Apple Cider Mojito Cocktail

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Celebrate the harvest with this Apple Cider Mojito featuring spiced rum, pure apple cider, fresh red apple and aromatic mint. It’s the perfect fall cocktail to bring the beauty and seasonal flavours of early autumn to your entertaining.  

While there are lots of ways to enjoy the crisp, sweet flavour of fresh apples — from salads such as our Creamy Apple Jicama Slaw to classic apple pie — one of the best ways to savour the end of summer is with a fresh apple cocktail.

The delicious blend of light sweetness, caramel and spice also makes it the ideal cocktail for Halloween or Fall Harvest parties. 

Reasons to Love This Red Apple Cider Cocktail 

You can feel good about this cocktail for many reasons!  Not only does it capture the harvest season vibe but with all the vitamins and minerals in the fresh apple cider, it might even qualify as a healthy cocktail! 

• Apples are a nutritious and healthy food! They’re a fabulous source of antioxidants, a group of chemicals that combat free radicals, that play a role in the onset of heart disease and certain types of cancers. According to Canadian researchers, Red Delicious, Northern Spy and Ida Red contain more disease-fighting antioxidants than other apples. 
• This apple cocktail contains no refined sugars or syrups. 
• Fresh mint and nutmeg also contain health benefits. 
• For carefree summer entertaining when you want to spend every minute outdoors, this cocktail is easy to put together and ready in less than five minutes.  
• While a mojito is traditionally made with rum, you can also make this refreshing cocktail with vodka or your liquor of choice.

What is the Difference Between Apple Juice and Apple Cider?

Given there are quite a few different apple products to choose from, it’s worth taking a look at the differences. Here’s the scoop on what you need to know: 

Apple Cider: Apple cider, also known as sweet cider, is made by crushing apples to create juice. It’s raw apple juice that hasn’t gone through a filtration process to remove pulp and sediment. It’s cloudy in appearance.

It can be a “varietal” made using only one signature variety of apple or be a blend of many varieties. You can find it refrigerated in the produce section of your grocery store. 

Apple Juice: Apple juice is the juice of pressed apples that has undergone filtration to remove the pulp. It’s also been pasteurized to extend its shelf life.

Apple juice is a clear golden colour and lighter in texture than apple cider. It doesn’t need to be refrigerated so you can find it in the grocery aisle.  

Hard Apple Cider: Hard apple cider is an alcoholic drink made from fermented apple juice. It usually has 4.5% – 7% alcohol by volume (ABV) and is a popular gluten-free substitute for beer.

It has a long history and even today cider continues to be served at sagardotegi (cider houses) around San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain.  

Apple Cider Vinegar:  Apple cider vinegar is made by fermenting apples into natural sugar alcohol and then adding bacteria to convert the alcohol into acetic acid. While this brown-coloured vinegar is wonderful in salad dressings or marinades and even taken medicinally, it’s too tart for a cocktail. 

For this apple cocktail, I’ve opted to use raw apple juice rather than filtered juice. It creates a cloudy apple mojito with tons of pure apple flavour. With the addition of spiced rum it tastes just like apple pie in a glass!   

What Kind of Spiced Rum is Best for an Apple Mojito Cocktail? 

Once you’ve decided to go with a spiced rum (and I hope you have!), the big question is what kind of spiced rum is the best to use?  While the best known is likely Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold, there are many types of spiced rum to choose from.

You can purchase artisanal, small-batch spiced rum or make your own at home by blending rum with a selection of spices you love. 

For this recipe, I went with Chic Choc Spiced Rum, a Canadian small batch spiced rum,  because the boreal spices complemented local apples so well. 

Produced by the Domaine Pinnacle orchard and distillery in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Chic Choc Spiced Rum is actually named after the fabled Chic Choc Mountains northeast of Québec City where the boreal spices used in its production are harvested. The spices include:

• peppery green alder,
• pine forest spikenard,
• whiterod berries,
• lovage root,
• sweet gale seeds,
• wild angelica

This carefully-crafted, light mahogany rum is the world’s only artisanal rum created with a blend of Nordic spices grown in the Gaspé Peninsula. It boasts flavours of light sweetness, caramel and cinnamon spice with underlying hints of ginger, vanilla, pepper and dried fruits.

