Apricot Brandy is Confounding and Delicious
Most of it isn't even brandy, but it's still worth exploring. With four apricot-kissed cocktail recipes.
When they’re ripe and juicy, apricots are undoubtedly among my favorite fruits. But the truth is, apricots are also among the most frustrating, inconsistent fruits. I’ll eat four mealy, blah ones, only to have a single, mind-blowingly delicious one, which then forces me to endure the next four mealy ones.
Apricot brandy is sort of the same experience. Or should I say apricot “brandy” in quotes. For years, it occupied a dusty corner of the liquor store that I avoided. It confounded me. Most of it wasn’t even brandy, and most of it was awful: cloying and full of artificial flavoring and coloring.
For me, apricot “brandy” has always brought bad associations; it seemed to be the sort of thing you bought in pints and drank out of little paper bags. As a teenager, I remember classmates buying pints of Jacquin’s Apricot Flavored Brandy for illegal parties in the woods. Later, I had a friend who ordered apricot sours, and I was always vaguely embarrassed when she did that, particularly in dive bars.
As it happens, I had good reason to be skeptical about apricot brandy. Even the best bottles that bartenders use—say, Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot from Austria or Luxardo Albicocca from Italy—are actually liqueurs, not technically brandies. You’ll rarely find a bottle of the stuff, good or bad, that’s higher than 60 proof. Because of that, apricot brandy will not work well as a base spirit in a cocktail.
And yet. Something about apricot brandy has appealed to generations of cocktail makers. Just look in classic cocktail guides such as The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) or Patrick Gavin Duffy’s Official Mixer’s Manual (1934), and you’ll find plenty of recipes calling for the spirit. Over the years, I’ve talked to so many top bartenders who embrace apricot brandy that it frankly surprises me.
You see apricot brandy popping up in gin cocktails, rye cocktails, bourbon cocktails, pisco cocktails, even absinthe/Chartreuse cocktails such as the Yellow Parrot. It seemed to be used wherever people enjoyed cocktails. In pre-Prohibition New York, you had a gin cocktail called the Frankenjack (equal parts gin, vermouth, Cointreau, apricot brandy) and its more popular variation, the Darb. Further south, you had the Baltimore Bang, a tasty mix of bourbon, apricot brandy, and lemon juice: an apricot-y whiskey sour. Further south, in Havana, you had the Nacional, which combined rum, apricot brandy, and lime juice.
So with apricot season soon upon us, I decided to explore apricot brandy a little bit, sipping and making cocktails. Mostly, I’ve been pleasantly surprised and excited by what I’ve found.
First, Let’s Talk About Real Apricot Brandy
You’ll only find a few that are actual fruit brandies (aka schnapps or eaux de vie) actually distilled from apricots. And the best of those are quite pricey. For me, greatest apricot brandy comes from Rochelt, in the Tyrolean Alps, made from special apricots from Austria’s Wachau region. Aged seven years in glass balloons, it’s hard to explain just how ethereal, complex, and beautiful this spirit is—one of my favorites in the world. Rochelt Wachau Apricot, however, will set you back about $400 for 375 ml. My second choice is also from Austria, and also amazing: Han Reisetbauer Apricot Eau de Vie, which is around $80 for 375 ml.
The most widely available true apricot brandy is Blume Marillen Apricot Eau-De-Vie from Purkhart distillery, which is also in Austria (are we detecting a theme: the Austrians know how to distill apricot brandy) and imported by Haus Alpenz. Blume Marillen Apricot Eau-De-Vie is the most affordable, at under $40 for 375 ml., and a great introduction to the pleasures of real fruit brandy.
A rare domestic apricot brandy that I like is Öömrang Apricot Brandy, which comes from Washington state and is surprisingly good, and a good deal at around $45.
All of these eau de vie I enjoy neat, the same way I’d sip a Cognac or aged rum after dinner—or like other clear fruit brandies such as kirschwasser or poire Williams. I will continue to make the case for these amazing spirits until my last breath.
Apricot “Brandy” For Mixing
For cocktails, we’ll be talking about the apricot liqueurs that people call “apricot brandy.” For me, the best brand is Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot (also made by Purkhart), which you can find for around $20. I also like Luxardo Albicocca ($25) and Giffard Abricot du Roussillon ($30). In a pinch, Marie Brizard Apry also works.
I do not recommend sipping those on their own. They’re cloying, like drinking apricot jam without the toast. But in a cocktail, I have to admit they bring something to the table that no other liqueur does—an odd, rich, not-too-sweet sweetness. Just be warned: a little goes a long way.
Another word to the wise: Apricot is one category where you probably don’t want to venture too far from the top shelf. The other apricot brandies I tasted — from Hiram Walker, Bols, and Jacquin’s—probably should remain in that dusty corner.
Still, flipping through those old books, I can’t discern that there ever were halcyon days of apricot “brandy.” Mostly the same brands pop up then as now. Perhaps apricot brandy has always confounded. And, likewise, perhaps it has always pleasantly surprised.
Four Apricot-Kissed Cocktails
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