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18 October 2005
Johnny Applejack - a new drink. →[More:]
1/2 oz Applejack
1/2 tsp simple syrup
2 drops Angustora Bitters
1 drop Pastis
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled Champagne glass. Top up with chilled sparkling hard cider.
The correct amount of pastis -- except in New Orleans when you're drinking a Sazerac -- is so little that nobody knows it's there unless you tell them, but enough so they miss it if it's not.
Jersey Lightning is an old colonial name for applejack, which is brandy distilled from hard cider.
The drink was a big hit and created in celebration of picking 20 crates of apples for this year's cider festival. We squeeze in two weeks after the apples have sweated and softened a bit.
The freezer method of making applejack (letting it freeze to slush and getting rid of the ice) is deadly and the hangover would stun a wino. The distilled applejack is delightful and known to drink snobs as Calvados. Applejack was a big item of commerce in colonial times.
I didn't know applejack = calvados, but I should have. I love calvados, rough. Pastis makes me flinch, but that's because I hang out with a frenchie who is always forcing pints of it down my throat.
applejack doesn't = calvados; to be sold as applejack it has to be blended with a certain proportion of neutral spirits (except if it's sold as bonded, which is also 100 instead of 80 proof, hence my question above). Also, calvados can only be made from certain kinds of apples, which I don't believe is true of applejack, and of course it can only come from normandy.