Warming Winter Cocktails
December is the time of classic ingredients like cinnamon, cloves, and winter fruit. We've picked out three of our favourite cocktail recipes that combine those to delicious ends, and to make something a little bit quirky.
The Bourbon One
With a mix of honey, cinnamon, cloves, and a bourbon base, this cocktail is perfect for the wintertime.
The Harvest Sparkle
Ingredients:
½ cup Honey
1 cup Orange Juice
¼ cup Ginger
¼ cup Cinnamon
Top up Prosecco
50ml Bourbon
1/8 cup Cloves
Recipe:
To make the cider honey syrup. In a small saucepan simple gently cook through the honey, giner, cinnamon, cloves and orange juice until it starts to bubble. Remove from the heat and let it cool. Note this recipe makes enough syrup for 10-12 cocktails.
Once cooled, add 1 and ½ tablespoons of the cider honey syrup and bourbon together in a mixing glass and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass before topping up with prosecco.
The Spicy One
Next, we offer you a special cocktail with an exciting twist, a combination of egg white and spiced pear. Sounds delicious, right?
Photo and recipe: http://www.olivemagazine.com/
Winter Spiced Pear Cocktail
Ingredients:
50ml gin
25ml lemon
25ml pear syrup
1 egg white
For the spiced pear syrup:
4 pears, cored and cubed
1 star anise, plus more to serve
1 stick cinnamon, broken in half
250g caster sugar
Recipe:
To make the spiced pear syrup, put the ingredients in a pan with 250ml water and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the flavours have infused. Leave to cool.
To make the cocktail, put all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker without ice and shake vigorously. Open the shaker, fill with ice and shake again, then strain into a chilled coupe. Place a star anise on the foam to serve.
The Mulled One
Want a new and interesting, warm winter drink to fall in love with, that's not mulled wine? This is it.
Image and recipe: http://www.growingspaces.net/
Mulled Sloe Gin
Ingredients:
450ml cranberry juice
450ml cloudy apple juice
75ml red grape juice
2 lemon slices
2 orange slices
3 cardamon pods
3 star anise fruits
3 cloves
2 sticks of cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp sugar (optional, can add more as desired)
1 shot of sloe gin
Recipe:
Put the cranberry, cloudy apple and grape juice into a saucepan together with the lemon and orange slices and all the spices. If you prefer a sweeter taste, add the sugar, too. Cover, and simmer on a low heat for at least 20 minutes.
Pour a shot of sloe gin into a glass, and then add around 200ml of your mulling liquid. For a non-alcoholic option, the mulled apple, cranberry and grape juice also works on its own, without the gin.
Finish with half a slice of lemon or orange.