Southside Sips: Fresno’s Apple Cider Mezcalita

To paraphrase the character Fred Gailey at the end of “Miracle on 34th Street,” maybe we aren’t doing such a wonderful thing after all, patting ourselves on the back for noticing Fresno beverage director Quinton Burke’s lovely Apple Cider Mezcalita cocktail.

When you think about apples, you probably think about some of our local apple-happy farms, like Milk Pail or Hank’s Pumpkintown. Or maybe you think about apple picking excursions upstate New York, or maybe you even conjure up images of Washington State, which grows 60% of the country’s apples. Yowza!

But did you know (because we sure didn’t) that Mexico has a fairly fertile relationship to apple growing? Although the fruit isn’t native to the country — it, along with less nice things, were brought by colonists from Spain who showed up for unfettered land and resource grabbing back in the 1500s — it accounts for about 3% of Mexico’s total fruit production, according to “Mexico News Daily.” And, like coffee, apples here tend to thrive in higher altitudes and are grown in more than a dozen nationally defined apple-growing areas there. Who knew?

Well, apparently, lots of people — like Burke, in all likelihood. Regardless of whether the inspiration came from agricultural knowledge or just palate-pleasing smarts, we are apple-happy about sipping on it this weekend: The smokiness of mezcal and the seasonal sweetness of fresh cider is an excellent combo. We’ll be using Milk Pail’s gorgeous fresh cider to make this autumnal margarita riff, but of course pick your own fave — just stick to that tenet of good-cocktail making. Fresh ingredients, please!