Spiced Cider Cocktail
Bourbon and fresh unfiltered apple cider shaken hard with a homemade syrup steeped with star anise, cinnamon and clove. Cold rather than mulled, which is what keeps the spice sharp instead of letting it fade in a pot.
Ingredients
For the Cocktail
- 3 ounces apple cider unfiltered and refrigerated, not shelf-stable juice
- 2 ounces bourbon or rye for a drier drink
- 1 ounce spiced syrup cold, from the batch below
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1/2 apple sliced thinly across the core so the seed cavity makes a star
- 1 star anise pod to float on top
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice for the bowl of water that keeps the apple slices pale
Spiced Star Anise Syrup
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar or demerara for a darker, more molasses-scented syrup
- 3 star anise pods whole
- 1 cinnamon stick never ground, which will not dissolve
- 4 whole cloves four is plenty
Equipment
- Cocktail Shaker
- Saucepan
Instructions
Make the Spiced Syrup
- First, combine the water, sugar, star anise, cinnamon stick and cloves in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then take the pan off the heat.
- Leave it to cool completely with the spices still in it, which is when the steeping actually happens, then strain them out and refrigerate the syrup. Do this the day before if you can.
Prepare the Garnish
- Next, cut the apple in half through the core and slice it thinly. The slices from the middle carry the star shape left by the seed cavity, so keep those for the top.
- Drop the slices into a bowl of cold water with the lemon juice stirred through, which keeps them pale for up to an hour.
Shake and Serve
- Then fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the cider, bourbon, cold syrup and bitters. Shake hard for a full 10 seconds, until the outside of the tin frosts over.
- Finally, strain into a short glass, float an apple slice and a star anise pod on top, and serve it while the foam from the shaking is still on the surface.
Notes
The syrup: those quantities make about 1 1/3 cups, which is 12 to 16 drinks. It is a batch, so make it once and do not scale it with the servings slider.
Strain it cold. Left on the spices, the clove keeps extracting and the syrup turns medicinal by day three. Strained, it keeps 2 weeks refrigerated, or 3 months frozen in an ice cube tray at about 1 ounce a cube.
Sweetness: if your cider is very sweet, start with 1/2 ounce of syrup and taste.
Cider, not juice: unfiltered refrigerated cider carries the tannin that stands up to bourbon. With filtered juice, halve the syrup and add a squeeze of lemon.
For 8: 24 ounces cider, 16 bourbon, 8 syrup, 16 dashes bitters and 4 to 6 ounces cold water to replace the dilution a shaker would have given.
Nutrition values are an estimate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cocktail | Calories: 258kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Sodium: 10mg | Potassium: 115mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 10mg