I love autumn. As if you couldn’t tell already, with all the recent autumn themed puzzles and cocktails featured here the past few weeks. I’ve even been stretching my repertoire a bit with some autumn themed cocktail creations of my own, such as the Autumn Daze and the Waterfall (paired with some seriously amazing puzzle boxes). We haven’t exactly broken out the sweaters yet here in Houston, but there’s a chill in the air for sure. So here’s one more for good measure, which incorporates the holiday Sukkot as well. What’s that, you say? The “Festival of Booths” comes around this time of year to celebrate the harvest season. Reminiscent of the harvester’s hut, which was set out in the fields of yore during the season, a sukkah is a little outdoor shelter where you can rest, eat, and look at the stars. You’ll also find a strange citrus fruit there called an etrog, or citron. This ancient Mediterranean fruit looks like a fat wrinkled lemon and has an intense citrus and violet fragrance – cocktails, anyone?

Harvest Highball

It turns out that a small distillery in Los Angeles has actually created an Etrog liqueur, which is so unusual that I literally decided to create an entire box and booze pairing around it. Starting with the cocktail, I thought about other fruit flavors of this seasonal holiday, which include apples, pears, figs, grapes and pomegranates. Pomegranate equals grenadine, of course, and I’ll use any excuse to break out the apple brandy (or Applejack). So here’s the “Harvest Highball”, made with Applejack, Etrog, and a fig-pomegranate grenadine. It’s pretty tasty.

This cozy couple are ready for the autumn

Harvest Highball

1 ½ Laird’s Applejack

¾ oz fresh lime juice

¾ oz fig grenadine

½ oz Etrog liqueuer (Sukkah Hill Spirits)

3-6 oz club soda to taste

2 dashes orange bitters

Stir all ingredients over ice and enjoy while listening to Autumn Leaves.

For more information about Sukkah Hill Spirits:

http://www.sukkahhill.com/