Damaged Goods Distilling Co. Smashed Apple Aperitivo

We rescued leftover apple pulp from a cidery down the road and used a little science and a lot of creativity to transform it into this A+ aperitif.

Note: A little sediment in the bottle is normal and maximises flavour - no harsh filtration techniques are used here! Give it a little shake to dissolve back into the liquid. Yum!

Aroma: Bright zesty orange and sweet apple with subtle yet complex herbal notes.

Taste: Candied rhubarb, juicy tart apples and fresh grapes with citrus and woody undertones. Lucious and velvety texture.

Finish: Lightly bittersweet finish with earthy and herbaceous notes lingering.

The pièce de résistance of our delicious apéritif is apple pulp from Funk Cider, a ciderie less than 10 minutes down the road from our distillery. Their craft cider is made from a blend of pink lady and granny smith apples. After the apples have been cold press juiced, we collect and process the left over apple pulp the very same day to lock in the fresh and vibrant flavours. Our unique process that is part art and part science allows us to extract an additional 25% yield of juice from these leftovers, before we get to work on teasing out all the residual flavours in the pulp. Just call us the apple whisperers.

The apple pulp is split into two production streams to obtain different flavour profiles. Some pulp is steeped in our Final Squeeze Citrus Gin, with special enzymes that help draw out maximal flavour. In the morning we distil the newly apple infused gin with native strawberry gum to create the base flavour profile for the aperitivo. The other half of the pulp is mixed with sugar to draw out the remaining juice by osmosis overnight. This creates a delicious, sweet slurry of apple flavoured sugar. From here, we add a touch of hot water to dissolve the remaining sugar and mix it with the apple and strawberry gum base spirit we have just distilled to create a liqueur. We then add the remaining bittering botanicals to the liqueur and steep them for 24 hours to create an aperitivo. Just a little more tinkering, a couple of weeks rest and it’s ready to go.