Bright and apple-forward, it sets clean vodka against the orchard depth of apple brandy and the orange-peel sweetness of Cointreau, shaken hard and strained ice-cold into a stemmed glass. Tart and sweet in equal measure, it drinks crisp and bracing, with the apple brandy lending a soft warmth beneath the citrus lift.
Garnish: Apple Slice, Maraschino Cherry
Shaken · Cocktail glass · Up
add
Combine vodka, Calvados, and Cointreau in a shaker with ice.
shake
Shake well until thoroughly chilled.
strain
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, served straight up.
garnish
Garnish with an apple slice and a cherry.
The usual story says a bartender called Adam first shook it up at Lola's, a restaurant in West Hollywood, in 1996, and that it was originally served as the "Adam's Apple Martini" in his honour. Beyond that first name, the bartender's identity never made it into the record, so the tale stands as legend rather than documented authorship. The drink went on to saturate 1990s pop culture and quickly shed any single owner, splintering into a sprawling family of apple-vodka cocktails made with apple schnapps, sour-apple pucker, apple juice or Calvados.