Appletini
An Appletini is 45ml of vodka, 30ml of sour apple schnapps and 15ml of fresh lemon juice. Shake it hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds, double strain it into a chilled martini glass and rest a thin slice of apple on the rim. About 2.3 UK units. It is usually traced to Lola’s in West Hollywood in 1996, where a bartender named Adam is said to have made it as the Adam’s Apple Martini. It became one of the drinks that defined the flavoured martini years, and later a joke about them. Made with sour apple schnapps and fresh lemon and served very cold, it is a sour: tart green apple against lemon, with the vodka giving it strength. The versions that earned the jokes left out the lemon and arrived warm.
Glassware: Martini Glass
Garnish: Apple slice on the rim
Ingredients
45ml
A clean vodka at 40% ABV. It gives the drink its strength and carries the apple without adding a flavour of its own.
30ml
Sour apple schnapps, usually 15 to 21% ABV. It decides the drink: sour styles bring their own tartness, while sweeter ones need more lemon.
15ml
Squeezed the same day. It turns the schnapps from a sweet into a sour; with a sweeter schnapps, use 20ml.
Instructions
Chill a martini glass in the freezer.
Add the vodka, apple schnapps and lemon juice to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled glass.
Cut a thin slice of apple and rest it on the rim.
Our version
No original recipe from Lola’s has been published. Ours is built as a sour: 45ml of vodka, 30ml of sour apple schnapps and 15ml of fresh lemon, shaken and served very cold.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Taste the schnapps before you build. Sour apple styles are tart and balance with 15ml of lemon; sweeter apple schnapps need 20ml, or the drink turns to boiled sweets. Serve it very cold. Chill the glass in the freezer, shake hard for the full 10 to 12 seconds and pour at once. There is no ice in the glass, and a warm Appletini tastes of sugar and little else. Cut the apple slice at the last moment, or brush it with lemon juice, because it browns within minutes.
Behind the Appletini
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The Appletini is usually traced to Lola’s in West Hollywood in 1996, where a bartender named Adam is said to have created it as the Adam’s Apple Martini.
It spread with the flavoured martini fashion of the late 1990s and became one of its signature drinks, then a shorthand for an unserious order. Most of the jokes are about versions made without lemon.
The Schnapps Decides It
Apple schnapps varies more than most liqueurs. Sour apple styles are tart, built to taste of green apple, and balance against 15ml of lemon without further help.
Sweet apple styles have less acid and more sugar, and need 20ml of lemon to hold them. Taste the bottle on its own before building.
Matching the lemon to the schnapps, with 45ml of vodka
Sour apple (ours)
- Schnapps measure
- 30ml
- Lemon
- 15ml
- Result
- Tart and balanced
- UK units
- About 2.3
Sweet apple
- Schnapps measure
- 30ml
- Lemon
- 20ml
- Result
- Rounder; needs the extra lemon
- UK units
- About 2.3
Any, with no lemon
- Schnapps measure
- 30ml
- Lemon
- None
- Result
- Sweet and flat; the version the jokes are about
- UK units
- About 2.3
| Schnapps | Schnapps measure | Lemon | Result | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sour apple (ours) | 30ml | 15ml | Tart and balanced | About 2.3 |
| Sweet apple | 30ml | 20ml | Rounder; needs the extra lemon | About 2.3 |
| Any, with no lemon | 30ml | None | Sweet and flat; the version the jokes are about | About 2.3 |
A Sour in a Martini Glass
Strip the reputation away and the structure is spirit, fruit liqueur and fresh citrus, the same frame as the Sidecar and the Cosmopolitan.
What gave the drink its reputation was how it was often made: warm glasses, no lemon, free-poured schnapps. Built cold and balanced, it is a tart, bright sour.
Temperature
There is no ice in the glass and nothing bitter or aromatic in the drink, so temperature does much of the work.
Freeze the glass, shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, and pour at once. After five minutes it has warmed enough to taste mostly of sugar.
How to Serve It
Very cold, in a chilled martini glass, with a thin slice of apple cut at the last minute so it has not browned by the time it is drunk.
For vodka, lemon and sugar, make a Lemon Drop Martini; for cranberry and Cointreau, a Cosmopolitan.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Its legal minimum is 37.5% ABV, most bottles are 40%, and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in an Appletini?
Where does the Appletini come from?
Is an Appletini a real martini?
Can I make it less sweet?
Why does mine taste like sweets?
Why is an Appletini green?
How strong is an Appletini?
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Lemon Drop Martini
A Lemon Drop Martini is 30ml of vodka, 20ml of triple sec and 15ml of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe with sugar on half the rim, finished with a lemon twist. About 2.0 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s; the sugar rim and the twist are ours. Norman Jay Hobday is credited with it, at Henry Africa’s, the fern bar he opened in San Francisco’s Russian Hill in 1969. It dates from the 1970s, was most likely named after the boiled sweet, and spread quickly through the city’s bars. Despite the name it is not a Martini. Spirit, orange liqueur and lemon make it a sour of the Sidecar and White Lady kind. Triple sec is the only sweetener in the liquid, so the drink is sharp, and the sugar on the rim adds sweetness at the lip as you drink.
Cosmopolitan
A Cosmopolitan is 40ml of citrus vodka, 15ml of Cointreau, 15ml of fresh lime juice and 30ml of cranberry juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist. About 2.2 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. Who invented it is disputed. Gary Regan credited Cheryl Cook, a bartender at the Strand in South Beach, Miami, with a version in 1985 or 1986. The recipe that spread is usually credited to Toby Cecchini at the Odeon in New York, made with Absolut Citron, Cointreau, fresh lime and cranberry; accounts date it to 1988 or 1989. Under the colour it is a sour: vodka, orange liqueur and lime, with cranberry for tint and a little extra acid. Made with fresh lime and served very cold, it is tart and dry, a long way from the sweet pink drink of its reputation.
French Martini
A French Martini is 45ml of vodka, 15ml of raspberry liqueur and 15ml of fresh pineapple juice, shaken very hard with ice for 12 to 15 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, where the pineapple settles into a pale foam. No garnish. About 2.0 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. The longer shake is deliberate. Most shaken drinks want 10 to 12 seconds; this one wants a little more, because fresh pineapple juice foams when it is shaken hard and the foam is the finish. Carton juice gives far less. There is no citrus. Pineapple brings its own acidity, and the raspberry liqueur, usually Chambord, does all the sweetening. The drink is usually credited to one of Keith McNally’s New York bars in the late 1980s, and it is a Martini in name and glass only.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026