Spiced Apple Cocktail

You can always adjust the amounts to suit your own taste preferences. I use an apple brandy with a somewhat lower alcohol content, but with a nice apple taste. 

 

Ingredients (for 2 servings in tall glasses with some ice):

4 ounces apple brandy

1 1/2 cups apple cider (or apple juice)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (or mace)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 to 2 teaspoons sugar (depends upon the sweetness of the cider)

apple slices (with lemon juice sprinkled on if you're not adding the slices right away)

While you can make this without first heating the cider, spices and sugar, it's better when you add those ingredients to a pan and heat them over low heat, stirring often until the sugar dissolves completely (DO NOT BOIL). The heat helps to easily dissolve the sugar and it also helps to release the flavors of the spices. Let the mixture cool, then put some ice cubes into a tall glass, add the apple brandy, fill with the cider mixture and stir well. You can peel, core and slice an apple, if you'd like to add it to the cocktail.

 

 With some apple pieces ...

 WORD HISTORY:

Kern (2)-English has another word of this spelling.^ This is the noun used in printing, more specifically in type setting, and meaning "a letter or a metal letter piece of type that extends into the space of another letter." The origin of this word is unclear, but it may well go back to an Indo European form like "ker-thn," and with the notion of, "turn, swivel," although this is far from definite. It seems to be related to various words from Indo European, including from Germanic (the parent language of English), like Old Icelandic "hjarri," Old English "heorr/heorra," and Old High German "scerdo," all of which meant "hinge (of a door or gate)." It goes back to the Latin noun "cardinem," the principle meaning of which was "axis, pivot;" thus also, "hinge." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "charn," with the same general meanings, and this was rendered as "carne" in Old North French (Norman) and meaning, "angle, corner." English borrowed the word in the 1680s with the meaning, "a letter or a metal letter piece of type that extends into the space of another letter" ("a letter that projects or angles into another letter's space").

^ For the history of the other English word "kern," here is the link to the article with that "Word History:" https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/09/summer-fruit-salad.html