The first recorded reference to apple cider was made by roman troops invading Britain in 55 B.C. Julius Caesar found out that the local celts were fermenting the local crab apple to make a alcoholic beverage.
Now what if they went one step further and invente hard liquor (applejack).Freeze distillation is a low-infrastructure method of production compared to evaporative distillation. Apples and applejack have historically been easy to produce in small quantities. Hard apple cider was an important drink in the colonial and early years of the United States, particularly in areas without access to clean water, but was often considered insufficiently palatable and bulky to store.
Rather than consume an alcoholic fruit beer, the cider harvested in the fall was often separated in the winter via freeze distillation, by leaving it outside and periodically removing the frozen chunks of ice, thus concentrating the unfrozen alcohol in the remaining liquid. From the fermented juice, with an alcohol content of less than 10%, the concentrated result contains 30-40% alcohol.It is slightly sweet and usually tastes and smells of apples.
Sources:
wikipedia - Applejack
Cider, Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own (Third Edition) by Ben Watson