The Best Cocktails for All Your Winter Hosting Needs
For making spirits bright.
Thomas J. Story
Though the winter may not seem like a prime time for fresh ingredients, it brings its own set of delicious seasonal flavors to inspire and savor. These include cranberries, pomegranates, and citrus. Fortunately, these also make great additions to cocktails.
With the colder weather drawing people inside, the wintertime is the season for coming together. The holidays provide ample opportunities for merrymaking and enjoying the company of friends and family. If you’re looking for a fun and festive cocktail idea to include at your next gathering, check out the list below.
Sorcerer Wood
Smoky mezcal and an herby, fruity shrub make for a bracing and refreshing cocktail. The secret ingredient is that cranberry-rosemary shrub, a tangy concoction that you can use in cocktails or mix with soda.
Cranberry Tequila Punch
“Tequila is just as versatile as popular spirits like gin and vodka,” says Amanda Haas, former culinary director of Williams-Sonoma and author of The Anti-Inflammation Cookbook, who created this pretty punch.
The Lighted Tree
Reader and teacher Kristin Leong of Seattle came up with this drink during her bartending days. “The taste is bright and lush, like a forest lit with Christmas lights.” If you want a stronger pine taste, add a drop or two of pine liqueur–but it’s delightful just as it is.
Pom and Circumstance
“This cocktail was invented simply because I had leftover cranberry-orange relish from hosting Thanksgiving,” says reader Trilby Parker of Redwood City, California. You can also use a combination of orange zest and store-bought cranberry sauce, as we’ve done here.
Warm Tequila Punch
This fruity punch works for any holiday party. Cookbook author Marcela Valladolid and her aunts sip this as they make tamales—along with straight nips of Valladolid’s own añejo (aged) tequila, Hacienda de la Flor, which she makes with her brother Antonio. This recipe is adapted from one in Valladolid’s cookbook Mexican Made Easy.
Christmas Cocktail
Says interior designer and host extraordinaire Martyn Lawrence Bullard: “The Christmas Cocktail is a tangerine and cranberry–infused cocktail that’s spiced up with a healthy pour of your favorite vodka and a nice splash of Cointreau orange liqueur. The mixture is shaken in a cocktail shaker and poured over an ice-cubed glass. I like to add fruit into my ice cubes, using large-sized ice trays or molds and adding raspberries and cranberries to the water before it freezes. These become not only decorative and surprising but also add to the cool vibe of the drink whilst chilling it just enough. Garnish with a tangerine slice, a raspberry, or large cranberry on a cocktail skewer, and a little cinnamon stick on the side to add festive spice to the whole experience. Voila! Christmas in a glass! Cheers.”
