Propeller Skies

I fired up the internet and ordered some Fee Brothers products from Kegworks, amusingly located in Buffalo, New York, after discovering Toco Giant and Decatur Wine and Spirits carry a limited amount of Fee Brothers’ product line. My shipment included some Fee Brothers American Beauty grenadine, so I mixed up a Jack Rose.

I started with the Jack Rose version found in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. The Jack Rose poured a gorgeous deep red, which was almost purple. I suspect this would be a popular cocktail in Midtown. It would likely cause substantial anger as well, because it looks sweet but is not. The secret is difficult to find real pomegranate grenadine, which is not disgustingly sweet like certain popular brands.

The first taste is delicious lemon citrus sharpness. Then comes a hint of apple. Finally the pomegranate flavor of the grenadine comes through in the slightly sweet finish.

As the Jack Rose can also be made using lime, next I tried the recipe in Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century. This version of the Jack Rose increases the Applejack and grenadine, while substituting lime for lemon. As expected, more grenadine makes the drink sweeter, but using lime mitigates this. The key difference is the extra grenadine pushes the apple flavor far into the background. While it was sweeter, I liked this version of the Jack Rose best.

The Jack Rose is recommended and will have a place in my regular cocktail rotation. Try one today, if some real pomegranate grenadine is on hand.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 22:23 and is filed under Liquid Diet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.