It was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, notably appearing in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 classic, The Sun Also Rises, in which Jake Barnes, the narrator, drinks a Jack Rose in the bar of the Hôtel de Crillon while awaiting the arrival of Lady Brett Ashley.

A 1905 article in the National Police Gazette mentions the drink and credits a New Jersey bartender named Frank J.

[2] A 1913 news article mentions that sales of the drink had suffered due to the involvement of Baldy Jack Rose in the Rosenthal murder case.

[5] Albert Stevens Crockett states that it is named after the pink "Jacquemot" (also known as Jacqueminot or Jacque) rose.

Laird & Company, producers of the most widely available brands of applejack in the United States, said in 2015 that sales were up in part due to renewed interest in the cocktail.