. Benedictine
• 3/4 oz. Grenadine (Put 1 c. pomegranate juice in a saucepan and reduce by half. Mix with 1 c. pomegranate juice and 1/2 c. sugar)

I actually recommend shaking this one instead of stirring, since I think the extra water helps the drink and the color is nicer when opaque.

The version of this guy that I first served was with only 0.5 oz. tequila. That drink had a bit more apple flavor, but I got some suggestions to bump up the tequila side of it. I went back and poured a bit more Don Eduardo in and came up with an arguably better drink. It may also want a dash more benedictine than I note here.