The run-up to the 2000s was a simpler time in America’s history. Before 9/11 and the recession, back when Donald Trump was simply the businessman who had a cameo in Home Alone 2. And in the world of cocktails, it was a similar story. This was before the resurgence of craft cocktails and when most of the younger clientele were in the market for something bright, funky and sweet. This was the age that the Appletini was born to shine.
Unlike some cocktails like the Cosmopolitan which have somewhat murky origin stories, the Appletini’s tale always begins in the same place; a bar called Lola’s in West Hollywood. This Los Angeles hotspot was owned by Loren Dunsworth and she has since made the story behind the Appletini a widely publicised one.
She had opened Lola’s in 1996 with the dream of recreating the experience of entertaining at home. She served comfort food in a cost setting with a lounge, pool room and lots of cost nooks to relax in. Lola’s also created a special martini menu which boasted a number of inventive cocktails for every occasion, most of them flavoured with things that took them far outside the realm of a true martini. There was even Halloween pumpkin flavour and a Christmas glitter martini on the line-up.
It was a year after opening that Dunsworth noticed a bottle of Sour Apple Pucker Schnapps gathering dust on a shelf and asked her bartender Adam Karsten to create a cocktail to help use it up. After some trials, they landed on an equal mixture of vodka and schnapps with a hit of simple syrup and a lemon-soaked green apple slice on top and called it the Adam’s Apple.
The drink was an instant hit. A little sweet, a little sour, and with a vibrant lime green hue. It became a bigger seller among their female customers, but it had a wide appeal. It was soon a staple of the LA scene with every bar altering the ratio to their preference. It also spawned a range of drinks that skipped the sour apple schnapps entirely, instead using apple juice or calvados – an esoteric Drench brandy.
The Appletini craze changed the way people drank that decade with oversized triangular stemware flooding the market. It was a drink with a taste that appealed to younger drinkers in a glass that made it look sophisticated. It made its way into TV and movies, often as the butt of the joke when a cis-male character orders an ‘effeminate’ drink. And slowly what started off as a fun, lighthearted creation became a point of judgement.
Though it took some years, this turned out to be the tipping point for the drink. As the craft cocktail resurgence set in, it was suddenly a point of shame to order an Appletini as it displayed your cocktail naivete and an untrained palate. But through all that the Appletini retained some loyal fans who have stood by the now unpopular cocktail through thick and thin, and remember it fondly as the drink that echoed the in-your-face kitschiness of the 2000s.
