applejack rabbit

2 oz Laird's Bonded Applejack
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Orange Juice
1/2 oz Maple Syrup (Merton's Farm, VT)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I added an orange twist.

Two Saturdays ago, I decided to make I drink I have had but never wrote about, namely the Applejack Rabbit. The recipe I used was from the PDT Cocktail Book which described how "this could really be called the Rabbit Punch because it has the same effect." PDT cited Judge Jr.'s 1927 Here's How, but that edition had no applejack recipes at all. Thanks to all of the uploads on EUVS, I determined that it first appeared in Here's How Again, the 1928 third printing. The recipe later appeared in the more widely read 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book and then David Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. I most likely had the drink at Green Street which according to their drink bible is 1 1/2 oz applejack and a 1/2 oz each of the other ingredients served up in a cocktail glass with an orange wedge garnish (Embury's proportions were a more spirits-forward 6:1:1:1). Moreover, I did write about a Fernet Branca and gin variation called Follow that Black Rabbit from Gary Regan's Bartender's Gin Compendium, although as Embury pointed out that the gin and bitters version is known as the Old Vermont.
The Applejack Rabbit presented an apple and orange aroma with hints of maple to the nose. Next, a rich lemon and orange sip led into a delightful apple-maple combination on the swallow.