Happy Fall Friday Everyone. Once again, I’m making another seasonal cocktail. This time, we are giving the apple brandy a break, but we’re still on the apple theme. Mainly because I still have a ton of apples and apple cider leftover from the orchard trips we’ve taken the last couple of weekends. My research this week lead me toan interesting riff on a Moscow Mule, that included apple cider, fresh apples and cinnamon. Having a plethora of apple related ingredients, I  decided to give it a shot. It also helps that the last few days hit 70 degrees here, so it sounded extremely refreshing on top of  being seasonal.

Apple Cider Mule:

1/2 ounces vodka
1 1/2 ounces apple cider
1/2 ounce lime juice (fresh-squeezed)
3 ounces ginger beer (or more to fill)
Garnish: apple slice
Garnish: cinnamon stick

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the vodka, apple cider, and lime juice. Shake well, and sttrain into a copper mug filled with fresh ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with an apple slice and cinnamon stick.

The mule starts out ginger beer forward, then the cider comes in and adds a nice depth. The two dryness of the ginger beer and the sweetness of the cider cancel each other out. What you’re left with is a nice effervescent base of flavors. The garnishes also have function as well as form. The drink leeches cinnamon from the whole stick. So the flavor keeps improving over the life of the drink. The fresh apple slowly imparts more apple flavor into the drink too. It also absorbs flavors from the drink for a nice tasty snack at the end.

I did find the proportion of liquid to my copper mug was not to my liking. My mugs are pretty standard mule size, so I ended up making myself a double, and topped with the remainder of the ginger beer I had, after making oen of these for Mrs. Sharkbait. I would advise doubling like it did.

This is very drinkable. The vodka flavor is completely non existent, for better or for worse. If I didn’t mix this myself, I would not think this had any booze in it at all. However, I still wouldn’t have more than a couple of these. Despite the cider not being as sweet as it normally is, it still retains  some sugariness that would become unbearable by a third one of these. I would, however try one of these warmed up as an alternative to a mulled or regular hot cider. I would also mix up one of these if I wanted a changeup from brandy & cider or a whiskey & cider.