Cocktail #25: The Apple Spicehauser

After a couple of weekends being away - part in London, part in New York - I'm ready to pick up where I left off.

While we were away, summer slipped firmly into fall. Back here in Chicago, many trees are changing colors, there's a little nip in the air, and the days are shorter. Put all that together and I am in the mood for a cocktail that tastes like fall! I briefly looked at my usual sources - Smuggler's Cove and Jeff Berry's books - for cocktails that utilized some of the more spicy/fall-like ingredients like allspice dram, ginger, calvados, etc. But I came up short. So, I decided to go out on my own and try to create my own drink, with mixed results.

I looked in my liquor cabinet and refrigerator and pulled out anything that seemed to say "fall" to me - apples, cinnamon, cider, Demerara rum, allspice dram, etc. Here's what I came up with. I give you the Apple Spicehauser:

2.00 oz. ginger beer
1.00 oz. apple cider
0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
0.25 oz. Demerara simple syrup
1 cinnamon stick
2.00 oz. Hamilton Demerara rum
0.50 oz. 151 rum
0.25 oz macadamia nut liqueur
0.25 oz. allspice dram

Combine all ingredients -- except ginger beer and cinnamon -- into a cocktail shaker and fill halfway with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into the vessel of your choice that already has large ice cubes in it, and then add ginger beer. Stir with a bar spoon. Use a fine grater to grate a bit of cinnamon stick over the drink. Garnish with apple wheel, mum, mint, and a drink umbrella stuck into the cinnamon stick (resembling a palm tree).

This is a really pleasant drink, with a definitely fall/spicy feel to it. However, if I were to make this again, I would make some adjustments. First, I would not use the macademia nut liqueur. It gave the drink a slightly weird aftertaste. I'd probably leave out the 151 and instead use about an ounce more of both ginger beer and cider to give this an even more spicy/fall like feel. I'd also try using cinnamon simple syrup if I'd had the forethought to make it a day earlier.

I realize that making a "fall tiki cocktail" is a little bit of a folly given that there is no "fall" in the tropics, but wanted to give it a shot. Next week we get back to exploring some classics. Thanks for reading.

Since Halloween's right around the corner, I'll leave you with the 1910 version of "Frankenstein" - what I understand to be the first filmed version of the classic story. It's 12 minutes long, it's silent, and scarier than you might think. Cheers!