South Florida may not offer crisp afternoons spent wandering apple orchards, but that doesn’t mean we have to miss out on fall’s coziest flavors. At Maman, The Big Apple captures the season in a glass—no sweater weather required.
The $16 cocktail combines bourbon with Lovely Bunch Apple Juice, fresh lemon and Maman’s glazed apple fritter sauce, a rich blend of reduced apple cider and brown sugar syrup. Shaken over ice and finished with a cinnamon stick, it balances bourbon’s warmth with tart apple, bright citrus and just enough caramelized sweetness.
“This cocktail is an ode to apples in their pure form and in a transformed form,” says Maman beverage director Caitlin Burke, who describes Lovely Bunch as “adult apple juice.” The fritter sauce, meanwhile, delivers an intense apple flavor that, in Burke’s words, “screams fall.”
The name is a playful nod to New York City, where Maman first opened in 2014, but there’s a personal connection, too. Burke’s husband grew up in Brittany, France, and the drink was partly inspired by his family’s apple orchard, which she visited on her first trip there.
Fortunately for those of us whose autumn foliage consists mostly of palm fronds, Maman shared the recipe. Consider this our South Florida version of apple-picking season.
The Big Apple
Makes 1 cocktail
Ingredients
- 1½ ounces bourbon whiskey, preferably Redemption or Maker’s Mark
- 2 ounces Lovely Bunch Apple Juice
- ½ ounce fresh lemon juice
- 1 ounce Maman’s glazed apple fritter sauce
- 1 cinnamon stick, for garnish
- Ice
Glassware
9-ounce rocks glass
Method
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the bourbon, apple juice, lemon juice and glazed apple fritter sauce. Shake vigorously until well chilled.
Pour the entire contents of the shaker—ice and all—into a rocks glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
Maman’s Glazed Apple Fritter Sauce
Maman keeps the precise proportions of its signature sauce under wraps, but the essential combination is reduced apple cider and brown sugar syrup, cooked down to create a concentrated, richly autumnal apple flavor.
We may trade orchards for palm trees, but bourbon, apple and cinnamon can still make fall taste exactly as it should.