Autumn cocktails

[JAZ]

Now that what passes for autumn in San Francisco is here, I find that I need some new cocktails that go with the season. I'm not a big fan of hot drinks -- they're okay, but one is usually all I want. So I'm looking for drinks that are served chilled but that feel like fall.

Audrey's wonderful Falling Leaves Cocktail comes to mind, for instance.

I had a "work in progress" at one of my favorite bars that included brandy, a splash of port and a glogg (sp?) syrup -- basically a simple syrup flavored with the spices used in the Swedish glogg. That's something I can see drinking when the weather turns cold.

For a recent class, I came up with a new recipe that falls into this category. It's not terribly complex, but it's nice enough. I started by infusing unsweetened apple juice with cardamom and a bit of cinnamon (about a week in the fridge, although my second batch I shortened the steeping time by bringing the juice to just under a simmer with the spices, then cooling, then refrigerating for 2 days).

The Brandied Apple

2 oz. brandy

1 oz. cardamom-cinnamon apple juice

1/4 oz. lemon juice

a pinch of brown sugar

Mix the ingredients without ice first, to dissolve the sugar, then add ice and shake hard. Taste and add more lemon juice if necessary (depending on how sweet the apple juice is). Strain into a cocktail glass.

For the class I showed two presentations -- the first was a glass rimmed with brown sugar. For the second, I warmed some caramel sauce and put it into a squeeze bottle. After chilling the glass in the freezer, I squeezed a spiral of caramel into the glass and stuck it back into the freezer to set. It was pretty cool, and the drink tasted great as the caramel melted into it.

Any other autumn drink ideas out there?

[Tess]

The Brandied Apple sounds delicious. It reminds me of one of our autumn standards, the Stonewall. (Mix good apple cider with bourbon.) I'll have to try adding spices to that.

I've been thinking about making up drink recipes with pomegranate juice, since I think of that fruit as a Christmas/solstice thing. The only one I've actually done is champagne with pomegranate juice.