by Jordan Catapano
I’ve got a new “must have” for your home bar or liquor pantry: Angry Orchard Hard Cider. The taste is so delicious and pleasantly mellow that I’m going to keep a few six-packs on hand for easy entertaining. The entire collection of ciders includes traditional apple, crisp apple, ginger apple, and elderflower apple, which basically means that there’s a cider for you, your best friend, your dad, and your grandma.
Angry Orchard also mixes fantastically with dozens of different spirits, another reason I’m so fond of the cider. I studied the mixology section of their website and had a difficult time deciding which of their twenty-one creations to make. They all sound amazing!
Here are my top three favorites, which you can easily recreate at home:
Angry Balls
3 ounces Angry Orchard Crisp Apple
1.5 ounces Fireball Cinnamon Whisky
Pour ingredients in an old-fashioned glass over ice. Stir gently.
Angry Cuban
3 ounces Angry Orchard Crisp Apple
3 ounces pineapple juice
1.5 ounces Bacardi Superior White Rum
Pour pineapple juice and rum in a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with cider.
Big Apple Fashioned
3 ounces Angry Orchard Crisp Apple
1 ounce Buffalo Trace Bourbon
½ ounce honey
½ ounce sweet vermouth
2 orange slices
2 brandied cherries
Directions
Use room temperature honey or consider gently warming the honey bottle/jar in a larger glass of warm water. Once the honey softens, add 1/2 ounce into a shaker. Next, add the bourbon and sweet vermouth and mix well until the honey is diluted. Pour in the Angry Orchard Crisp Apple and shake hard with ice. Strain the cocktail into a martini glass and garnish with orange slices and cherries.
