“Applejack is so intertwined in the history of our state,” says Lisa Laird, the chief operating officer and world ambassador of Laird & Company, the New Jersey distillery was founded by William Laird’s descendants in 1780. Within about a century-and-a-half, the state was dotted in applejack distilleries.Ĭultural Collaboration, Willful Erasure and the Story of American Cider One early distiller was Scottish immigrant William Laird, who settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and began to produce his own applejack in 1698. drinkers, however, might be most familiar with applejack, an American-born apple brandy that originated in the late 1600s. Meanwhile, bätzi-an apple brandy from Switzerland-is at least a century old, estimates Astrid Gerz, the secretariat of the Swiss Culinary Heritage Association. He finds an early mention of Calvados, the apple brandy that hails from Normandy, France, at the start of the 19th century. Rowley believes that Arab rosewater distillation techniques may have inspired Europeans to try their hands at making brandy from local fruits-including tart cider apples-in the Middle Ages.īut specific references to apple brandy are more recent, Rowley writes. He traces the origins of brandies to Uighurs in 7th-century China. “Any fruit with sufficient natural sugars may be fermented and distilled into brandy,” writes Matthew Rowley in The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails. Want to learn more? Here’s everything you need to know. craft distillers have bottled modern apple brandies, iterating on what some consider America’s oldest spirit. Today, the nature of the spirit continues to evolve. The history of apple brandy is fascinating, too, stretching all the way from the 7th-century Silk Road to colonial New Jersey and beyond. Production methods include continuous column stills, copper pot stills and a type of freeze distillation called “jacking.” There are clear, unaged versions that resemble eau de vie, and amber-hued apple brandies that spend years in oak barrels. The category is far more varied than perhaps first meets the eye. Try your hand at making a "Basano Mule," a Moscow Mule that replaces vodka with the sweet liquor in a "one, two, three" punch of ginger beer, lime juice, and grappa.Whether you call it applejack, Calvados or bätzi, at its core, apple brandy is any liquor made from fermented and distilled apples. Difford's Guide notes that the pomace is typically stored in massive silos or refrigerated to keep its moisture and protect it from oxidation, then after separating the odd bits from the liquid, distilled in steam boilers, rested in large vats for six months, then aged in oak, acacia, ash, or cherry wood casks for at least a year.Ī traditional aperitif, this would more than likely be an after-dinner drink of choice, but in more recent times has become the center of attention in cocktails. Today, the distillation process still involves fermented pomace, just on a larger scale. The Romans used it to make plonk, while Benedictine Monks treasured it for its medicinal properties as a digestif. The Dutch were responsible for sharing Cognac with the rest of the world. With that said, let's take a look at what the full scope of brandy has to offer and what makes each type so special.Īccording to Upscale Living Magazine, like calvados in Normandy, grappa has an official product designation (PDO) stating true grappa can only be made in Italy. Fortunately, that just means there's a relatively wide selection of brandy to explore.Īccording to The Ottawa Citizen, once Dutch traders caught on, they began sharing the sweet libation they called brandewijn, or "burned wine," throughout northern Europe - named so after the process of distillation where wine was heated over a fire to remove impurities before being aged in stainless steel vats or oak. Variations may incorporate a fruit mash or pomace, which The Chicago Tribune describes as being the residual mash left over following the pressing of fruit into "young, rough, unclarified wine." The pomace is left to ferment for traditionally dictated periods of time. Although brandy's humble origins began with distilled wine made from grapes, it can be made from several different fruits relative to the regions in which it's produced.
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