We’re finally back this week with a seasonal cocktail. This one is for my buddy Giles Snyder over at the West Virginia Weakly (see the blog recommendations on our homepage). Giles isn’t a huge drinker, but is a fellow admirer of brandy and apples and happens to live in the heart of the Mountain State’s apple country. And when you run the best news aggregator in the rough-and-tumble state of West Virginia, you need a drink from time to time. The past several months have been busy with day-to-day work and fulfilling our land-grant, public-service mission to the region and state we love. We’ve missed you, and we’ve missed cocktails. Buckle in for a ride through Appalachian apple country.

What is better than walking through a fair or festival in the crisp, clean fall air, chomping on a ripe red apple slathered in baking spices and caramel? Nothing. It’s pure Appalachian apple satay. This week’s cocktail celebrates the apple's central role in Appalachian culture and customs. As October nears its end, apples have fallen and, in the careful hands of Appalachians everywhere, are making their way into pies, pastries, butters, and, of course, drinks (see Old E.P.).

This week's cocktail will follow an Old Fashioned template, but with a split base of rum and apple brandy. We’ll use the split base to get some flavors we wouldn’t get with one spirit alone. A homemade caramel cordial and allspice dram will replace the classic's simple syrup.

Let’s tip one.

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Festival Apple

Potion:

• 1 oz Calvados
• 1 oz Pusser’s Rum
• ½ oz House Caramel Cordial
• ¼ oz House Allspice Dram
• 2 dashes Cardamom (Boker’s-style) Bitters
• 4 drops 20% Saline (or a small pinch of salt)
• Apple wedge garnish

Procedure:

This is a stirred cocktail, so grab your mixing glass and fill it with ice—preferably a bigger cube or two, plus smaller shards. Load your ingredients and stir until the drink is frigid. Garnish with the cinnamon stick and apple peel. Enjoy.

Here’s a secret. You could also just build this in the glass, add a large berg of ice, and do the old “finger stir” by moving the large berg around. This is suitable if, like George Thorogood, you drink alone. If not, revert to proper technique. Only you know where your hands have been.

I made the caramel cordial from Andrew Schloss’s Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits. It’s well worth the read. If you’d like my recipe and approach, leave me a comment below. As for the Allspice Dram, St. Elizabeth is the industry standard. They're not hard to make from scratch with rum, allspice berries, sugar, and filtered water. Here in our town, we can’t get St. Elizabeth, so I keep the homemade version in stock. Let me know if you’d like that recipe, too. Very lightly warming the Allspice before cracking it intensifies the flavor, as with most spices.

Glass: Rocks glass.

Options:

Immediately, the question is whether you can use Laird’s Applejack. Laird’s is America’s oldest native distilled spirit. If you can get your hands on the bonded version, Straight Applejack, or any of the straight apple brandies, it will work well. It makes for a much more old-fashioned-like experience because the barrel resting adds more baking spices, vanilla, and toffee. However, it will not retain the fresh, juicy apple flavor and aroma that you get from a great Calvados. For this drink, I prefer the latter. Also, don’t bother with Laird’s standard Applejack; it’s only about 35% applejack, with the rest neutral spirit (likely rye distilled in Indiana).

The Pusser’s rum here adds a distinct brown-sugar note, which suits our aims. You could use a Jamaican rum, which would add more funk and overripe fruit, but you wouldn’t get the brown-sugar note, which, to my palate, is unique to Pusser’s. Boker’s style bitters (cardamom) work well in this drink, but Fee Bros Black Walnut bitters would be great here and add even more Appalachian flair. If you want a touch more Caribbean, Molasses Bitters would be good, too. Finally, the salt here mimics the salted caramel that often tops these apples, so we added a touch extra to this drink.

If you find Lairds’ good stuff and try it, let us know in the comments below. See you next week in the Speakeasy for a holiday-worthy martini. And, while I’m at it, enjoy the images of what is likely the last caprese salad of 2026.

This blog is, as ever, an opinionated take on drinks.