Apple juice with elderflower

Kohl Cuvée Apple Juice with Elderflower, the taste of summer

A touch of elderflower extract is all it takes to transform the naturally cloudy mountain apple juice from Ritten: Kohl Cuvée Apple Juice with Elderflower is floral, delicately fresh, and multi-layered. Awarded 20 out of 20 points at the 2019 "Mostbarkeiten" competition, the highest score of the entire event.

Apple Juice with Elderflower is a cuvée from Thomas Kohl in South Tyrol: Just a hint of elderflower extract enchants the mountain apple juice, turning it into a fragrant, refreshing juice creation. It glows straw-yellow in its elegant bottle, releases a floral and delicately fresh aroma from the glass, and offers a multi-layered refreshment to the palate – this is what summer tastes like.

The elderflower is subtle: it lays a floral veil over the sweetness of the mountain apple, making it more fragrant, lighter, and more invigorating. Floral, delicately fresh, multi-layered – the apple remains clearly identifiable in the glass, with the blossom merely layering over it. Anyone who has walked past a blooming elderberry bush in June knows what this juice speaks of: warm air, white clusters, and that honey-sweet scent that lingers over the hedges for a few weeks.

With grilled fish, mussels, and strawberry cake

The apple juice with elderflower is suitable as an aperitif, accompanies grilled vegetables and fish, pasta with mussels or crustaceans, and creamy desserts.

It pairs well with light dishes, both savory and sweet. It goes perfectly with plaice and new potatoes, and with strawberry cake, the floral note picks up exactly what the strawberry itself only hints at. You hardly need anything else in the fridge for a summer garden party. And if your guests are looking for something non-alcoholic with plenty of aroma, a cold bottle is already waiting.

Twenty out of twenty points

At the 2019 Alps-Adriatic "Mostbarkeiten" tasting in Carinthia, the mountain apple juice with elderflower received the highest possible rating: 20 out of 20 points and Gold.

At that time, nearly 1,600 products from 300 producers across 5 countries were presented to a 25-member expert jury, whose judgment Kohl lists on their blog. It is the highest rating ever given to a Kohl juice at this tasting: the single-varietal Pinova followed with 19 points and took the national victory for Italy. That a blossom of all things would propel the apple to the top is something one would rarely have predicted. That a blossom of all things would propel the apple to the top was hardly expected.

The art of achieving much with little

For the extract, elderflowers are processed while they carry their full aroma – they are picked during that short window when the clusters are wide open. And it takes surprisingly little of it to define the entire juice.

The more sparingly the extract is dosed, the more clearly the apple remains identifiable, and the more elegantly the blossom layers over it. This is refining as Thomas understands it: the blossom is meant to adorn the apple, not mask it. The mountain apple grows at almost 1,000 meters above sea level around the Troidner Hof, where cool nights preserve the acidity that the blossom needs to be carried.

Only fully ripened fruit is picked and pressed; afterwards, gentle pasteurization is the only thing that makes the juice shelf-stable. The European Vegetarian Union seal certifies it as vegan.

The floral scent opens up the most

Served at 8 to 10 degrees in a stemmed glass, the floral scent opens up the most – just like with wine. Once opened, it keeps for 6 days in the fridge; closed, cool, and in the dark, the bottle waits for its moment for a year. The Apple Juice with Apple Mint has a slightly mintier character – you can check it out in the Kohl Cuvées collection, where the entire range is available.