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Creating a signature holiday drink list means understanding many kinds of cocktails, finding suitable flavors for the occasion, as well as testing and tasting. From there, you’ll need to present and garnish drinks with a flourish as you design drinks to accommodate dietary needs and pair with seasonal foods.
Typically, holiday drinks are mixed drinks with the distinct flavor of a base liquor or alcohol (or even holiday wines) alongside other cocktail ingredients used to garnish and enhance. Watch out for the tricky flavor profiles of eggnog, apple, cranberry, ginger, and caramel as you work out your particular menu of splashy selections.
Here you’ll find some advice on how to develop, taste, and test different holiday drink recipes as you make large-batches for the holiday crowd. You’ll find that garnishes and presentation go a long way to add creativity through sugar-coated fruits or candy-coated rims.
Read on to learn more about creating signature holiday drinks for your next seasonal party or get together.
Key Takeaway: Signature holiday cocktails bring classic winter flavors to enhance staple base liquor and entice the holiday spirit out with cheer and merry mixes.
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What to Know: Types of Signature Holiday Drinks
Signature holiday cocktails are usually made with a distilled liquor as the base, foundational ingredient. Then, mixed with other ingredients or garnishes, the holiday classic is made.
Some common, but now less inspired, holiday favorites include the Old Fashioned, Classic Daiquiri, and Gin Fizz. Each of these drinks are sure to please even the choosiest crowd.
Take a look at the commonplace composition of these signature holiday drinks to get an idea of where you can put your own twist on cocktail classics:
Old Fashioned Cocktail
- Whiskey, sugar, water, and bitters
- Rum, simply syrup, lime, strawberries or lime soda, and ice
Gin Fizz Cocktail
- Gin, lemon juice, sugar, carbonated water
Selecting Holiday Flavors for Signature Drink Recipes
When it comes to making signature holiday cocktails, it’s important to keep popular holiday flavors in mind. Beyond creating cocktails for classic eggnog, you can also include apple and butterscotch as a base.
For instance, one option is the caramel apple martini. In this fresh take on a classic cocktail, you can combine the sweet and tart flavors of the apple with a caramelized touch of butterscotch schnapps.
Another best-practice mixture would be to include the profile of the cranberry as a popular, well-loved flavor. Here, you can create festive, seasonal drinks like the Poinsettia Champagne Cocktail through adding cranberries to the classic champagne-based recipe.
Even more, through the mix of gingerbread, chocolate, and holiday punch, you can choose to brew many large-scale crafts for your next festive party by bringing in different holiday juices and flavors into dreamy punches based on tasteless vodka.
Signature Holiday Cocktail Drinks: Ingredient Lists
Some things to keep in mind as you try to incorporate different flavors and bases into your signature holiday cocktails is the great array of possibilities. For instance, there is a lot of history to draw upon as you combine apple ciders with tart cranberry or apple with pineapple and spices like cinnamon or cloves.
One popular English take on winter classics includes “English Punch” which combines many different spirits into a citrus-based punch for the party. Bring together rum, aged wine, and tea with different tangerines and oranges or grapefruit to create this smash hit.
Alternatively, you can combine honey and ginger with pomegranate, bourbon, citrus, vanilla, and ginger beer to create a “Santa Smash.” Truthfully, there are many ways to bring together the flavors of the season in order to create the ideal winter or holiday signature cocktail.
In short, you will want to keep the following kinds of flavors on hand as you experiment with different kinds of drinks to satisfy your signature holiday cocktail needs:
- Vanilla
- Chocolate
- Cinnamon
- Cloves
- Vodka
- Gin
- Rum
- Grapefruit
- Lime
- Orange
- Tangerine
- Pineapple
- Cranberry
- Caramel
- Brandy
- Champagne
- And more…
Testing and Tasting Recipes for Signature Holiday Cocktails
When preparing your signature holiday cocktails, you’ll want to ensure that traditional holiday flavors are the run-through. Try to test what you can conveniently make for a large-scale crowd while maintaining the quality of the brew.
To do this, don’t forget to taste what you make to ensure that it brings together the spirit of the season through whatever you choose. Whether it’s a combination of egg nog, mulled wine, or rum-spiced hot chocolate, try to make the base of the drink speak to the larger statement through delicate notes of fruit and sweetness. And if there is anything that calls for added sweetness, sugar substitutes are always ideal for drinks with fewer calories.
To create a rich tapestry of taste through your signature holiday cocktails, test these recipes to ensure they evoke the depth of the holiday spirit. If you’re brewing a cranberry martini, try enhancing it with a bit of homemade ginger syrup.
Or, if you’re going for a Poinsettia Punch, bring the vibrant cranberry notes to the top with a splash of champagne in the mix. All the festive flavors should work together to bring out a holiday trifecta of taste, richness, and merriment for all.
Presentation and Garnish: Signature Holiday Cocktails
The garnish and panache of your signature holiday cocktails should winterize the whole effect of your drink list. To enhance the appeal of your cocktails, consider adding a visual cue through wine glasses or fresh fruit to add color and freshness as a garnishment during presentation.
For instance, keeping cherries, berries, or citrus on hand can bring the glass and ice to the next level while bringing up the presentation of things to a delightful new height.
As you strive to make your drinks more sophisticated and enticing, you can manipulate herbs like thyme or clove and cinnamon to add a touch of authenticity as well.
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Frequently Asked Questions on Signature Holiday Cocktails
Answer the most common holiday cocktail questions with this simple and straightforward collection of FAQs from those creating holiday drinks for the first time.
What is the most holiday-like drink?
For the most part, egg nog is the most recognizable of holiday drinks that remains popular during the fall and winter season. At the same time, spiced and buttered rum remains a signature, as do peppermint-infused drink mixes.
What alcohol is best for the holidays?
People use gin, mulled wine, and all kinds of spirits during the holidays to craft signature holiday cocktails. But, mulled wine remains one of the more internally festive because of its use of spices.
This red wine can be made with cloves and cinnamon which give it a classic, winterized kick. There is also the chance that it brings in notes of raisins and vanilla or almond as notes.
What do you drink at holiday parties?
There are many options for drinks at holiday parties, but some of the more common and popular choices are:
- Cranberry-based Collins
- Sparkling Sangria with Spices
- Cinnamon-heavy Egg Nog
- Rum-centric Apple Cider Cocktails
- Apple-based Bourbon Mixes
- French 75s (Champagne Cocktails)