An Apple a Day

In the time before COVID, my much-better-half and I would routinely spend a weekend afternoon meandering around Disney Springs. The lap would start at Rick Bayless's Frontera Cocina for lunch and concoctions of an agave nature. Following lunch would be the traditional attempt to secure a Gideon's Bakehouse cookie, something that we had a ~50% success rate through the years as the sole place to procure the said cookie was the Polite Pig BBQ restaurant. So popular were these cookies, that staff at the Polite Pig took to randomly putting out trays of the cookies sporadically through the day as well as strictly limiting sales - one cookie per person. Despite these measures, the cookies routinely sold out within an hour of being displayed. Happily, I've read that Gideon's Bakehouse is opening a dedicated store for their baked goods at the Springs in the near future which should address the short supply of the cookies nicely.

Following the cookie hunt, but before concluding our day with the traditional late-afternoon dinner at Morimoto Asia, we always found ourselves swinging by both Raglan Road Irish Pub and Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar for more libations, particularly their seasonal offerings. One such offering in the fall at Raglan Road was called Samhain Sangria - a punch made with Jameson's Black Barrel Irish whisky, apple cider, sauvignon blanc white wine, cinnamon syrup, and seltzer water. On paper, an interesting combination and one that I was reminded of when I saw the first jugs of apple cider appear in my local grocery store's cooler recently.

The cider sighting inspired a desire to not only reverse engineer the sangria, but to also devise a bourbon-based cider-cinnamon cocktail. After numerous weekends of trial and error, tinkering and sipping, I am proud to present not one, but two Fall-inspired libations. Quarantine does indeed provide ample time for self-improvement

Because both require a cinnamon syrup, let's start there. Thanks to the power of the Internet, I stumbled across a recipe that I felt worked well from Mr. Donkey Sauce himself (halved for my purposes):

Cinnamon Syrup
Ingredients

• 1 cup of water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3/4 cup of sugar

Composition

Place the water and cinnamon sticks in a saucepan and bring the water to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the cinnamon sticks and stir in sugar. Continue to stir until sugar is fully dissolved. Allow to cool before using and strain as needed.

Now onto the drinks, first up Raglan Road's Samhain Sangria. Note, I only have the ingredient list of this drink from the restaurant's menu. The proportions you see below are to our tastes and most reminiscent of how we remembered the drink tasting. A happy consequence of this recipe was the discovery of Jameson's Black Barrel whiskey. Initially I purchased this whiskey because Raglan Road specifically calls for it, but after tasting a few pours of the whiskey neat, I am happy to report that I found the product quite tasty. Yes, it is still a 40% ABV blended Irish whiskey, so it will not be competing with a Redbreast, but it is an order of magnitude step-up from the standard Jameson's in terms of character and depth; a whiskey that is wonderful in cocktails but is also not entirely out of place in a snifter.

Samhain Sangria

Ingredients

• 2.0 oz Jameson Black Barrel Irish Whiskey
• 3.0 oz sauvignon blanc
• 2.0 oz apple cider
• 0.5 oz cinnamon syrup
• seltzer (one to two ounces)
• fresh cranberries, apple and orange - for garnish (optional)

Composition

In a cocktail shaker combine the whisky, wine, cider, and syrup. Add ice to shaker and stir well. You can pop the top on and shake as well, but I found the drink was better without any froth, so I preferred the stirring. Strain the shaker into an ice-filled glass of choice and top with seltzer, at least an ounce, but two is twice as nice.

Next up, the bourbon-based cider cocktail that I have been enjoying lately. I have yet to settle on a specific name for the drink, it has been called Quarantine Quencher, Falling into Self-Isolation, and the woefully uninspired Bourbon Cider; feel free to call it whatever you please.

Bourbon Cider

Ingredients

• 2.0 oz Bourbon whiskey
• 2.0 oz apple cider
• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
• 0.5 oz cinnamon syrup
• 4 dashes orange bitters

Composition

In a cocktail shaker combine all the ingredients, stir and taste. Adjust the balance of the drink to your tastes, personally I liked a bit more lemon acidity than sugar sweetness. Also, the orange bitters can help cut the sweetness and introduce a lovely herbal citrus vibe, so feel free to add more or less to taste. Once the drink tickles your fancy, add ice to the shaker and stir well. Strain into a glass containing fresh ice and enjoy.

Bourbon Cider with a #SpoilerAlert for an upcoming post