Category: Applejack


Featured Cocktail: The Margaret Rose

Filed under: Applejack, Cointreau, Gin, The Margaret Rose — Leave a comment
July 30, 2012

This recipe and article is from Putneyfarm.com……a GREAT site with some very cool cocktail recipes.

The Margaret Rose. A good intro to “Daisy” cocktails.

This week’s cocktail takes us back to the classics. The Margaret Rose is a well-balanced cocktail made of gin, Calvados (or Applejack, in a pinch), Cointreau, lemon juice and grenadine. The Margaret Rose is smooth, with clear apple flavor and a very tasty sweet / tart combination from the lemon and the Cointreau. The gin adds some depth and complexity. The grenadine adds more sweetness and the rosy color. This drink is easy to make, works well in any season and is a good introduction to a class of cocktails known as “Daisies”. More on that in a bit.

This recipe first appears in print in “The Cafe Royal Cocktail Book“, a 1937 book that came out a year or so after the more famous Savoy Cocktail Book. In a nutshell, the Savoy book was written by an American Harry Craddock, working in the UK. The UK Bartenders Guild thought that the Savoy book was perhaps a bit too “American” and came out with their own cocktail guide, The Cafe Royal. Both are good cocktail books and each has some unique recipes. For whatever reason, the Savoy is a more popular modern reference. Maybe it’s the illustrations.

We found this recipe and notes on the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book from Cocktail Virgin Slut, one of the better cocktail blogs. We tried the Margaret Rose and liked it (Carolyn gave it a nod, and she is normally not a lover of brandy) and decided to do some more research. The Margaret Rose is from a class of cocktails known as “daisies”. Daisies are one of the oldest types of cocktails and were common in the 19th century. Definitions vary, but a daisy usually combines brandy, citrus juice (normally lemon) and a sweet liqueur like Cointreau or Chartreuse. Other spirits like whisky, gin or rum may be part of the recipe. A good combination, and a clear precursor to “Sours” like the Sidecar and, much later, the Cosmopolitan.

As for the ingredients, the only somewhat “rarefied” ingredient is the Calvados. Calvados is simply apple brandy from the Lower Normandy region of France. Most Calvados is dry, but features clear apple notes and a touch of heat from the alcohol (depending on the quality of the Calvados). American apple brandy, known as Applejack, tends to run a touch sweeter and more tangy than Calvados. Applejack will work well in this recipe, but the drink will be a bit different. Regardless, there are literally hundreds of cocktails (mostly 19th and early 20th century) that feature apple brandy, so Calvados or Applejack are a worthwhile addition to your bar.

In the end, the Margaret Rose is a good drink to try. It is a good excuse to get some apple brandy, try a “daisy’ cocktail and even get a copy of a cool (if somewhat obscure) cocktail book. Nothing like a bit of history. Or you can ignore the history and just make the drink and enjoy it. That also works pretty well.

The Margaret Rose:

Ingredients:

  • 1 oz. dry gin
  • 1 oz. Calvados (or Applejack)
  • 1/2 oz. Cointreau
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 2 dashes grenadine

Assemble:

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake thoroughly and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, coupé or flute. No garnish. Serve.
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Classic Cocktails: The Jack Rose

Filed under: Applejack, The Jack Rose — Leave a comment
July 14, 2012

This excerpt is from the Esquire web site, they have a great section on the history of the cocktail.

Jack Rose was a bald liar. In the early-morning hours of July 13, 1912, a mid-level gambler by the name of Herman Rosenthal was called away from the 2 a.m. ginger ale he was sipping in the bar of Times Square’s Hotel Metropole and shot four times in the head. Bald Jack Rose was the guy who handled the contract. Here’s the liar part: When Herbert Bayard Swope of the New York World and D.A. Charlie Whitman got together — for reasons too complex to go into in a drink essay — to pin the hit on a certain Lieutenant Charles Becker of the NYPD’s antigambling squad, Rose was their star witness. Perjured himself with enthusiasm and imagination (and, of course, saved his neck). It was the trial of the century; little did they know. Becker went to the chair, Whitman to the governor’s office, Swope to the executive editorship of the World, and Rose — well, he went into the catering business.

In a mixing glass combine:

 1 1/2 ounces applejack 1/2 ounce grenadine, and the juice of 1/2 lime. Shake fast and furiously with much cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

 
It’s even remotely possible that Rose himself invented this drink; he was somewhat of a celebrity (whatever became of that Kaelin fellow, anyway?) and not averse to cashing in on his ill-gotten fame. But whoever it was, he was a clever bugger — the drink is based on applejack, and it’s rose-pink. Play on words. In any case, the Jack Rose is an effective testament to its namesake: It’s smooth and sweetish and deeply deceptive. Sipping it, you can’t tell it contains liquor of any kind, let alone applejack. Ironic, that. The one classic cocktail to use New Jersey’s indigenous firewater, and you can’t even taste it.Read more: http://www.esquire.com/drinks/jack-rose-drink-recipe#ixzz20cCgWAl8

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/drinks/jack-rose-drink-recipe#ixzz20cCPwJRK

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