5 Cocktails to Add to Your Libation Menu This Season

The trees are up, the stockings and garland are hung and your customers are buzzing about holiday plans and festive feasts. With everything else decorated with care for Christmas season, why not switch up your cocktails too? All recipes make one delicious drink and for the more daring we added a recipe to please a party of four.

Here are five crafty cocktails sure to warm-up your spirits and light up the eyes of your customers.

 

1. Bitter Beauty

Josh Groom, founder of SetTheBar.Ca, and is considered a student for life in his desire to continually learn as a bartender, sommelier, mixologist, chef and culinary instructor. His wide range of experiences include acting as seminar host for Canada’s Art of the Cocktail, On Premise Portfolio for Groupe Camus and Domaine Pinnacle, Global Brand Ambassador for Ungava, the Canadian premium gin and a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Paris/Ottawa. Follow @setthebar on Instagram.

Ingredients:

1 oz Spiced Rum

½ oz Fernet-Branca

½ oz Luxardo Maraschino

1 orange zest

Directions:                                         

1. Load ingredients into mixing bowl.
2. Stir with one scoop of ice.
3. Hawthorne strain into glassware.
4. Garnish with orange peel.

2. The Pamplemousse Royale

Spirited LA’s, Hannah Chamberlain presents for you the Pamplemousse Royal, a concoction of dry gin, Campari, sparkling rosé brut and ginger liqueur. Hannah has made her mark by in the cocktail work by curating original libations, championing alcohol culture, and the best spots to drink in LA. Follow @spiritedLA on Instagram.

Ingredients:

½ oz Four Pillars Gin

½ oz Campari

½ oz Domaine de Canton

4 oz sparkling rosé brut

Directions:

1. Insert a grapefruit slice fully into a champagne flute.
2. Stir the gin, Campari, Domaine de Canton, and sparkling rosé with ice & strain into the prepared champagne flute.

3. Blue Martini

A tipsy twist on the classic cocktail, the Blue Martini is the perfect addition to your holiday drink list. Shaken, not stirred, with gin (vodka) and vermouth, top it off with rosemary skewered Blue Cheese Tipsy Olives for palate-loved perfection.  Follow @sableandrosenfeld on Instagram.

Ingredients:

2.5 oz gin (or vodka)

½ oz dry vermouth

1 rosemary sprig

3 Sable & Rosenfeld Blue Cheese Tipsy Olives 

Directions:

1. Pre-chill glass.
2. Strip leaves from bottom 2 inches of rosemary sprig & skewer the 3 Blue Cheese Olives onto it.
3. Fill martini shaker with ice cubes. Pour in gin (or vodka) & vermouth. Shake.
4. Strain into glass & garnish with rosemary skewered Blue Cheese Tipsy Olives.

4. I Love Pimm’s Cup

Nick Britsky is a Detroit cocktail enthusiast, active US Bartender’s Guild member and runs NickDrinks.com. He creates content for various media outlets including; Thrillist, Detroit Hour Magazine, Food Network, Travel Channel and Eater. Follow @nbritsky on Instagram.

Ingredients:

2 oz Pimm’s Liqueur

½ oz dry gin

¹/₈ oz lemon juice

¹/₈  oz simple syrup

1 egg white

Directions:

1. Dry shake everything and repeat with ice.
2. Strain into coupe & top with fine ground freeze dried strawberries. Use a stencil to get shapes on top of the foam

 5. Coconut Foam Piña Colada

Baltimore-based Enrique Limardo is a seasoned world traveller with experience in international culinary arts. Having spent his learning years in Caracas, Venezuela and San Pol de Mar, Spain, Enrique is ready to lead the globalization of taste to his cooking and cocktails wherever he goes, thus the creation of the Coconut Foam Piña Colada. Follow @enriquelimardo on Instagram.

Ingredients:

9 oz white rum

20 drops vanilla aromatic bitter

8 drops coffee and cocoa bitter

12 oz pineapple beer

¾ cup pineapple juice

1 oz coconut water

²/₃ cup white sugar

20 drops McCormick Culinary Vanilla Extract, Pure

 

Coconut Foam

1¾ cups Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk

¾ cup condensed milk

¾ cup coconut cream

1 cup frozen coconut pulp

5 gelatin sheets (previously soaked in ice water)

3 chargers (for siphon)

 

Raw Sugar Cane Syrup

1¼ cups water

3 cups raw sugar cane

Decoration

4 tsps kosher salt

Tajín or chile de árbo, to taste

Green matcha tea, to taste

Directions:

For the cocktail:

1. Mix everything in a jar and let it rest in a cooler overnight.

For the coconut foam:

1. Mix in a pot at low heat (coconut milk, condensed milk, coconut cream, frozen coconut pulp).
2. While stirring, add the gelatin sheets and mix well, then blend, strain and pour into the siphon.
3. Close the siphon, add the chargers and let it rest in a cooler overnight.

For the raw sugar cane syrup:

1. Melt in a pot at medium temperature until nice and clear consistency.
2. Preserve in the cooler for 1 hour or until cool and then put into the squeeze bottle.

For the final preparation:

1. Put the foam into the shaker (½ of the shaker) and add pineapple juice and ice as needed.
2. Shake very well and pour into the cocktail glass.

For the decoration:

1. Add the raw sugar cane syrup and tajín or chile de árbol to the edge of the glass.
2. Add a pinch of salt and green matcha tea on top of the cocktail.