Laird's Straight Applejack Brandy
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Laird’s Straight Applejack 86 represents the return to the Laird family’s historic roots. Prior to and post Prohibition, our American Applejack was a straight apple brandy produced at the proof of 86. Seventeen pounds of fresh tree-ripened apples are needed to produce each single bottle.
While perfect consumed neat or over ice, it truly shines when used in place of whiskey in traditional cocktails like the Manhattan and Old Fashioned. The warm, full flavors with overtones of baked apples, caramel and wood from this aged apple brandy give an extra dimension of complexity and body to cocktails. You owe it to yourself to rediscover Laird’s Straight Applejack 86, favored by the founders of our country, and every generation thereafter.
Golden amber color. aromas of heirloom apples, hibiscus, sweet cherry, and nougat with a round, vibrant, fruity medium body and a warming, involved, long honey on crepes and peach preserve finish. An upstanding apple brandy with layers of flavor that evolve on the palate.
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In the early 1900’s, sixth generation Joseph T. Laird, Jr. faced Prohibition. He kept the company in operation by producing other apple products, such as sweet cyder and applesauce. Joseph’s son’s John Evans and Joseph T. Laird, III continued to produce non-alcoholic products until 1933, when Laird & Company was granted a federal license under the Prohibition Act to produce Apple Brandy for “medicinal purposes”. This allowed the Laird brothers to re-open the distillery. Laird & Company converted an area of their distillery for the drying and dehydration of apple pomace for production of pectin to aid in the war effort. Pectin acted as a preservative for war food rations.
Laird & Company is synonymous with apple spirits and three centuries of family distilling tradition. The company produces the vast majority of all Applejack and American Apple Brandy on the market, which have been enjoyed since colonial times and are equally prized by today’s mixology community.
Taking its name from the Dutch term, brandewijn, for burnt or cooked wine, in the broadest sense of the term, Brandy is any liquor made from the distillation of fruit wine. Though any kind of fruit may be used, wine grapes are the most common. Clear Brandy, commonly referred to as Eau de Vie, is unaged and bottled directly after distillation. Finer grape-based Brandies are often aged in oak barrels for anywhere from two years (VS) to six years (XO) or longer, gradually gaining color and complexity as they interact with the wood.