Flora Dora is another fortified hard cider recipe. It is what I call a cider mistelle. I put mistelles in my Dessert style of ciders. These are ciders with higher levels of alcohol and are normally served with the dessert course. The dryer versions I sometimes serve as apéritifs and if they are semi-dry, they sometime go with the main course. Ice ciders are another type of cider that fits into the Dessert category along with cysers. Ice ciders get the bump in %ABV by freeze concentrating the sugars. Cysers get the added sugar by chaptalizing the juice with honey. Mistelles take a different approach. They get the added kick by being fortified with spirits. I usually try to stop my mistelles from fermenting all the available sugars by racking the cider when it is around a specific gravity of 1.010-1.015 and adding the spirit to elevate the alcohol content. Ruby Reaper is a spicy margarita mistelle that used organic tequila. When I saw some organic gin, I knew I needed to use it to make my next mistelle. Since one of my favorite adjunct ciders is raspberry, I knew I wanted to make a cider mistelle version of the classic cocktail, Flora Dora.
Yes, it’s usually spelled Floradora but it’s my cider mistelle so I get to spell it the way I want. The drink dates back to the turn of the 20th century when a musical comedy called Floradora came to Broadway. Like that drink, my cider Flora Dora uses gin, lime, and raspberry. I just add them to a cider base. The color is a pale pink with aroma of juniper and raspberry. The flavor has a minty note from the juniper with a solid lime finish. It’s very refreshing and makes me think it would be a great drink for the Christmas season.
I would suggest this as a pairing for citrusy desserts like key lime pie or a dessert with dark chocolate. It would also go well with some chocolate covered strawberries. I think this could also work with spicy Jamaican dishes or even various spicy stir fry dishes. Checkout the hard cider recipe for Flora Dora in my hard cider recipe section. Here is a direct link as well as a quick link to all my recipes.
PricklyCider.com 