jack ward

1 1/2 oz GrandTen's North County Apple Brandy
1/2 oz Orange Juice
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe.

Two Fridays ago, I found myself with the night off, so I ventured down to South Boston to pay a visit to the bar at the GrandTen distillery. One of the interesting aspects of the bar is that all of the alcoholic ingredients save for bitters must come from the distillery's production. Therefore, they utilize their product line of liquor and liqueurs as well as creating their own curaçao, vermouth-amaro hybrid (made from nonalcoholic wine fortified with house spirit), and the like to bolster their house syrups and shrubs for variety. For a first drink, I asked bartender Steve Schnelwar for the Jack Ward. While the name reminded me of the Jack's Word, here the Jack Rose was crossed with Boston's own Ward Eight. The choice to swap out the whiskey from the Ward Eight and replace it with apple brandy removed my major issue with the Boston classic -- that being the clash between whiskey and orange juice. Yvonne's did it with theirs by adding in a sherry ingredient to bridge the gap between the rye and the orange juice, but here, apple brandy is generally friendly with orange juice as shown in the Applejack Rabbit.
The Jack Ward presented a fruity bouquet with apple and berry elements to the nose. Next, orange and apple on the sip were given structure by the lemon's crispness, and the swallow elegantly paired apple and pomegranate flavors.