The Stone-ish Fence

I hesitate to even call this drink a Stone Fence, which is an old-timey cocktail consisting of rum spiked with apple cider. But I’m not very good at coming up with cocktail names, so I’ll just leave it at that.

I came about this drink in a roundabout way – Emma sent me a message about rye and maple syrup (yum), and then I came across this post on Sassy Radish.

I have this thing about recipes – I pretty much always follow them to the letter the first time, because I want to have an idea of what the recipe author was going for. How will I know if my revision is improved if I don’t have a baseline?

I did make one revision, only for scale – the recipe as posted makes four drinks. I thought it would be best if I just drank one.

Larry didn’t like the drink very much at all. I thought it was okay – but too sweet, and I was surprised that there was twice as much cider (concentrated, at that) as there was whiskey. I tasted it before and after adding seltzer, and I definitely preferred it without fizz.

I made the drink again, swapping the amounts of cider and rye, and left out the seltzer. I also re-wrote the recipe to make one drink, and normalized the ingredients in ounces. I have a little bit of a militant belief that all drink recipes should be written in ounces whenever possible, and I use a double jigger with incremental markings to measure ingredients.

We both loved the result. It screams Fall. The spiciness of the rye plays off the cider really well. I’m guessing this would also be nice with Bourbon, or the more traditional dark rum.

The Stone-ish Fence
Recipe adapted from Sassy Radish
Makes 1 drink

INGREDIENTS
2 cups apple cider (use 1 oz. concentrated cider for each drink)
2 oz. rye
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz. maple syrup (Grade B, preferably)
2 thin slices peeled fresh ginger or a thick slice of lemon rind

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium saucepan, over high heat, boil the cider until it has reduced by half to 1 cup, about 20 minutes. Cool over an ice bath until at room temperature.
2. Combine 1 oz. concentrated cider, rye, lemon juice, and maple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, and strain into a cocktail glass (with or without ice). Garnish with ginger slices or lemon rind. Serve immediately.

• The Stone-ish Fence (Adapted from Sassy Radish)