Tis the season for celebrations and holiday parties with family and friends. As cooler temps descend upon our forthcoming gatherings—both indoors and out—warm things up a bit with liquid spirits. This collection of comfy cozy holiday cocktails will make your spirits bright!
These snuggly cocktails are from a delightful book released last year by Emily Vikre titled “Camp Cocktails: Easy, Fun, and Delicious Drinks for the Great Outdoors.” Her drink recipes span the seasons and outdoor adventures of camping, glamping or staying in a cabin.
Grilled Orange Cobbler
"In the late 1800s, cobbler was the most popular cocktail in the United States. A proper cobbler is built with crushed ice—the name cobbler is a reference to the ice, which was thought to look like cobblestones."
2 round slices of orange
1½ teaspoons sugar
6 ounces wine
Fruit for garnish, optional
Note: Use a dry or off-dry style of red, pink, or white wine, and adjust the sugar to suit.
While your grill is hot, place the orange slices on the grill. Allow them to cook undisturbed for about 3 minutes, until grill marks appear, then flip and grill about another 3 minutes until the second side also shows grill marks. Take the slices off the grill and let cool for about 10 minutes.
Put the orange slices in a cup, add the sugar, and gently press the sugar and fruit together to start dissolving the sugar in the juices. Add the wine and a generous scoop of crushed ice or small ice cubes. Use a spoon to churn the ingredients and the ice up and down in the glass for about 20 seconds. To make this a true cobbler, you should decorate the heck out of the top of your cup with pieces of fruit before serving.
Marshmallow Shot Glass
"Give your guests a special treat around the outdoor fire with edible toasted marshmallow shot glasses filled with your favorite liqueur or specialty drink. S'mores for adults only!"
Toast a marshmallow—regular and jumbo size—over your campfire until it is deeply golden brown. Be careful about two things: first, don’t stick your stick the whole way through the marshmallow; and second, do not set your marshmallow on fire. Gently scoot your marshmallow off the roasting stick onto a plate to cool completely. Make a s’more while you wait.
As the marshmallow cools, the center should cave in like a molten sugar crater. Fill the crater of your cooled marshmallow with the booze of your choice—I recommend something bracing, such as Fernet Branca—and shoot it quick before the marshmallow dissolves. Chase your shot by indecorously shoving the marshmallow in your mouth. You’re welcome.
Penicillin Toddy Cocktail
"The original Penicillin is shaken and served over ice, but the combination of ginger, honey, and lemon juice fairly screams hot toddy. The grain, spice, and smoke notes from the two types of Scotch settle in comfortably alongside the other flavors, like a cat curling snugly into the edge of a well-loved couch. "
2 1-inch rounds of ginger, about ¼-inch thick
¾ ounce honey
¾ ounce lemon juice
4 ounces boiling hot water
2 ounces blended Scotch (Famous Grouse, for example)
1 teaspoon Laphroaig 10-year Scotch
In a mug, combine the ginger slices, honey, and lemon juice, and muddle the ginger to press out some of the juice. When you muddle, firmly press down on the ginger to express the juices or aromatic oils from it, but you don’t want it to turn into a crime scene. Pour the boiling hot water into the mug. Allow it to steep for 5 minutes, then stir in the blended Scotch and the Laphroaig.
If desired, you can fish out the pieces of ginger. I take them out, because otherwise I know I’ll hit myself in the face with a piece of ginger and spill hot toddy all down my front.
Shetland Sweater Cocktail
"Cocktail for cooler weather while enjoying the great outdoors, especially since it's a perfect fit for your 8-ounce flask!"
3 ounces blended Scotch
1 ½ ounces Laird’s bonded applejack
1 ½ ounces Averna amaro
1 ½ ounces Amaro Nonino
1 ½ teaspoon maple syrup
1 dash orange bitters
1 ½ ounces water
Combine all ingredients, stir gently to combine, and pour or funnel all, or all that fits, into your carrying vessel.
Salted Hazelnut Hot Chocolate
"You can stir hazelnut chocolate spread into hot milk to make the most voluptuous hot chocolate you’ve ever encountered—an overstuffed cashmere pillow for your mouth, if you will. One of these by the campfire as a nightcap, and you’ll float away on a cloud of the sweetest dreams."
8 ounces milk
3 tablespoons hazelnut chocolate spread
1 generous pinch of salt
1½ ounces bourbon
marshmallows or whipped cream, for topping (optional)
In a small pot, heat the milk until it’s steaming, but not boiling. Add the hazelnut chocolate spread and salt to an empty mug. Add ½ to 1 ounce of your milk and whisk it with the hazelnut chocolate spread to thin the spread into a syrup. Stir in the rest of the hot milk. Add the bourbon. Top with marshmallows or whipped cream if you want to get crazy. Which you totally do.
To take your boozy hot chocolate to the next level, try adding a splash of amaro instead of bourbon. The chocolate-mint notes of Amaro Nardini in hot chocolate are downright magical. The candied orange flavor of Amaro Nonino is also a great fit.
Marshmallow Mule
"Making the marshmallow and ginger syrup does take a little doing, but it doesn’t require any fancy equipment or ingredients. The toasted marshmallows melted into the syrup give it a dark richness while loads of fresh ginger give it a kick."
For marshmallow and ginger syrup:
10 marshmallows
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
½ cup grated fresh ginger
For each cocktail:
1½ ounces vodka (or whiskey or rum)
1½ ounces marshmallow and ginger syrup
soda water
lime wedges
1 marshmallow, for garnish
To make the syrup: toast the marshmallows over dying embers until they are dark brown and melted inside. Put them into a heavy-bottomed pot and add the sugar and water. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar and the marshmallows. Once you reach a gentle boil, turn the heat down to a simmer and continue cooking and stirring until the marshmallows have dissolved.
Remove the syrup from the heat, stir in the ginger, and transfer to a heatproof container. Cover and allow to cool overnight. The next day, strain the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. The syrup will keep in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.
To make the cocktail: in a tall glass filled with ice, add the vodka and syrup. Top with soda water and gently stir. Squeeze in lime wedges to taste. Stick your garnish marshmallow onto a long toothpick. Light it on fire, blow it out, then stick the toothpick into the cocktail, marshmallow side out of the drink, to garnish.
The Best Irish Coffee
"Irish coffee is beautifully ephemeral. There’s something in the brief moment where the cool of the cream hits your lips just before the warm, boozy coffee enters the picture."
1 tablespoon demerara sugar (brown sugar also works)
1 2 to 3-inch strip of lemon peel with no white pith
1 ounce heavy cream
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
5 ounces piping hot, but not scalding hot, coffee
1½ ounces Irish whiskey
Note: use a vegetable peeler to peel the lemon strip so you have no white pith.
Combine the demerara sugar and lemon peel in an Irish coffee mug or a regular coffee mug, using a spoon to smash the lemon peel into the sugar a bit. Set this aside for about 5 minutes to let the sugar pull the citrus oils out of the peel.
Whip the heavy cream with the granulated sugar until it is thickened but still soft (I shake the cream in a sealed jar until it has thickened). Keep the whipped cream in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
Next, pour the coffee into the cup with the lemon peel and demerara, add the Irish whiskey, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Top with the whipped cream and enjoy.