There’s a two-week stretch every October where the weather finally turns, the apple cider shows up at the grocery store, and nobody wants a gin drink anymore. This is what we make. Bourbon, apple cider, a squeeze of lemon, and ginger beer over ice — four ingredients, no shaker, no muddling, built straight in the glass in about ninety seconds.
Autumn in a Cup is made with 2 oz bourbon, 2 oz apple cider, 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice and 3 oz ginger beer, built over ice in a highball glass. Two dashes of aromatic bitters at the end if you’ve got them. That’s the whole thing.
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Autumn in a Cup
Equipment
- Highball glass We love these fluted highballs. They double as beautiful water glasses, too.
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon
- 2 oz apple cider
- ½ oz fresh lemon juice
- 3 oz ginger beer
- 2 dashes aromatic bitters
- Ice
Instructions
- Fill a highball glass to the top with ice.
- Add the bourbon, apple cider and lemon juice.
- Top with the ginger beer, pouring it down the side of the glass to keep more of the fizz.
- Add the bitters if you're using them, then stir once gently from the bottom up.
- Garnish with a thin apple slice or a cinnamon stick if you like.
Notes
What kind of drink is this, exactly?
Let’s be straight about it: this is an apple cider mule. A mule is any spirit plus citrus plus ginger beer, and that’s exactly what’s happening here — bourbon standing in for vodka, apple cider doing the heavy lifting on flavor, lemon keeping it from going flabby.
If you’ve had a Kentucky Mule, you’re close. That’s bourbon, lime and ginger beer. Swap the lime for lemon, add a healthy pour of apple cider, and you’ve landed here. We call it Autumn in a Cup because that’s what it tastes like, but if you want to order something like it at a bar, “bourbon, apple cider and ginger beer” will get you there.
How to make it
The order matters a little. Build it in this sequence and you won’t need to stir much:
- Fill the glass with ice first. All the way up. A half-empty glass of ice means a warm, watery drink by the third sip.
- Bourbon, cider, lemon. Straight into the glass, no shaker required.
- Ginger beer last. Pour it down the side of the glass rather than straight down the middle — you’ll keep more of the fizz.
- Bitters on top, if using. Two dashes. Then one slow stir from the bottom up, and stop.
Tips for the best version of this
- Use real apple cider, not apple juice. Cider is cloudy, unfiltered and tastes like apples; juice is clear, filtered and tastes like sugar. This drink lives or dies on that difference.
- Ginger beer, not ginger ale. Ginger ale is a soft drink. Ginger beer is brewed and actually spicy, and that heat is what keeps the cider from reading as dessert. Fever-Tree and Q are both reliable; the spicier the better here.
- Fresh lemon only. It’s half an ounce, but it’s the only acid in the glass. Bottled juice tastes like bottled juice.
- Don’t overthink the bourbon. Anything you’d drink on its own is fine, and an expensive bottle is wasted under this much cider and ginger. A softer, wheated bourbon leans sweeter; a higher-rye one gives you more spice to play against the apple.
- The bitters aren’t really optional. They’re listed as optional because the drink works without them, but two dashes of Angostura pull the whole thing together.
- Garnish if you feel like it. A thin apple slice or a cinnamon stick both work. Neither changes the taste much, but one of them is going on Instagram.
Making it for Thanksgiving (or any crowd)
This is the rare cocktail that genuinely scales, because there’s no shaking and nothing to measure once it’s batched. For eight people, stir together 16 oz bourbon, 16 oz apple cider and 4 oz lemon juice in a pitcher and refrigerate it — that part can be done the day before.
When people arrive, fill glasses with ice, pour about 4.5 oz of the base into each, and top with 3 oz of ginger beer. Never add the ginger beer to the pitcher — it’ll be flat within the hour, and a flat mule is a sad thing.
If you’re hosting and you want one fewer decision to make, this is the drink. It reads as effortful without being any effort, and it goes with every single thing on a Thanksgiving table.
Variations
- Spiced version: Drop a cinnamon stick and two star anise into the cider and warm it gently for ten minutes, then cool completely before using.
- Smoky version: Swap half the bourbon for a peated Scotch or a mezcal. Strange on paper, excellent in the glass.
- Rye instead of bourbon: Drier and peppier, less sweet. If you find the original a touch much, this is the fix.
- Zero-proof: Skip the bourbon, add another ounce of cider and a splash more lemon. The ginger beer does enough work that it doesn’t feel like you’re missing out.
Autumn in a Cup FAQ
What’s the difference between apple cider and apple juice?
Apple cider is raw, unfiltered pressed apple — cloudy, tart, with actual apple flavor. Apple juice is filtered and usually sweetened, which makes it clearer and flatter-tasting. For this drink you want cider. If you only have juice, cut back on it and add a little more lemon to compensate. Worth noting for anyone reading outside the US: “cider” here means the non-alcoholic kind.
Can I use ginger ale instead of ginger beer?
You can, but it’s a different drink. Ginger ale is sweet and mild, so you’ll lose the spicy edge that balances the cider and end up with something closer to a soda. If ginger ale is what you have, add an extra squeeze of lemon to claw back some sharpness.
What’s the best bourbon for an apple cider cocktail?
A mid-shelf bourbon you’d happily drink neat. Save the good stuff — there’s two ounces of cider and three of ginger beer in here, and nothing subtle is surviving that. A high-rye bourbon gives you pepper against the apple; a wheated one goes rounder and sweeter.
How strong is this drink?
Lighter than it sounds. Two ounces of bourbon in roughly seven and a half ounces of liquid works out to around 10 to 11 percent before the ice starts melting — so somewhere in the neighborhood of a strong glass of wine, not a martini.
Can I make it ahead?
The bourbon, cider and lemon can be mixed and refrigerated up to a day ahead. The ginger beer goes in at the last second, always.
Is this the same as an apple cider mule?
Yes, essentially. A mule is spirit plus citrus plus ginger beer, and this is bourbon plus lemon plus ginger beer with apple cider added. Call it whatever you like — we call it Autumn in a Cup because that’s how it tastes in October.
One more thing
Make the first one exactly as written. Then adjust — more lemon if you like things sharp, less cider if you want the bourbon forward, extra bitters if you’re the kind of person who always wants extra bitters. It’s a forgiving drink. That’s most of why we keep making it.
Cheers. 🍂
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