It's St. Patrick's Day, which means I'm obligated to mix up an appropriate cocktail for the occasion. The usual tendency of St. Patrick's Day is to make everything green, so I had a chance to use something I haven't used in a very long time. Blue curaçao, that infamous ingredient straight from the 80s.
Finding the Base Ingredients
Because St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday, the obvious choice for the main ingredient is Irish whiskey. With the most difficult choice out of the way, I had free reign in choosing the accompanying ingredients.
Because I like making my own stuff, I always end up with a lot of different syrups, shrubs and other mixtures. For this reason, I try to find multiple uses for all of them. One of those ingredients I used recently was apple cinnamon shrub. It's really tasty and goes great with whiskey.
Whiskey and shrub is a good start, but I had to balance both ingredients. Therefore I had to add some much needed sweetness. Instead of simple syrup I used honey to complement the apple taste. Honey gives this cocktail another distinct flavor, while reducing the acidity. As a finishing touch, I wanted to increase the freshness, which is why I added just a splash of lemon juice.
Making Everything Green
I ended up with a pretty tasty cocktail, but it's obviously not green yet. So I remembered the lessons for coloring cocktails I learned by reading Kazuo Uyeda's book Cocktail Techniques. He basically uses different ingredients to give his cocktails a nice and recognizable color. Usually this involves just tiny amounts of blue curaçao.
I know a lot of people despise artificially colored drinks and there certainly are more bad than good cocktails containing blue curaçao. However, I'm also open-minded and believe there is a purpose for every thing. By adding just a bit of Bols Blue, my cocktail became a nice, deep green. Finally, a cocktail fit for St. Patrick's Day.
The Irish Apple
- 60ml Bushmills Black Bush
- 30ml Apple Cinnamon Shrub
- 10ml Bols Blue
- 7.5ml Lemon Juice
- 1 Teaspoonful Honey
Pour the Bushmills, shrub, Bols Blue, lemon juice and honey into an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake hard for 10 seconds. Fine strain into a pre-chilled cocktail glass.
How does it taste?
The lemon juice makes this a refreshing cocktail, however, the main flavors remain whiskey and apple. I especially like the smell, which is dominated by apple. The honey is subtle, but you notice it after the other flavors have faded. Overall, it becomes this satisfactory combination of whiskey and apple pie.
It's a very light cocktail, so it's easy to drink. If you enjoy whiskey and like the added apple pie flavor, then this cocktail is definitely for you. Blue curaçao is optional, but it adds such a wonderful deep emerald green. I urge you to try it at least once.
Wrapping Up
I hope you have a great St. Patrick's Day, filled with joy and booze alike. If you have all the ingredients, why not mix an Irish Apple and see for yourself how it tastes. Don't worry if you don't have the exact same type of whiskey as in the recipe. I'm sure most whiskeys will do.
That's it for this week. As usual it was lots of fun to come up with a themed cocktail. I especially like the color. That emerald green is marvelous and my picture sadly doesn't do it justice. Let me know what you think by yelling at me via Twitter or just keep up to date and subscribe to this blog.
Title image via pixabay.