Christmas Cocktails for a crowd?
Christmas Cocktails for a crowd?
Trying to get ahead of the game, I’ve got six people staying with me for a week this holiday season and I would love to make a kind of batch cocktail. I’ve made egg nog in the past and loved it, but I’ve got two avid egg nog haters and one gluten free dietary restriction. Is there anything I can make that is generally well liked but still fun? I like decorating my drinks and making them all fancy. I mostly drink whiskey based cocktails, but I also enjoy every kind of cocktail that doesn’t have gin.
I'm a big fan of hot drinks during the holidays. Hot toddies and mulled wine are both good, but my favorite is mulled apple cider with bourbon.
I use a couple cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, thrown in a pot with about a 1/2 gallon of cider and heated without boiling for about an hour. Served in a mug with 1-2 oz of bourbon or other whiskey and garnished with apple and/or orange slices, plus half a cinnamon stick if you're feeling fancy!
Gløgg is the go-to Christmas drink in my country. Not exactly a cocktail, but I figured I'd mention it, since you talked about previously making eggnog.
Oh my god, I’ve had this before!! A friend of a friend had it at a party and I never got the name for the recipe but it was so tasty. This is awesome, thanks!!
My mom made something like this but called it wassail.
Here's one of my own (its a minor variation on this; https://youtu.be/nEQjcLZ-DaE?si=Ug4CMykM_RDjPdTa)
I call my variation a Northern Soul.
- 1.5oz rye whisky (I reccomend the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye)
- 0.5oz Cointreau
- 0.25oz Maple Syrup
- 1oz Half and Half Cream
Shake over ice, strain into a chilled coupe. Dust the top with burnt cinammon (take a pinch of cinammon between your fingers, sprinkle it through the flame of a blowtorch and onto the surface of the drink. You can also use a match or taper as long as you're careful not to get ash in the drink, and this can be done in front of the guest for added showmanship). Optionally, express an orange peel and rub it on the rim, to really amp up those orange notes.
This gives you the Christmassy feel of ice cream and cinammon, but without the heaviness of egg nog. The half and half sounds like a lot, but with the dilution from the ice it becomes more like drinking chilled milk, and orange brightens up the taste and keeps it from being over bearingly sweet. Well, in my opinion anyway, but obviously I'm biased.
This sounds awesome! Especially love the maple syrup and burnt cinnamon, I’d never have thought to try burning the cinnamon. Does it make it stronger?
No, the cinammon taste will be softer (cooked out) but it will be have some smoke and burnt notes that will give the guest the v feeling that they're drinking it next to a roaring fire.
This sounds fun, will keep it in mind!
A hot toddy is a good winter drink, there are various recipes but the main thrust is whisky, honey, hot water and winter spices. Maybe some lemon and herbs.
Snowballs are popular for some reason, advocaat and sparkling lemonade. Probably no good if you don't like nog.
The white russian is probably a good move if you want something rich but don't like eggnog.
There are all kinds of punch suitable for winter, sloe gin (even if you don't like gin, sloe gin is a different beast) is a good move, other hedgerow fruits, cider and or a sweet, fruity red wine.
Mulled wine is always a good move for large groups.
A big batch of hot toddy or mulled wine can be made ahead and then kept warm in a slow cooker for long evenings. I did that with hot toddy once, floated lemon slices in it and got lots of accolades from my family.
I do make fancy cocktails for Thanksgiving but Christmas is more wine or bourbon here.
Strongly agree with coquito, yum. Cranberry stuff seems Christmasy, my mom used to make (besides the wassail) a sparkling cranberry vodka punch. It's funny I never really thought of her as a cook, or much of a drinker but she did make punch or sangria for holidays.
Tepache is also a nice Christmas drink, pineapple cinnamon.
Whiskey and amaretto, strong but that seems a nice holiday flavor, a Godfather or similar might be a good one to pop in the freezer.
Does the pineapple in tepache get cooked? Or is there a way to cook it? I’m allergic to raw pineapple, but the allergy is manageable if it’s cooked.
No, the recipe is in the non-alcoholic pinned thread (it's about as alcoholic as kombucha) but it's fermented and sort of pineapple-adjacent, there's no actual fruit in the finished product, I don't know if that would also inactivate what bothers you.
Oh my gosh that reminds me - the Golden Crown by Katherine Bouchel is soooo good too, that uses roasted pineapple syrup, whiskey, mezcal, and chartreuse. Probably too fancy for a batch cocktail but the syrup would be a good way to use the pineapple if you do make tepache and can't eat the fruit raw; tepache just uses the peels.
If you like egg nog and want to try something kind of similar, try Coquito. It's spiced coconut cream and rum. It's got a similar texture without any eggs and a lot of those holiday spices. Here's a recipe. It can be batched up and stored for a week or two in the fridge.
The other one I like is Amaro Caldo. It's just hot water and your favorite amaro. I prefer to use tea instead of plain water. A black tea plus an ounce or two of Montenegro is really tasty.
Oh, sweet! I do really love egg nog, so I’ll have to test this one out even if it’s just for me. I’m not familiar with Amaro though, what’s it like?
Amaro is a very loose category of liqueurs. It's spirits and/or wine infused with a variety of herbs and other flavors. It's bitter and often very sweet at the same time, with a complex mix of other flavors. There really is so much variety it's hard to narrow down, but a couple personal favorites are Cynar (very bitter), Montenegro (kind of sweet), and Amaro Nonino (well balanced).
Amaros are liqueurs, always sweet and usually bitter. Tuaca is the one we call "the winter Aperol" in my house.
My wife makes coquito every year. It's coconut milk and enough booze that if you have a safe recipe, keeps forever refrigerated. We hand some jars out as gifts and people who come over the house sample this batch next to last year's.
My bf makes these for his family during Christmas.
https://ournourishingtable.com/festive-cranberry-rosemary-cocktail/
It translates into a batch cocktail very well and if you're willing to put in the effort to garnish as shown, it's a really quite pretty glass.
Midwest holiday staple: https://midwestniceblog.com/brandy-slush-recipe-wisconsin/
It sounds weird, but I promise it's great.