Calvados is an apple brandy and a sidecar is brandy + triple sec + lemon juice. Mix them together and you get a Calvados Sidecar. A creation by the team at Employee’s Only in their book Speakeasy. This is one of the prettiest cocktails I have made. The sugar rim turned out great. Using the technique of a lemon around the outside rim paired with freezing it to set the sugar rocked! Another good tip is to keep your glass upside down when you moisten it and apply the sugar. This keeps streaks from forming.

I keep saying it but I think that lemon juice is really assertive and I found it too high in this drink. I might back it off to 3/4 oz or even 1/2 oz. That being said, the drink blends up well and cuts the sharp brandy flavor in the Calvados with the Cointreau. I would definitely make this again and order it on the menu.

I feel like a I need a closer for the blog posts. Being part Ukrainian, I was going to try Budmo! This is a traditional cheers for drinking excursions and translates to something like live forever. It has a nice Vulcan feel to it, so let’s try it.

Budmo!