jack rose

1 1/2 oz Applejack
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine
1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Two Sundays ago, Andrea and I went to Green Street for drinks. For my first cocktail, I asked bartender Derric Crothers for the Jack Rose. While the drink is not much more than an Applejack Daisy (here with bitters) created in the early part of the 20th century, the recipe is rather symbolic for the Boston drink scene. In spring of 2005, the Jack Rose Society was formed with the task of sifting through the mass of drink books to find which recipe was the best of all. The scholarly crew consisted of drink historian Brother Cleve, then B-Side bartender Misty Kalkofen, Eastern Standard's Jackson Cannon, then Chez Henri's Scott Holliday, and then No. 9's John Gertsen. Their goal was to help Jackson put the very best recipe on the Eastern Standard's debut menu. After working through nearly two dozen recipes, they concluded that applejack, lemon juice, housemade grenadine, and Peychaud's bitters was best. The recipe on the Green Street menu, perhaps brought directly by Misty who worked there soon after from 2006 to 2008, is identical to their conclusion save for the applejack being decreased from two ounces to an ounce and a half.
The Jack Rose began with a lemon aroma that was joined by a fruity note from either the applejack or the grenadine. The tart lemon sip presented apple and pomegranate flavors, and the bitter lemon swallow led into lingering Peychaud's spices. Andrea commented that the lemon and grenadine worked rather well here for the former enhanced the tartness of the apple distillate and the latter restored the apple's sweetness.