Top 5 Hard Cider Recipes (With Instructions)
Looking for some new hard cider recipes? You’re in the right place. In this guide, you’ll learn five of the best recipes for hard cider to try out.
Stealing the show with its crisp and tart element, hard cider is a dose of deliciousness and refreshment on its own. However, combining it with some additional ingredients creates some even more amazing cocktails.
Whether you want to enjoy the flavors of autumn, or bring a twist to the traditional drink, here are top 5 hard cider recipes with instructions that are going to delight you for sure.
Apple Butter Old Fashioned
A relishing sweet drink with rightly balanced flavors, Apple Butter Old Fashioned is all you need for a relaxing autumn evening. Loaded with various flavors of the fall season, this drink is more than perfect when it comes to serving it for a get together with friends and family.
You will need some coarse sugar, one-fourth cup of apple cider, half a lemon juice, dash of orange bitters, one tablespoon apple butter, 2 ounces bourbon some ginger beer, thinly sliced apples, and cinnamon.
Instructions
- Prepare your glass by decorating its rim with coarse sugar.
- Combine the apple cider, orange bitters, lemon juice, apple butter, and bourbon in a cocktail shaker.
- Once you strain the drink into the ice-filled glass, charm it up with some ginger beer, further garnishing with cinnamon and apple slices.
Sparkling Tart Cherry Apple Cider
A wonderful blend of the fresh and juicy element of cherries with sparkling apple cider, this beverage is a must-have. Sparkling apple water works wonders for the calorie-conscious, while sweet traditional cider adds so much more to the flavor. Sprucing things up with some tart cherries is all thanks for making the drink celebration-worthy.
What all you need to get started is a can of tart cherries, 6 tablespoons white sugar, one teaspoon water, a bottle of Sparkling Apple Cider, ice, and cinnamon sticks.
Instructions
- Heat some tart cherries and sugar in a saucepan over medium flame for about 10 minutes, while stirring in between.
- Once you strain the cherries, keep the strained blend in the refrigerator until it cools off completely.
- Decorate the rim of the glass with sugar, further adding some ice to fill the glass in half.
- Add the cherry simple syrup into the glasses and pour in the sparkling apple cider, lastly adding a cinnamon stick. Serve immediately.
Cranberry Apple Cider Cocktail
What can be better than combining sweet and tangy together, that too in a right on point mix? This fall cocktail is worked up with a few simple ingredients, wherein juicy and fruity accents complement the crisp apple notes quite like magic. If you are fond of berries and oranges, you are going to fall head over heels in love with this concoction.
You are going to need 2 ounces cranberry juice, an ounce of fresh-squeezed orange juice, an ounce of vodka, a bottle of chilled hard cider, and some apple slices.
Instructions
- Fill a glass with ice, while loading a cocktail shaker with cranberry juice, orange juice, vodka, and ice.
- Shake the mix well, further straining it into the glass.
- Pour in the hard cider, followed by using an apple slice for the garnishing. Serve immediately.
Oregon Marionberry or Blackberry Cider Crush
Here’s an Oregon-inspired drink that’s wonderfully tangy and takes you to the flavors of the Pacific Northwest in an instant. The rich summer drink can be worked up with Marionberries to signify Oregon produce just perfect, but blackberries are a perfect replacement for the same. A truly sweet and tangy glassful of deliciousness is just a few steps away.
You need 5-6 fresh blackberries, an ounce of vodka, 3 ounces of hard cider, 3 ounces of lemonade, and some ice cubes.
Instructions
- Begin by muddling the berries in a glass, further adding all the liquid ingredients into the glass.
- Stir the blend gently using a cocktail spoon and throw in a few ice cubes into the preparation.
- Finally, use more berries to garnish the cocktail and serve.
White Wine and Sparkling Cider Sangria
The true star of this sparkling drink is some fruity goodness. The right touch of autumn is brought by a dry hard cider, which is intensified more with a layer of white wine. The concoction is not too sweet as well as not too strong, thereby being a well-fitting party drink for all.
All it takes to work up the drink is a bottle of dry white wine, a cup of fresh orange juice, juice of 2 limes, 8-10 sliced strawberries, lime and orange slices, one and a half cup of sparkling sweet cider, and some ice.
Instructions
- Except for the cider and ice, combine everything in a large glass pitcher and allowing them to macerate for about 15 minutes.
- Pour in the sparkling cider, further throwing in some ice cubes to serve a chilled drink. Sip and enjoy.
Conclusion
No matter what’s the occasion, the above hard cider concoctions are going to hit the right notes every single time. The perfect blend of ingredients and the well-balanced tastes of each of these drinks makes them complete party-pleasers, bringing out the best of the hard cider magic.
I hope you enjoyed this post on hard cider recipes. If you liked this post, you may also want to check out our post that answers the common question, are IPAs easy to brew?