Jack Rose Cocktail
By Robert Hess
There are various origin stories of the Jack Rose Cocktail. Some attribute it to a colorful and slightly nefarious individual named Jack Rose, others to Joseph Rose a Newark bartender who once held the title of “World Champion Mixologist”. Another story has the cocktail named after the Jacquemot Rose varietal because of its color. Regardless of its origins, it is probably the most popular cocktail which uses Applejack.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 ounces applejack
1 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce grenadine
Instructions
Shake with ice.
Strain into a cocktail glass.
Comments
Hi Robert,
I was wondering, what exactly is the difference between the process of making Applejack vs. Calvados? Can I substitute one for the other? For whatever bizarre reason, calvados seems to be easier to find. Keep up the good work!
This is an interesting one. I’ve noticed a lot of variations on the portions in this drink, and even some recipes calling for lemon juice instead of lime. I’ve used the ratio you provided here and I found it too sour, with no real apple flavor but loads of lime juice sour and bitterness. Folks I served it to also felt it was far too sour. After toying around with various recipes, I settled on 2:1/2:1/2 ratio. I think that ratio produces a very bright, sweet/sour, and decently complex fruit flavor highlighting both the sour citrus and the subtle apple flavors.
Hey Robert - I recently came across another version of the Jack Rose in the Meehan’s PDT cocktail book which you may have seen as well. It calls for 2oz Laird’s apple brandy (rather than applejack), 3/4oz lemon (rather than lime), 3/4oz grenadine. This apparently came from Boothby’s The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them (1908). It makes for a nice variation.
Hi Mr. Hess,
Is the applejack bottled in bond?
Zach: The PDT recipe is my favorite, as well (the decision came after much taste-testing). I prefer lemon with apple brandy, but to each his own.
TheBalch: The applejack is not bottled in bond, but Laird’s 100-proof apple brandy is. The applejack is cut with neutral spirits, smoothing it out but diluting the flavor a bit. If you can get your hands on the bonded brandy or their 7.5 year-old brandy (nice to sip on its own), do so. Both make a wonderful Jack Rose, though the bonded makes for a brusque and bracing drink.
Anybody tried this with calvados, as Benjamin mentioned? Think I’ll go try that out…
- Ian
(temperedspirits.com)
One of my favorites, Robert!
I stumbled across an interesting idea for the origin of the Jack Rose while I was researching the Wild-Eyed Rose: http://www.homebarbasics.com/wild-eyed-rose/
Long story short, the Wild-Eyed Rose was created by Hugo Ensslin in 1913 and its name is a riff on the popular tune of the day, “My Wild Irish Rose.” The Jack Rose came along a few years later; it’s the same drink, just made with Applejack instead of Irish whiskey. I think there may be a good case for genetic paternity there…
I prefer to use the Lairds 7 1/2 year old apple brandy, since the bottled in bond Apple Jack gives my wife and I an immediate headache after the second drink. Through trial and error we have have found the following recipe works best for us:
1 1/2 oz Lairds 7 1/2 year old apple brandy
3/4 oz simple syrup
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz real grenadine
The Jack Rose is one of our favorite drinks!
Thanks Robert
Ian - agree, definitely like the lemon, especially with the higher proof and more flavorful brandy vs applejack.
Ben,
Applejack Vs. Calvados
Both products are distillations of fermented cider. The types of apples used are slightly different, but I don’t feel that this is a significant issue. Calvados is also aged, while I don’t believe (Laird’s) Applejack is. (Laird’s) Applejack is also a blended product, combining “apple brandy” with neutral spirits. (Laird’s) Apple brandy however is aged, not blended, and they have a “Bottled In Bond” version which is 100 proof.
Apple “Jack” gets its name from “Jacking”, which is the process of distilling a fermented product through freezing. You put the fermented product (cider, beer, wine, etc) out in the freezing winter air, and the water will freeze, but the alcohol won’t. So you simple skim off the ice that forms, and through this process increase the concentration of alcohol. A critical difference between this and the normal distillation process, is that the stuff that doesn’t freeze is not only the “good” alcohols, but the “bad” ones as well… the ones that you really don’t want to drink. So freeze distillation will produce not just a poorer quality product, but also one which could technically be considered poisonous. So I wouldn’t recommend it.
From a substitution point, you can most definately substitute between Applejack, Apple Brandy, and Calvados, much the same way you can substitute between Bourbon, Rye, and Blended whiskey… of course since each product has a differerent flavor characteristic, the resulting drink will be slightly different as well.
-Robert
Alex,
Ratios and Variations…
If you look hard enough, you’ll find that almost any cocktail out there will come in a wide variety of various recipes. There are few (any?) recipes which are consistently and constantly made with a tightly agreed upon recipe. In my early days of drink exploration the Sidecar was one which caused me a lot of confusion with it’s sometimes wide variation of ratios. Later, the Mai Tai was one which really confounded me, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to dig into it to figure out what the heck was going on (this was in the wee-dawn of the internet, so not a lot of information was available at my fingertips). I’ve also got a friend who swears that the secret to making the perfect margarita is using lemon juice instead of lime.
The apple jack recipe I am using here, is one that I encounterd a fair amount, including being what David Wondrich posits as the right way to make the drink. I like it because it is on the tart side, and I sort of equate that to the tart snap of a fresh apple. But there is nothing wrong with adjusting the ratios a bit to sweeten it up a little bit of that provides you with a better balance. A straight forward “daiquiri” style ratio (2, 3/4, 3/4) would be a good place to start.
-Robert
Zach,
In the PDT book they are essentially taking the “Daiquiri” ratio (2, 3/4, 3/4) and slapping this on the Jack Rose. Not the “wrong” thing to do by any means.
-Robert
Lemon vs. Lime…
I think one of the reasons I prefer lime here, is because frankly (Laird’s) Apple Jack (the “blended” version) doesn’t have quite the same apple depth that Calvados or their Apple brandy does. And so I prefer lime, because it brings some extra depth to the drink.
-Robert
One bit of history that no one has mentioned is that the Jack Rose used to be considered one of the classics alongside the Martini, Old-Fashioned, Manhattan, Daiquiri and Sidecar. I think it definitely deserves a comeback in the 21st century.
Cheers!
Blair
GoodSpiritsNews.com
Robert - I hear you on the lime with applejack, a simple preference of mine is to use the stronger, and as you mentioned earlier - deeper, more flavorful, apple brandy. Along with the slightly altered ratios it does work pretty well….especially with a nice homemade grenadine, best-
Zach
theventuremixologist.blogspot.com
Thanks for doing this one, Robert. To my palate a ratio of 3:1:1 is just right, and I do prefer lime juice, which seems to me to pair better with the regular Laird’s applejack than lemon (though my wife prefers lemon juice in her jack roses).
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