The Jack Rose is one of America’s great forgotten classics, and the perfect cocktail for November. It is made with applejack, the apple brandy of New Jersey, where Laird & Company, which describes itself as America’s oldest licensed distillery, has been making it since the eighteenth century.

The drink had its moment in the early twentieth century, and it traveled. In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes waits for Lady Brett Ashley at the bar of the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, drinking a Jack Rose. Shaken with lemon and grenadine, it is tart, fruity and beautifully pink, and it tastes like an orchard in the fall.

From the Crillon to your bar cart

Make it the aperitif for a Paris-themed evening, inspired by our guide to Paris and our stay at the Four Seasons George V. For more classic drinks, see our winter cocktails.

Make your own grenadine

Commercial grenadine is often just red syrup. Real grenadine is pomegranate: simmer equal parts pomegranate juice and sugar until dissolved, add a few drops of orange-blossom water, and keep it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Ingredients

Makes 1 cocktail.

• 2 oz (60 ml) applejack or Calvados
• 3/4 oz (22 ml) fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 oz (15 ml) homemade grenadine
• Ice
• An apple slice or lemon twist, to garnish

Method

1. Chill the glass. Put a coupe in the freezer for 10 minutes.
2. Shake. Combine the applejack, lemon juice and grenadine in a shaker with ice. Shake hard for 15 seconds.
3. Strain. Double-strain into the chilled coupe.
4. Garnish. Finish with a thin apple slice or a lemon twist.

How to serve it

Before dinner, with salted nuts or a few slices of aged Cheddar. It is an excellent Thanksgiving aperitif.

Variations

Calvados makes a softer, more French version; lime instead of lemon gives a sharper edge. For another apple cocktail, try our Calvados Cider Sour.

Make a menu of it

Serve the Jack Rose before our pork with apples and Calvados for an apple-themed dinner. Our Thanksgiving series begins this week, and every recipe is At the Table.

Photo: Antonio Cavallo, Wikimedia Commons, CC0