What is fall without apple cider? And what is fall camping without some way to make that with booze? This is the perfect fall campfire drink and it is beyond easy. In fact, it isn’t even really a recipe so much as an idea that is now a basic necessity of our fall trips.
A little back story. I do not like hard cider. It is everywhere and of course, everyone else loves the stuff. I have to admit when we visited the Angry Orchard brewery on a camping trip it was a great time. I even enjoyed their sample flight. I highly recommend a trip there, it is freaking beautiful, they have awesome snacks, apparel, and lots of hard cider. They offer tours as well. It is just an all-around good time.
Anyway, back to the recipe-ish post. I don’t really love hard cider. But I do love apple cider. And also booze. So we basically tried out different ways to make your own apple cider drinks during last fall’s camping season. We learned three lessons.
First- bees love apple cider more than you do. I do not know where they even come from but when you open apple cider and start mixing it in a pitcher at a campground, bees swarm your site from every direction. Do your mixing inside and get a pitcher with a lid. We didn’t have that so we basically fed some cider to the kids from the gallon, then used the extra space in the gallon bottle to make the alcoholic additions. And get some sort of mason jar contraption to drink out of. Mason jars go with apple cider anyway, so just run with it. Whatever you can, just beware of the bees! (It’s totally worth it though, I promise, keep going!).
Second- Cut it with ice AND water. I am presuming it is cool out when you are making these drinks. If we were making lemonade drinks in 90 degree summer heat, I would say just load up on ice, but not in the fall. When it is cooler outside, you don’t have to worry about the ice melting, but the cider is really, really sweet. If you use a little ice and also a little bit of water, it makes the drink a bit more, high-end. I actually used to be a bartender, trust me on this.
Third- choose your booze. We actually have yet to find a bad option for what to add to your cider to make it boozy. Go with something dark and earthy (I don’t think gin would go over well). We tried Wild Turkey Bourbon. This was A-MAZ-ING. Perfect combination. We also tried Captain Morgan. JUST. AS. GOOD. Seriously, I almost feel like you can’t go wrong. I am confident that Jack Daniels or Jim Beam would be just as good. You could probably get away with Tito’s. Honestly this doesn’t take a mixologist, you really don’t need me at all. Mix some liquor into your apple cider next camping trip. You’re welcome. But watch out for the bees.
