It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas: Part One

Well hello drinkers far and wide!! It has been a good few months, but rest assured your (least) favourite imbiber is back on track to provide you with reading material suitable for, well, nothing!

First off, Merry Christmas!  ‘Tis the season to be jolly, to be merry, to drink plenty and blame it on the traditional yearly excuse of “sod it, it’s Christmas”.  I assume your work parties have come to a hazy end so now you can begin to drink at home.  So here, to make up for the radio silence for the last few months, are a selection of Christmas (and dessert like) drinks for you to make and enjoy at home.  So let’s get to it!

Christmas Margarita

One and a half measures of Tequila and cranberry juice, with half a measure each of lime juice and Grand Marnier garnished with an orange peel.

For the more eagle eyed readers out there, you will of course realise that this is a Cosmopolitan with the vodka substituted of tequila instead.  The recipe calls for a blanco tequila, but I had to use a reposado as that’s all I had.  You will actually see as you read one, I was woefully unprepared for this flurry of drink making and blogging!

Simple enough to make: just shake all the ingredients over ice and fine strain into a martini glass.

The cranberry juice smooths out the tequila and the lime shot adds a wonderful sharpness towards the end negating the sweetness of the cranberry juice.  It works very, very well as a drink, sweet and full of flavour but I can’t help but feel it’s not particularly festive.  What do I care?  I got to drink it!

Christmas Pudding and Custard Cocktail

One and a half measures of Cognac and Advocaat, with three quarters of a measure of sherry creates a drink that tastes like it’s namesake. I just wish I hadn’t forgotten the garnish!

It just isn’t Christmas without Advocaat.  Combining brandy, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla, it is a completely natural product with no artificial thickeners or preservatives.  It’s sweet and has a bit of a clichéd reputation for being a Christmas drink.  This could well be because it appears on the supermarket shelves at Christmas…

Moving onto the drink in question:  Shake one and a half measures of advocaat and cognac with three quarters of a measure of sherry over ice.  Fine strain into a martini glass and Robert is your father’s brother.

The sherry adds dryness and does indeed impart a flavour reminiscent of a Christmas pudding.  It isn’t as custardy as one might hope however, which was a tad disappointing.  What is also disappointing is that your fabulous author forgot to purchase some Pedro Ximenez sherry which should be served as a chilled shot alongside the drink.

It is quite a strong drink drink, but very smooth with it middling between dry and sweet.  As I mentioned earlier, the sherry makes the drink dry before the cognac and advocaat combine to a full sweet note on the palate.

Christmas Velvet Alexander

One and a half measures of Gin and Advocaat, with three quarters of a measure of sherry combine to create a smooth drink your stereotypical English granny would be proud to drink at Christmas.

There’s something about your author and forgetting garnishes.  Luckily, this only calls for a orange zest twist which was forgotten instead of a shot…

Still, this drink is practically identical to the Christmas Pudding and Custard drink above right down to the preparation.  All that is changed is that Gin is used instead of Cognac.  And it makes for an altogether smoother drink than the above cocktail with mainly advocaat on the nose.

It isn’t as dry as the previous drink and the juniper notes in the gin combine really well with the advocaat and sherry in a way I didn’t actually think was workable.  Or at least, I didn’t think it would work as well as the cognac did, but I was proven wrong.  I hate being wrong.

However, if Grandma is coming for Christmas, this is a traditional “granny cocktail” that she would be proud to consume.  Although it would depend on if you want Grandma drunk for Christmas!

Upsidedown Raspberry Cheesecake

My favourite drink of my Christmas blog postings. Vodka, Vanilla Schnapps, raspberries, Chambord, sugar syrup, lemon zest, mascarpone and digestive biscuits. Throw in a bit of cheating and you have an amazing drink.

This is a brilliant drink.  So tasty, so customisable, even if it is a bit of a bitch to make.  Due to the size of the serving, it gave me an excuse to break out my big martini glasses!

The drink has to be made in two layers in order to give the pleasing aesthetic layers you can see in the picture.  So for the first layer, muddle four or five raspberries in the base of a shaker and add half a measure of Chambord.  Shake this vigorously over ice and pour into your martini glass.

