While Jersey may be late to the craft-distilling party, it’s no stranger to spirits. The Garden State is the proud home of the country’s oldest distillery: Laird & Company, leading producer of applejack and apple brandy, headquartered in the Scobeyville section of Colts Neck.
Laird’s has survived the ultimate test of time. The company’s story dates to around 1698, when Scotsman William Laird settled in Monmouth County and began distilling the area’s most abundant crop (apples) to produce apple brandy, often referred to as applejack. The most popular drink of Colonial times, a young George Washington drank it, even requesting—and receiving—Laird’s recipe for “cyder spirits.”
In 1780, after the American Revolution, Laird’s received the new nation’s first distillery permit. Prohibition could have easily flattened Laird’s, as it did hundreds of other distilleries in the state, had the company not received a federal liquor license to distill apple brandy for medicinal purposes. Generations of the Laird family have carried the company several centuries.
Today, Laird’s sells a range of pure apple brandies, aged up to 12 years. But its biggest moneymaker is blended applejack, made with apple brandy and neutral grain spirits, a category Larrie Laird introduced in 1972 that went on to be embraced by bartenders during the craft-cocktail revival.
For almost 300 years, the art of producing Applejack has been passed down through succeeding generations of the Laird Family. Eighth-generation Larrie W. Laird is now president of Laird & Company and heads America’s oldest family of distillers.
According to lairdandcompany.com. Source of photos: internet