If you haven’t tried Chic Choc Spiced Rum, it’s available at  LCBO stores in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba.  

Sip it straight, splash it over ice or slip it into other fall season cocktails such as a Dark ‘n’ Stormy, Bourbon Hot Toddy or a Ponche de Frutas – Hot Holiday Rum Punch.

Another equally delicious option for an apple cider mojito is a Caribbean rum crafted of tropical spices. One of my favourite traditional drinks in Grenada is spiced rum.

While it’s possible to purchase spiced rum in a bottle, a great thing to do in Grenada is to sample spiced rum at one of the local rum shops. Or make your own spiced rum by infusing rum with loose spices or a pre-made spice mix.  

One of my favourite Grenadian rum spice mixes is Hinds Spice Rum. If you’re visiting Concord Waterfall in Grenada, it’s possible to purchase a bottle of the spice mix for a few dollars. It contains local ingredients including:

• rice and nuts,
• cloves,
• cinnamon bark,
• mauby bark,
• orange peel,
• lemon grass,
• bois bande (a bark claimed to have aphrodisiac qualities),
• shadow benny (also known as chadon beni), 
• zebapique (a bitter herb used in many parts of the Caribbean to treat a cold or the flu). 

No matter which spiced rum you choose, it will infuse your apple mojito cocktail with its own unique characteristics. So get creative with your spiced rum choices! 

List of Ingredients

For the ultimate in carefree entertaining, there’s nothing complicated when it comes to ingredients! Scroll down to the recipe card for exact measurements but here’s what you’ll need. 

• spiced rum
• red apple
• apple cider
• sparkling water
• fresh mint
• freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
• ice

Step by Step Instructions for an Apple Cider Mojito 

1. Fill a glass of choice with ice. (To create a Cuban-style mojito fill the bottom of the glass with mint and muddle the leaves with a wooden spoon like a pestle to release  the aromatic mint flavour. Then add ice).
2. Slice half the apple into slices and place into the glass. Reserve the rest for the garnish.
3. Pour the spiced rum over the ice and apple slices. Shake the apple cider and pour it into the glass.
4. Top with sparkling water.
5. Garnish with sprigs of mint, a slice of apple and freshly-grated nutmeg.
6. Stir and serve immediately.

Tips on Serving Apple Cocktails and Storing Cider 

• For effortless entertaining, mix the spiced rum and apple cider in advance and store in a container within the refrigerator until ready to serve. 
• If you cut the apples slices in advance, sprinkle them with lemon juice and place them in a plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap to prevent discolouration. If you have extra fresh apples use them up in these delicious recipes for Apple Jicama Salad and Apple Oatmeal Cake.   
• Always store fresh apple cider in the refrigerator. 
• For a non-alcoholic beverage,  just skip the spiced rum and add extra freshly-grated nutmeg. Your apple cider mojito mocktail will deliver all the big flavours of the boozy version without the buzz. 
• Or, for a sweet and sultry option, swap out the spiced rum for Xtabentun, a Mayan honey liqueur produced in Mexico’s Yucatan that’s known as the elixir of the gods.  
• For pairing, serve with a cheese plate of local cheeses or grilled dishes such as steak on the barbecue where the sparkling effervescence of a cider cocktail cuts through the smoky richness of the beef. Or enjoy with a veggie burger or curried chicken skewers.  

Other Refreshing Cocktails and Drinks to Enjoy 

• Sparkling Peach Bourbon Punch 
• Fresh Watermelon Vodka Cocktail
• Venetian Blush Campari and Orange Cocktail 
• Strawberry Mango Lemonade 
• Iced Chamomile Tea 
• Agua de Avena – Oat Milk Cooler 

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