…Everything seems right.

George Washington ‘week’; Part three

Ah, at last. The final instalment of the George Washington week, almost two months after I started the damn thing.

After getting a little giddy and excited with regards to the concept of coming up with three different drinks to celebrate the event in American history that was George Washington – one on rum (that was a little cheated), one on rye and one on applejack – an awesome bout of wisdom tooth pain on opposite sides of my mouth that were separated by only a day dominated most of the month of March, coupled with moving house. Meaning that for the first time since this log started, there was a month without an entry.

Still, never mind.

The idea behind this drink is linkedto Applejack, yet another spirit that George had close to his heart. Applejack itself goes back to the late 1600s, when those hardent drinkers of the early days of American colonialism would ferment cider and then leave it outside in freezing whether conditions to concentrate the booze from the water. Enter William Laird, a Scotsman who brought with him the art of distilling after settling in Monmouth County. In 1698 he started producing an apple brandy instead of that horrid hard cider freeze separation stuff they called ‘jersey lightening’, and aged his stuff in oak casks.

Applejack’s role in the liquid history of the USA is well documented too; William’s great-grandson Robert Laird served in the revolutionary army under George Washington, while the Laird distillery itself became the first