Wow, I miss three MxMo‘s and I’m running late to a fourth. How’s that for efficiency? Well we may not be on time but we want to throw some love toward Fred Yarm our host this December and his theme Apples. Cocktail Virgin/Slut is still an institution for great cocktail blogging, and Fred himself is to be honored for also being MxMo’s showrunner/cat herder.

You don’t think Tiki when you think apples, so I was sort of surprised when I found the Hawaiians had a word for them. It doesn’t stop me from tinkering around though and I immediately took this as an excuse to buy some Calvados that I’d had a Tales. Calvados has that tart crisp orchard flavor and some bottlings almost have a unique sourness. This one is along the lines of a Domfrontais, young,light with flavors of fresh apple and pear. I chose to accent this with a lemon, orange, pineapple trio I’d seen the Trader use before. Lemon and apple seem to be great bedfellows then dashes of ginger and honey to add depth to the mix. A dash of cider on top gives it some effervescence, but your better off using a easy to find brand for this drink. I love a true, tart, acidic cider, however something round and sweet like woodchuck helps to balance the flavors here. All in all it wasn’t to hard to fit the apple into my tropical paradise. I’ll let you dear reader be the judge of my efforts.

Pama Nui
1 ½ oz Christian Drouin Calvados Selection
¾ oz Cruzan Gold Rum
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz fresh orange juice
½ oz fresh pineapple juice
¼ oz honey mix (1:1 clover honey and hot water)
¼ oz ginger syrup (1 part fresh ginger juice mixed with an equal part of 2:1 simple syrup and a ½ tsp of vodka)
1 oz Cider (we used Woodchuck Amber)

Shake all ingredients except cider aggressively with ice then add cider to the tin. Pour unstrained into a chimney and add cracked ice to fill. Garnish with a apple wedge, straw, and perhaps a cherry if desired.

 
Mild hints of ginger with crisp fleshy apples show first with wafts of citrus coming up behind. The first flavor is tart and full bodied, mealy apple into tart lemon with a crab apple acidity. The mouthfeel is fleshy due to the amount of pear in the Calvados. The finish is long lasting with notes of spice being very mild letting the apple play a starring role. Intermingling with the apple in the finish is the tropical trio of pineapple, orange, and rum. All twirling about the apple like boats in the flavor river. As the drink dilutes more molasses comes out in the front. There’s a lot to taste and enjoy in this sipper folks.

Calvados and Tiki, if you ask me they get along pretty nice. Thanks again to Fred Yarm for keeping this MxMo thing alive. Until next time…

 
“You get Hammered America” - JFL