Apple and Elderflower Collins Recipe

Apple and Elderflower Collins Ingredients

25ml Gin
25ml Elderflower Liqueur
25ml Cloudy Apple Juice
4 Mint Leaves
3 Lime Wedges
Top Soda

How To Make an Apple and Elderflower Collins Cocktail

Add the limes to the glass and muddle to extract the juice. If you don’t have a bar muddler you can use a rolling pin or similar. Failing that just squeeze it in.

Next up put the mint in your hand and clap your hands together and add the mint to the glass.

This starts to extract the mint essence and is the best way without making the cocktail bitter (see more in the expert tip below)

Measure the rest of the ingredients (except the soda) and add them to the collins glass.

Add crushed ice (or if not cubed is fine) and churn (churn means to stir vigorously in bartender lingo) Top with soda and garnish

Garnish

Fresh Mint Sprig

Tell Us About The Apple & Elderflower Collins Cocktail

A close relative of the English Garden (that uses lemon but not soda or mint) the Apple and Elderflower Collins recipe doesn’t have any known origins in terms of its creation.

It is though a very well known and well-loved cocktail with many variations.

You can ask for this cocktail in most clued up bars and you’ll get a decent interpretation without there being a definitive recipe.

Its popularity is mainly in the UK as it draws upon some of the UK’s most famous flavours of mint, elderflower and apple – in our opinion a match made in heaven.

Expert Tip

Mint is a delicate little thing.

As we mentioned above in our method, mint needs to be treated with care in cocktails.

If it is shaken or churned too much it can bruise and break up which causes us a few issues.

First up, a mint leave that has been shaken too much will create lots of tiny pieces that are rather unpleasant in the mouth when drinking the cocktail.

The other issue (and a far bigger one in the bartending community) is overworking mint leaves causes it to release the bitter compound Chlorophyll (sorry to take you back to GCSE Biology).

While we do want to agitate the mint we don’t want to pound it – it will cause any cocktail to become bitter that it’s added to.

Watch out for any Mojitos you see being shaken or over muddled!

Did You Know?

The Apple and Elderflower Collins recipe are from the collins family of cocktails that have been around for over 100 years.

One of the first cocktails in this category was the Tom Collins which was first mentioned by the great godfather of mixology Jerry Thomas in 1896.

Simply gin, lemon juice and soda. Perfection.

It is from this simple recipe many years ago that hundreds of collins cocktails have been created included the Apple and Elderflower Collins recipe.

David A. Embury’s 1948 cocktail book The Art Of Fine Drinking discusses the evolution of the classic:

“Originally, there were two brothers only in the collins family – Tom and John. During recent years however, numerous cousins have appeared on the scene Pedro, Pierre, Sandy, Mike, Jack, the Colonel and several others whose first names have not yet been officially recorded in the baptismal registry”

What to Try Next?

Apple and Elderflower Martini cocktail kit

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This apple and elderflower martini cocktail making kit is the perfect gift, or treat for yourself.

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Designed for you to easily create this much-loved cocktail at home, our cocktail making kit comes with everything you need, including a cocktail shaker and a premium organic Elderflower liquor.

What more could you ask for?

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