Crisp apples, roasted nuts, spicy ginger, herbaceous rosemary.

Those are some of my favorite flavors of the fall and winter seasons, and they all magically meld together just perfectly, somehow. I have definitely been on a kick with creating all-cocktails-apple lately, and this particular recipe incorporates all of these components in bubbly, festive fashion.

In an effort to cut back on my sugar intake, I’ve been playing around with low-sugar or sugar-free cocktails, focusing on the natural vibrancy of fruits and herbs. The catalyst for this quest occurred earlier this month when Steve and I baked and devoured a batch of oatmeal cookies in one sitting. I kept rationalizing that they were healthy-ish. That they could be dinner. One cookie led to 15 cookies.

Then there was the night that very same week that we baked and ate an entire pumpkin pie.

After dinner.

That was the tipping point.

That pumpkin pie was truly delicious, and I reveled in the decadence of eating the whole thing. Of course, Steve contributed his fair share of slices, too. I’m laughing about it now, but I also knew at that point that I had to slow it down with the sweets. When I craft cocktails, some kind of sweetening agent is almost inevitable, and I normally use a simple syrup to bring sweetness to the drink. Sweetness is necessary to bring balance to a cocktail, especially when there is a strong acidic or bitter note.

And a balanced drink is a good drink.

For this cocktail, I used Zevia’s ginger beer to bring a gingery, sweet balance to the nutty, savory notes in its ingredient lineup. Zevia’s ginger beer is naturally sweetened with stevia, a plant-based sweetening agent derived from the plant’s actual leaves. Unlike other sugar substitutes, stevia is devoid of calories. And all of Zevia’s products are verified by the Non-GMO Project.

This cocktail’s flavor profile is definitely on the savory side, thanks to the addition of Lustau’s dry Oloroso Sherry. A small portion of Sherry goes a long way in providing ample nutty, sour, and dried fruit aromas to this cocktail. These, along with the caramelized spiced orange notes from the Pimm’s No. 1, complement the brightness in the freshly juiced apples.

Kind of like an apple pie, in drinkable form.

Most swizzle-style cocktails are rum-based, due to their origination in the Caribbean. They’re generally sour and are made by vigorously stirring the cocktail ingredients with crushed ice, using a swizzle stick. This stick-like tool is traditionally made from a branch from an actual swizzlestick tree. It’s a longish wand with a pronged end, and you can now find versions of a swizzle stick made from metal, plastic, or wood. They’re suitable for stirring and chilling ingredients in crushed ice, but you can substitute a bar spoon or even a long kitchen spoon to achieve the same result.

I swapped some apple brandy for rum for this seasonal swizzle and amplified the ginger by muddling fresh ginger and adding Zevia’s ginger beer for an effervescent finish.

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the ginger apple swizzle

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• 1/4″ piece of fresh ginger, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 ounce apple brandy {I used Laird’s Applejack}
• 1/2 ounce dry Oloroso Sherry {I used Lustau Don Nuño}
• 1/4 ounce Pimm’s No. 1
• 2 ounces fresh apple cider or juice {I juiced some honeycrisp apples}
• Zevia ginger beer
• crushed ice
• rosemary sprig, for garnish

1. In a sturdy tall cocktail glass, gently and briefly muddle the ginger pieces along with the lemon juice.
2. Add the apple brandy, Sherry, Pimm’s No. 1, and apple cider or juice.
3. Fill the cocktail glass halfway with crushed ice and using either a bar spoon or a “swizzle stick”, stir the ingredients together until well-chilled.
4. Add more crushed ice and top with ginger beer.
5. Add a little extra crushed ice, mounding over the top, and garnish with a sprig of rosemary, remembering to gently squeeze the rosemary to release its aromatic oils.

• This recipe yields one cocktail.
  
• If you don’t have a bar spoon or a swizzle stick, you can easily fill a cocktail mixing tin with the ginger, lemon juice, brandy, Sherry, Pimm’s No. 1, and apple juice. Just add some ice, shake, and strain into a tall cocktail glass filled with crushed ice.
• A little bit of ginger flavor goes a long way, so when you are muddling the ginger pieces, give maybe a good four or five grinds with your muddler. You don’t want to overpower the other flavor components too much.
  

I made a couple of these swizzles last night, just as Steve and I finished putting up our Christmas tree. It’s finally feeling a little more celebratory and cozy around here. Lights are up on the outside of the house, and our holiday playlist has been on repeat. Our tree is also about the only thing in the house that’s actually finished. Now that the hectic harvest season is over, we’ve been focusing our energies on obtaining our winery license {yes, you have to start the process about a year in advance}, installing a deer-proof fence around the property, and fixing up our small, dated farmhouse.

Calling the house “dated” might seem a little harsh, so I’ve been going with “rustic” and “full of potential.” Truth be told, it needs a lot of work. And once you start on one project, another one reveals itself. I almost want to stop our current renovation projects just so the workload doesn’t keep unfolding in a fractal-like expansion.

I’ll be sharing some work-in-progress photos coming up. Out of all the remodeling projects going on, I’m super excited that I’ll finally have a proper place to store my spirits collection. They’ve been haphazardly stored in boxes, on top of my desk, and inside a dodgy, particle board shelving unit in our dining room.

Cheers to the weekend and to projects and to the coziest of seasons!

And, most importantly, to not downing entire pies in one sitting.

Again, thank you for supporting the partnerships here on holly & flora that allow me to keep bringing all the delicious cocktails your way. While Zevia did sponsor this post, all thoughts, photos, and opinions are my own.

XO,

Jayme