Bring cocktail hour home with Local Proof, a bi-monthly column by Seattle-based booze writer Sonja Groset. Get tips and recipes from industry experts for using spirits, bitters, mixers and other ingredients produced in the Pacific Northwest.
Adding a splash of something dry and bubbly to cocktails is not a new phenomenon. The French 75 includes more than just a splash of sparkling wine. Cocktails like the Moscow Mule include more than a float of ginger beer. Cider on the other hand, presents a bit of a challenge. It’s often dry, but some can be cloyingly sweet. Other ciders are augmented with flavors such as blueberry, cherry, apricot, or even fresh hops. With a light touch, plus the right combination of flavors though, cider can lend a touch of sweetness, enhance the flavors in gin, whiskey, or other spirits, and add crispness and a bright apple flavor to cocktails.
“Let’s set the record straight. When we’re talking ‘cider,’ we’re talking about the hard stuff,” says Andrew Dalan of Tommy Gun, at a recent “Cider Cocktails” class taught alongside Tieton Cider Works at the Capitol Hill neighborhood bar in Seattle. Galan is the Education Chair for the Washington State chapter of the U.S. Bartender’s Guild. “The rest of the world calls hard cider simply ‘cider.’” That is changing in the Northwest.
Is this is because of our propensity for growing apples? Perhaps. Not many other places in the country have the abundance of fresh-pressed apple juice available. Dalan taught us how to use cider in various original cocktails during the class, including one using OOLA Distillery gin, made just up the road, and Tieton’s cherry cider. But more on that cocktail in a later.
Cider has long been popular across the pond, and that fondness followed settlers to the New World. Cider was a mainstay of the early colonists, homesteaders, and even America’s founding fathers. Cider apple trees were propagated throughout the country, and nearly every man, woman and child consumed the fermented juice, albeit in varying levels of strength. Prohibition halted the expansion of America’s burgeoning cider industry however, while wine was able to stick around for its religious purposes, beer because grain was cheaper.
In the last decade or so, cider has enjoyed a rapid and steady return to popularity, and this resurgence is particularly robust in the Pacific Northwest. There are more than 40 cideries in the Pacific Northwest—from Vancouver Island to Salem, Ore., and Spokane, Wash.
Perhaps my favorite cocktail from Tommy Gun’s cider cocktail class was the Gin-Soaked Cider. It was created for Washington Cider Week last year. For this year’s cider week (held September 4-14), Tommy Gun’s owner Erin Nestor says they are planning on teaming up with a cidery again for more cider cocktail classes, and will be working on more original cocktails to enter into the competition. Until then, the recipes below will be in rotation at my home bar and I think you should give them a try as well. Or, head over to Tommy Gun and let them do the work for you.
Gin-Soaked Cider (Courtesy of Tommy Gun)
2 oz OOLA Gin
2 oz Tieton Cherry Cider
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz triple sec
Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a chilled martini glass and serve up with no garnish.
Baxter’s Billions (Courtesy of Tommy Gun)
1 ½ oz whiskey
½ oz lemon juice
½ oz honey syrup
Shake over ice, double strain into a martini glass, and top with Tieton dry cider
