Spiced Apple Brandy Cocktail

As soon as fall hits – it’s officially time to embrace apple season as far as I’m concerned! This fall, I’ve created a Spiced Apple Brandy Cocktail made with freshly juiced SweeTango® apples. It’s a delicious, refreshing, and easy cocktail to create and enjoy within mere minutes!

The freshly squeezed apple juice for this recipe is made using SweeTango® apples – mouth-watering apples with a honeyed citrus flavor profile balanced with a hint of warm spices making them the perfect fit for our Spiced Apple Brandy cocktail! It can be incredibly challenging to pick which apple to choose when you’re at the grocery store, but SweeTango® makes it an easy choice when you hear more about how they are made!

SweeTango® apples were originally introduced in 2009 when horticulturalists from the University of Minnesota bred a Honeycrisp with a Zestar using time-honored techniques. The offspring produced the Minneiska tree—a special tree that grows a seasonal apple harvested in early fall…the SweeTango®!

Across America and Canada, SweeTango® apples are raised in orchards by incredible farmers that are conscious and careful about their environmental impact, use the most rigorous quality control, and are committed to growing only the best apples! These are crisp, incredibly juicy, and distinctly flavorful apples that you can find at your local grocery store! Head on over to SweeTango® website and use their locator to find a store near you that sells their delicious apples so that you can make this Spiced Apple Brandy Cocktail for yourself!

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Using Fresh Apple Juice

This is an apple juice-based cocktail, complemented by apple brandy, lemon juice and a demerara sugar syrup. As one of the main core ingredients is apple juice, I chose to freshly juice a few SweeTango® apples in order to maximize flavor and freshness!

To juice my apples, a chose to quarter each whole apple before placing them in my juicer. I turned on my juicer, allowing the apple juice to strain into a cup as seen above. Finally, I set the apple juice aside before preparing my cocktail and stored the leftovers in the fridge to enjoy later!

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Cinnamon Sugar Cocktail Rim

Some of my favorite cocktails have salt or sugared rims – in most recipes salt or sugar can act as an ingredient that helps to amplify the flavors within the recipe. The same is for cocktails!

Of course, there are so many pre-prepared rim sugars you can purchase online, but why buy some when you can easily make and adjust the flavors to your liking?

How do you make a sugar rim you ask? Here’s my recipe in case you want to create your own – simply mix the ingredients below together and you have your own homemade rim cinnamon sugar!

• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

How to Rim a glass with Cinnamon Sugar

1. To prepare your cinnamon sugar-rimmed glass, add a bit of apple juice into a shallow bowl with a flat base.
2. Then, add a few teaspoons of mixed cinnamon and sugar onto a separate small plate.
3. Dip the rim of your glass in the apple juice, then coat the rim with cinnamon sugar before setting it aside while you mix your cocktail. 

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The Ingredients

There are only a few ingredients needed to create this cocktail! Here’s what you’ll want to round up:

• 2 oz Apple Brandy
• 2 oz SweeTango® Apple Juice
• 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
• 1/2 oz Simple Syrup, made with Demerara Sugar or you can use regular simple syrup
• Ice
• 3 SweeTango® apple Slices, for garnish

The Process

Here’s how to make this Spiced Apple Brandy Cocktail for yourself:

• Once your sugar rim has been created and your SweeTango® apples have been juiced, it’s time to make your cocktail!

• In a shaker, combine all ingredients and shake without ice for 30 seconds.

• Then, add ice and shake for an additional 30 seconds.

• Strain into your sugar rimmed glass, straining out the broken ice chips.

• Finally, slice a few SweeTango® apples and fan them slightly, place on a cocktail stick in your cocktail for garnish and serve!

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THE GOLDEN RATIO

When mixing my own cocktails at home, I am ultimately looking for balance. For the most part, this Spiced Apple Brandy Cocktail follows these balanced guidelines as well. The general guideline to follow when it comes to building cocktails is as follows:

• 2 Parts Alcohol (Gin, Brandy, Vodka, Rum, Tequila)
• 1 Part Sour (Lemon juice, Lime Juice, Grapefruit Juice)
• 1 Part Sweet (Simple Syrup, Vermouth, Cream, Compote, Liquor)

By utilizing the basics above, you are more likely to achieve a balanced taste – it’s a great guide to reference when developing your own recipes. Once you have your base, you can add additional flavors and notes in order to accomplish a more complex cocktail or one of my personal favorites – the Pear Brandy Sour.

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*This post has been sponsored by SweeTango®. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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