American Trilogy
An American Trilogy is 30ml of rye whiskey and 30ml of applejack poured over a brown sugar cube muddled with two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over one large ice cube in a rocks glass for 15 to 20 seconds and finished with an orange twist. About 2.5 UK units with both spirits at 40% ABV, or about 3.1 with bonded bottles at 50%. Richard Boccato and Michael McIlroy created it at Little Branch in New York in the late 2000s. It is an Old Fashioned with the base split between two American spirits, and it nods to the Diamondback, an older drink of rye, applejack and yellow Chartreuse. It caught on as bonded Laird’s apple brandy reached New York’s bars in those years. The applejack does not make it taste of apple so much as round off the rye. The sugar cube keeps dissolving as you drink, so the first sip is drier than the last.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange twist
Ingredients
30ml
Half the base, so it has to hold its half. A bonded rye at 50% ABV matches bonded applejack; at 40% against a 50% applejack, the apple leads.
30ml
American apple brandy, bonded at 50% ABV if you can find it. Blended applejack is cut with neutral spirit and thins the drink; calvados is the closer substitute, drier and more austere.
1 cube
A brown or demerara cube, with a deeper, toffee-like sweetness than white sugar. Muddled with the bitters, it dissolves slowly as the drink goes.
2 dashes
Two dashes, soaked into the cube. Orange peel bridges the grain and the apple, where Angostura’s clove would push the drink towards Christmas.
Instructions
Put the brown sugar cube in a rocks glass and soak it with the orange bitters.
Add a bar spoon of water and muddle to a paste.
Add the rye and the applejack.
Add one large ice cube.
Stir for 15 to 20 seconds.
Express an orange twist over the surface and drop it in.
Our version
Published with an ounce each of rye and bonded applejack, a brown sugar cube and two dashes of orange bitters over a large cube. Ours converts the measures to 30ml and stirs for 15 to 20 seconds.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Muddle the cube into a paste with the bitters and a bar spoon of water before the spirits go in. A few grains left at the bottom keep dissolving as you drink, which is part of the design; a whole cube never fully goes. Match the two spirits in strength. Bonded applejack is bottled at 50% ABV, so pair it with a bonded rye, or the stronger spirit leads. If you can only find calvados, it gives a drier, more restrained drink. Stir for 15 to 20 seconds over the one large cube, then stop. The cube keeps chilling and diluting slowly as the drink sits, and a longer stir leaves it watery by the end.
Behind the American Trilogy
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Richard Boccato and Michael McIlroy created the drink at Little Branch, the West Village bar opened by Sasha Petraske. It dates from the late 2000s, when bonded Laird’s apple brandy was newly available in New York and bartenders were finding uses for it.
It nods to the Diamondback, an older drink of rye, applejack and yellow Chartreuse, and moves the same pair into an Old Fashioned.
Two American Spirits
Applejack is American apple brandy, made from cider apples. American rye whiskey is made from a mash of at least 51% rye. Bottled in bond, each is at least four years old and bottled at 50% ABV.
Equal measures make each half count. The rye brings spice and grip; the applejack brings fruit and a softer middle, so the result tastes like a rounder Old Fashioned more than an apple drink.
Why the Sugar Cube Matters
Every Old Fashioned recipe now offers syrup, and syrup makes a consistent drink. A muddled cube makes a different one.
A cube muddled with bitters and a little water is not fully dissolved when the stir ends. It keeps dissolving in the glass, so the sweetness climbs as the ice melts: drier at the start, rounder at the end.
Applejack and Its Substitutes
Bonded applejack has the weight to sit beside rye at equal measure without being pushed under.
Calvados works and makes a drier, more restrained drink with less obvious fruit. Blended applejack, cut with neutral spirit, is the one to avoid: at half the base, it thins the whole drink.
The apple half, each with 30ml of rye at 40% ABV
Bonded applejack
- ABV
- 50%
- What it does to the drink
- Rounder and fuller; the recipe’s choice
- UK units
- About 2.8
Calvados
- ABV
- 40 to 42%
- What it does to the drink
- Drier and more austere, less obvious apple
- UK units
- About 2.5
Blended applejack
- ABV
- 40%
- What it does to the drink
- Thinner, because part of it is neutral spirit
- UK units
- About 2.5
| Apple spirit | ABV | What it does to the drink | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bonded applejack | 50% | Rounder and fuller; the recipe’s choice | About 2.8 |
| Calvados | 40 to 42% | Drier and more austere, less obvious apple | About 2.5 |
| Blended applejack | 40% | Thinner, because part of it is neutral spirit | About 2.5 |
How to Serve It
In a rocks glass over one large cube, with an orange twist expressed and dropped in. It is a slow drink, and it changes as the sugar dissolves.
For rye and apple brandy with yellow Chartreuse, make a Diamondback; for the single-spirit original, an Old Fashioned.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Rye)Rye whiskey, in American law, takes at least 51% of its grain from rye and its colour from new charred oak, and goes into bottle at a 40% ABV minimum; our recipes take 40% as the figure. Rye makes a drier, spicier, more peppery spirit than corn, which is why stirred classics such as the Manhattan, Vieux Carré and Brooklyn are written for it. It appears in 23 of our recipes.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an American Trilogy?
Why is it called the American Trilogy?
Applejack or calvados?
Why muddle a sugar cube instead of using syrup?
How is it different from a Diamondback?
How long should I stir it?
How strong is an American Trilogy?
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An Old Fashioned is 45ml of bourbon, one sugar cube, two dashes of Angostura bitters and a few dashes of water. The sugar and bitters are muddled in a rocks glass until the cube dissolves, then ice goes in, the bourbon goes over it and the drink is stirred for 15 to 20 seconds. Orange peel is expressed over the top. About 1.9 UK units. Those are the IBA’s ingredients, which allow rye in place of bourbon. Only the sugar and bitters are muddled: no orange flesh, no cherry. The recipe predates the name. When a newspaper in Hudson, New York, defined the cocktail in 1806, it described spirits, sugar, water and bitters, a bittered sling. The name came later in the century, as bartenders added liqueurs to the format and drinkers who wanted it plain are said to have asked for one made the old-fashioned way.
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026