It would be difficult to find anyone who grew up in Bergen who doesn’t share the vivid memory of being at Tice Farms in Woodcliff Lake on a crisp fall morning – standing at the spigots holding a purchased-for-pennies, all-you-care-to-drink paper cup, enjoying their fill of the freshest possible cider made with apples from Tice’s nearby orchards. If you were lucky, and the timing right, there was also a bag of warm doughnuts, fresh from the fryer. Tice’s is long gone now, but fall is still apple time so what better reason could there be to devote this month’s column to those “spirits” derived from this pomaceous fruit of the apple tree; of the species Malus domestica, in the family Rosaceae (rose).

The first logical stop, naturally, is hard cider – something that definitely didn’t issue from Tice’s spigots – which has been produced and consumed in the United States since colonial times. Perhaps the oldest known American mixed drink is the “Stone-Wall,” according to Alice Morse Earl, a well-known writer from that era. The mixture of rum, cider and applejack dates from the early 1700s and was, reportedly, not for the faint-of-heart. The colonists were understandably wary of the often-unsafe drinking water of the time, and frequently served cider (hard and otherwise) at meals and recreation events. The hard stuff lasted longer, and was a staple of the colonial kitchen – used for making sauces, in fruitcakes and even for meat tenderizing.

To make it “hard,” cider today is carefully fermented – ideally at 40 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit – to produce a more refined and drinkable version. Green Mountain Beverage in Middlebury, Vt., is producing a number of surprisingly sophisticated varieties under their “Woodchuck Draft Ciders” label; another popular quality brand is Magners Irish Cider from Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland. Both companies produce beverages that are not overly sweet or gimmicky – a common problem. In alcohol content, they are “beer-like,” at around 5 percent, and can be very refreshing even during autumn.

“The appletini is very much alive and well, and a perennial favorite here,” says T.J. Insana, bartender at Morton’s in Hackensack. “It seems to appeal to everyone – men, women, older, younger; in fact, it’s probably our third most popular cocktail, after the traditional martini and the cosmo.”  Insana makes the “Morton’s Appletini” with Absolut Citron vodka, DuKuyper’s Sour Apple Pucker and fresh lime juice, rimming the glass with cinnamon sugar for what he calls the “apple pie effect.”

Then, there’s the good stuff. Fine apple brandies are produced all over the world, from France to Germany to Bulgaria to the U.S., where it is most closely associated with Laird & Company, producers of both blended applejack and aged 100-percent apple brandies. Calvados, produced in France’s Lower Normandy region, is viewed by many as among the finest made.

In any case, at their best, these spirits can be as refined – and every bit as satisfying – as a fine Cognac or an Armagnac, its grape-based cousin.

While an apple (drink)-a-day isn’t necessarily the recommendation, a brisk fall evening might be a great time to expand the horizons a bit – and maybe even toast Mr. Tice and the memory of his orchards.  n