Harvest Moon (1930s recipe)

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (36 ratings)

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 12 oz Applejack brandy bottled-in-bond (50% alc./vol)
12 oz Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
14 oz Monin Almond (Orgeat) Syrup
14 oz Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
13 oz Chilled water
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select a Coupe glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
  3. SHAKE all ingredients.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

  • Orgeat (almond) sugar syrup (2:1) - Nuts

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 7/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 6/10

Review:

Described as being an "applejack sour with orgeat," we've adapted the recipe to use commercially available orgeat. If using a more artisan orgeat then you may want to use as much as 30ml/1oz orgeat and forgo the sugar and water.

There is no orange in the cocktail but it's surprising how much the orange zest twist influences this drink and adds complexity.

View readers' comments

History:

We have Robert Hess and his The Cocktail Spirit podcast to thank for the Harvest Moon and drawing our attention to its feature in a list of the Top 10 Most Popular Cocktails in the December 1934 edition of Esquire Magazine.

Nutrition:

One serving of Harvest Moon (1930s recipe) contains 151 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.2 standard drinks
  • 19.46% alc./vol. (19.46° proof)
  • 16.5 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Juan Simon’s Avatar Juan Simon
11th October 2024 at 02:36
Sweet and smooth
Jim Plante’s Avatar Jim Plante
6th February 2023 at 01:08
As of late, I’ve been enamored with sours. This is a delightful cocktail, as John Hinojos suggested with Lairds bonded 100 proof apple brandy. I may very well try it with egg whites and serve it in a old fashion glass but I so love my antique coupes and love to part of a good contrail in them!
John Hinojos’ Avatar John Hinojos
4th February 2022 at 00:59
Great. Made with Laird's Bottled-in-bond Applejack. Perfect balance. Not sweet which was my concern with the recipe. Very flavourful.
Patrick Moore’s Avatar Patrick Moore
2nd October 2020 at 00:18
A delicious, well balanced drink for autumn. I substituted Calvados for the Applejack and served it on the actual Harvest Moon, October 1, 2020.