The second layer is where it gets interesting.  It requires five spoons of mascarpone cheese, the zest of half a lemon, one measure of double cream, half a measure each of vanilla schnapps and sugar syrup and finally, two measure of vanilla infused vodka.  I struggled with the last ingredient, so in true blogging style, I cheated.  I used normal vodka (Smirnoff – I’m sorry) and added some vanilla essence and it worked so very well.

Once you have shaken this little lot over ice, pour carefully over a spoon so that it layers on top of the Chambord and raspberry base.  Then top this great concoction with crumbled digestive biscuits.

I cannot convey how good this drink is.  The biscuits sit on top of the creamy layer even as you sip your drink and when you get to the very sweet raspberry layer and it mixes with the remnants of the creamy layer and the biscuits it’s just wonderful.  A true liquid cheesecake.

On top of this amazing drink, you could customise it as well.  For example, use normal vodka and add in vanilla essence changing the amount of essence to suit your taste.  Instead of lemon zest, you could use lime or orange and try replacing the raspberries in the bottom layer with strawberries.  Or use apricots and swap out the Chambord for apricot brandy.  The possibilities are almost endless and each one, I’m sure, would make an excellent drink.

Cinco de Mayo – Tequila, tequila and tequila!

Cinco de Mayo is not a holiday even remotely acknowledged here in the UK.  However, with the internet and the fact I look for any excuse to make a drink, I figured I would celebrate it with two tequila based cocktails.

A classic summer cocktail comprising of tequila, triple sec, lime juice and agave syrup. Seen here in a martini glass and on the rocks, both with a salt rim.

This is a summer classic and a worldwide favourite, not to mention one of my personal favourites.  It could rival a Vesper for the classic question “if you had to have one cocktail for the rest of your life, what would it be?”

As you can see from the picture, there is two main ways it can be served.  On a hot summers day, you cannot beat it on the rocks.  However, I’m quite partial to it being served in a Margarita glass – granted it’s in a martini glass above, but I have to make do with the tools I have, so no judging.

Simply made by shaking two measures of tequila. one of triple sec (I’ve substituted Cointreau) and a spoon of agave syrup, strain and serve with a lime wedge!  The salt rim is optional as some people may prefer a sugar rim, or no garnish at all.  I love the salt rim.  There is even a version where Marmite is used on the rim (because it is slightly salty), but that is a disgusting suggestion and should never be spoken of again.

The margarita is one of those cocktails where many people have claimed to have invented it all around the same time.  So many so that I would spend a lot of time writing them all for you to look at.  However, recently an English drink was uncovered called the Picador which has the exact same measurements of the Margarita without the salt rim.  It actually came about roughly sixteen years before any written reference to a margarita.  Does this mean that someone ripped off the recipe?  Possibly, but no-one will ever know.

Irrespective of that, it is a cracking cocktail with a wonderful tangy, citrus flavour combined with the earthiness of the tequila.  Such a great drink for a summers day and a fine use of tequila.  If you’ve never had a margarita (I find that nigh on impossible to believe), rectify that immediately.  Make a pitcher, invite a few friends over and have a barbecue!

A tequila take on the classic dry martini.

Next up we have the Tequilatini.  A play on words and a take on the dry martini.  So simple, so tasty and oh so very effective.

Two measures of tequila, one of dry vermouth and half a measure of sugar syrup and three dashes of Angostura bitters, serve and garnish with a lime twist.  However, I’ve had to change the recipe as I managed to leave my bottle of bitters in Portsmouth, so out went the bitters.  Shake it all up and strain into a chilled martini glass.

The tequila and vermouth combine very well and the sugar syrup stops the drink from becoming too dry and harsh on the palate.  I think my homemade sugar syrup is slightly too sweet, but it doesn’t affect the drink too much.  After all, it doesn’t stop this becoming a very potent drink.  If you like strong drinks and strong flavours (especially tequila), or if you just feel like making a change to your usual dry martini, this is a drink for you.

Just for clarity, I know there are two cocktails in each picture, rest assured I had a friend over so they weren’t all for me!