What do Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck have in common? All knew how to drink well, and each counted the Jack Rose among their favorite cocktails. Decorative Wine Racks & Modular Systems.Laird’s makes a 100 proof “bonded” apple brandy, and a newer, 86 proof “Applejack” that’s 100 percent apple brandy. There was a time that was all we had, but that time is over. Just make sure it’s not Laird’s standard “Applejack,” the 80-proof version, which is 35 percent apple brandy and 65 percent neutral flavorless alcohol. Regarding the spirit-I preferred it with the funkier Calvados, but if you don’t love those flavors, it’s just as good with American apple brandy, from a producer like Clear Creek or Laird’s. Here, combined with the abundant character of the French apple brandy (“Calvados”), the drink is buttery and bright and rich and tart, the fruit notes at once delicate and resonant. If you’ve never met a grenadine drink you thought was great, it’s because you haven’t tasted real grenadine. Fresh grenadine is that scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy walks outside and everything’s suddenly in Technicolor. If you can be bothered to make fresh grenadine, which is to say, to juice your own pomegranates, you will be handsomely rewarded (it’s easy!). Shake hard on ice for eight to 10 seconds, strain into a coupe. fresh-juiced grenadine (recipe at bottom) Calvados (I used “Selection” from Christian Drouin), or American apple brandy But choose any one of the below and the Jack Rose is a transcendent and exceptional sour, the acidity snappy instead of sharp, the red fruit deep instead of sweet and the overall effect worthy of its storied past. There are in fact not one but three ways to make this cocktail great-a diffusion less about personal taste than about ingredients, and how much work you’re willing to do on your own behalf. I have, I see now, never been more wrong. I even suspected the Jack Rose might have been incapable of greatness. To be very honest, I had always considered the Jack Rose more important for cocktail books than cocktail bars, and even using bonded apple brandy and fancy grenadine, I, myself, had never had a great one until I started doing research for this article. On the other hand, grenadine, citrus and apple brandy all have tart fruit notes, and if you’re not extremely careful, they’ll pile onto each other, all hitting at the same time and making the tartness of this drink numbingly sharp. On one hand, it’s a simple sour, and balancing sours is easy. The answer is that the Jack Rose is a deceptively hard drink to get right. So where’s the Jack Rose now? Why hasn’t it bounced back like the rest of the crew? Here’s the thing-all of this is familiar, and the idea that the recipe or ingredients were bad and/or lost from the ‘70s through the ‘90s is just as true of the Martini, the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned, the Daiquiri and the Sidecar. Hemingway mentions the Jack Rose twice in The Sun Also Risesin 1922, and still a generation later, David Embury, as quoted above, inducted it into his little hall of fame. There are at least six distinct and competing origin stories and a bunch of slightly different recipes, but as early as 1914 it settled into our current understanding, which is a simple sour made of apple brandy, lemon or lime juice, and pomegranate syrup (aka grenadine). There was a time, in the early 1900s, when the Jack Rose was the hottest thing around, a fantastic use of this weird new sweetener called “grenadine” that had recently hit American bars. But the Jack Rose? We can almost hear you through your screen: “What the hell is a Jack Rose?” Modern sensibilities would probably sub out the Margarita for the Sidecar, but it’s the same drink, just with tequila instead of Cognac. The Martini and Manhattan’s place on that list is indisputable, the Old Fashioned is necessary to the point of obvious, and the Daiquiri, properly made, is life changing. I expect he had you nodding along until that last one. Jack Daniel’s Drops a New Rye Whiskey Finished in Charred Oak Barrels Maker’s Mark Is Releasing Its Oldest Bourbon Ever Next Month Michelin-Starred Chef Michael White Just Opened a Restaurant in the Bahamas.
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