Drinking The World

ALEXANDER DAY is a sought after consultant and award winning mixologist at, among others, Death & Co., NYC, where his creations grace their cocktails menus.

JMF: Do you use any North American fruit spirits in your cocktails?

AD: Every night. Be it a true fruit brandy or a liqueur, fruit spirits have such a wide spectrum of flavors that they can either define a drink as a base, or augment by acting as a modifier. Some of the more pungent examples – Clear Creek Pear Brandy comes to mind – have such intense aromatics that they can easily be used in the smallest of quantities, enhancing the profile of a base spirit by picking out, and fiddling with, common flavors.

Follow up:

The granddaddy of all North American fruit spirits is unquestionably Applejack. The Lairds family has been dutifully supplying America (and the world) with their Jersey apple brandy since colonial times, and for me, it’s a go-to ingredient. Whereas the Blended Lairds bottling is, well, rather weak, the Bonded is high proof (100proof, as per custom), aggressive, and an aroma of apples and good ol’ American whiskey. No other spirit I know of has the ability to play so differently in cocktails, from something as straightforward as an Applejack Old Fashioned (try a little grade B maple syrup as the sweetener instead of regular sugar, and only an orange twist) or as something as light and refreshing as a Jack Rose.

Those, of course, are examples of Applejack as a base spirit. More often that not, I use Applejack as a small, modifying component: from classics like the Diamondback (Rye whiskey, Yellow Chartreuse, Bonded Applejack) or the Pink Lady (Gin, Lemon Juice, real Grenadine, Bonded Applejack, egg white), to relatively modern creations like Michael McCilroy’s American Trilogy (Rye, Bonded Applejack, Angoostura and Orange Bitters, a little demerara sugar) or my own Sunset at Gowanus (Santa Teresa Rum, Lime Juice, Bonded Applejack, Yellow Chartreuse, grade B Maple Syrup).

So, as a quicker answer: I use Lairds Bonded Applejack the most, followed by some of the Clear Creek’s products. Their pear brandy is great, as is their kirschwasser.

JMF: How much does the general public know about them?

AD: I’m pretty confident in saying that the general public knows almost nothing about North American fruit spirits. The general public’s awareness of a lot of alcohol nuance is, in all honestly, probably very limited. When you say brandy, the uninitiated is more than likely totally isolated from first hand experience, and then diving into fruit brandies, and specifically North American fruit brandies (or spirits), you’re going to see a lot of deer in your headlights. There’s nothing wrong with that, but whatever ignorance there is in the general public is because they are not educated, nor are these products a part of the larger cultural lexicon. Planting an Oregon eau de pomme in a big-budget film with a fetching protagonist would be silly in its transparent marketing, but there needs to be more exposure to these products and what they are and what they can do. I consider myself relatively knowledgeable about the spirits industry, but in answering these questions, I find that I can’t name more than a handful of North American craft distillers that produce fruit distillates. Is that because they’re not out there? I doubt it. More so, it’s that they haven’t gotten the word out.

JMF: What is important about them?

AD: The most important thing about North American fruit spirits is that they show a trend toward not only experimentation, but also an understanding that more versatility is needed in the market. We have our gins, whiskies, rums, brandies from France, but what we don’t have is more distinctive modifying agents for our drinks. Naturally, I approach this topic from the cocktail perspective. These products excite me to no end, because they lead craft distilling down a path to creating new products, not just remaking a traditional product from across a sea, in a different land. Sure, doing so shows the distinguishing features of where the fruit is grown, but understanding that the more distillers play around with different ideas; the more I can give new products to my customers.