Calvados Cocktail

A refined French apple brandy cocktail with citrus and bitters, showcasing Normandy's finest spirit.

The Calvados Cocktail is built on one of France's most historically specific and regionally protected spirits - Calvados, the apple brandy of Normandy, whose production has been documented in the region since at least the late 16th century. The first written record of distilling apple cider in Normandy dates to 1553, when Gilles de Gouberville recorded the process in his journal. The spirit takes its name from the Calvados department of Normandy, itself named for the Calvados rocks off the Norman coast. Calvados received its Appellation d'Origine Controlee protection in 1942, formalizing production rules that require approved apple and pear varieties grown within the delimited Normandy zone; the most prized comes from the Pays d'Auge sub-appellation, which requires double distillation in copper pot stills and a minimum of two years in French oak. American soldiers in the Normandy campaign following the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944 encountered Calvados in quantity in the liberated villages, and their enthusiasm for it helped establish the spirit's postwar reputation in the United States. The cocktail itself first appeared in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book and was rescued from obscurity by Ted Haigh in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails; it is unusual in calling for a full measure of orange bitters rather than the customary dash or two - an assertive choice that gives the drink its bracing orange-peel bite alongside Cointreau's sweetness and Normandy's orchard-fruit core.