Appletini
Chill cocktail glass. Shake all ingredients over ice. Strain in glass and garnish with an apple slice.
Ingredient Profile
Details
Notes
OK, you're probably wondering where the green stuff is...the DeKuyper apple schnapps. Well, you can make an Appletini with that "schnapps" or its cousins if you want a drink that tastes like a sour apple sweet-tart. As Dr. John Dorian from the TV show Scrubs says, "easy on the tini."
I am happen to like the tini, and I like apples. So I set out to find a recipe that tastes like both apples and tini. The key is finding an apple schnapps that is fresh, clean, and natural tasting. It needs to have some sweetness to counteract the vodka, but not so much as to bury the apple flavor.
I looked for awhile and finally settled on Schonauer Apfel Schnapps. This stuff meets the criteria. The first clue was that it has the color of apples--not neon green. It also has plenty of natural apple flavor, fruity sweetness, and a clean, tart finish. Schonauer is made from apple juice and grain spirit so it actually has apples in it.
The vodka part was easier. Just choose a high quality vodka that you like. For me, that would be Effen or Belvedere. Just make sure the vodka is good stuff or it will mar the schnapps and ruin the drink.
The orange bitters add a bit of character and don't overly flavor the drink with oranges. Also, bitters are part of the "tini". So is Vermouth, but we forgo that here.
Often, an Appletini will have a sweetener like sour mix, Triple Sec, or Cointreau. For this recipe, I didn't think it was necessary. It would only make the drink too sweet. The schnapps provides all the fruity sweetness we need.
Try this drink and break out of the green Appletini prison.