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. Difford’s Guide says it was created on 4 July 1996 at Lola’s in West Hollywood, when the owner asked the bartender Adam Karston to mix Ketel One vodka with DeKuyper Pucker Sour Apple Liqueur, and that it began as the Adam’s Apple Martini. In our view 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; strengths vary by bottle and we work at 18%. 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
Difford’s Guide says the Lola’s original was equal parts Ketel One and Pucker sour apple liqueur with a splash of house-made sweet-and-sour mix. 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
Difford’s Guide says the Appletini was created on 4 July 1996 at Lola’s in West Hollywood, as the Adam’s Apple Martini, and quickly became hugely popular across North America.
In our view 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. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. 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?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Appletini (Sour Apple Martini)” (secondary source: created on 4 July 1996 at Lola’s, West Hollywood, by bartender Adam Karston for the owner Lola Dunsworth; equal parts Ketel One and DeKuyper Pucker Sour Apple Liqueur with a splash of sweet-and-sour mix; first the Adam’s Apple Martini).
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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. The Oxford Companion says it was invented in San Francisco by Norman Hobday, owner of Henry Africa’s, one of the genre-defining fern bars of the 1970s, and that the original was a more elegant drink than the vodka shot it later became, served up in a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass. 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. The Oxford Companion says the Cosmopolitan has a confused and contested history, that most claims lack supporting evidence, and that the recipe served worldwide was most likely formulated in 1988 by Toby Cecchini at the Odeon in New York, with Absolut Citron, Cointreau, fresh lime and cranberry, after a cruder San Francisco drink of the same name that the San Francisco Chronicle called “a Kamikaze with cranberry juice” in 1987. Cecchini told Punch the same year, 1988. 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. Difford’s Guide says it emerged in New York in the late 1980s and reached the menu of Keith McNally’s Pravda in 1996, and it is a Martini in name and glass only.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026