Cocktails till Christmas: the

Cocktails till Christmas: the third weekly instalment of our guide to sipping out the season

A few cocktails to get you through this festive period.

Cocktails till Christmas: the

The advent calendars are out, and the party season is here for what will seem like an eternity.

Image by Shutterstock
Image by Shutterstock

Christmas Punch

Ingredients

This week the Christmas Punch is a must.  Many different varieties exist but this one is yummy and a staple for every December.

Juice of 15 lemons
Juice of 4 oranges
625g sugar
450ml Cointreau
50ml grenadine
50ml brandy
2.5l of sparkling water
Finely chopped mint
Ice
Orange and lemon rind to decorate

Method

Mix the fruit juices together and stir in the sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Add Cointreau, Grenadine and brandy, and mix well together. You can store this in the fridge until you are ready to drink it a glass at a time or pour the entire mix into a huge bowl of ice and cover with sparkling water. If you are going for a glass-by-glass serving then pour into a glass filled with the preferred amount of ice (strength depending) and dilute with your sparkling water to taste. Add a dash of finely chopped mint to the top of the punch for a hint of freshness.

Image by Shutterstock
Image by Shutterstock

Cool Shower

Every bar has a bottle of Campari waiting to be used, but gathering dust at the back of everything. This next cocktail is surprisingly delicious and uses up a fair amount of the Campari without you feeling like an 80s throwback. Given you use an orange, this must fall into your five-a-day plan too. Doctors no doubt will disagree but the evidence is clear. You use a whole orange, so it must be healthy!

Ingredients

Ice
Rind of 1 orange
75ml white wine
50ml Campari
75ml fresh orange juice (juice from the orange you used the rind of for this recipe)

Method

Add some rind into the bottom of the glass and cover with ice. Add more ice to a cocktail shaker and pour the ingredients into the shaker and shake until ice cold. Pour into your glass and enjoy.

 

Rosarita Bay Breeze

The next cocktail has a more festive twist to it. And uses tequila! How can you not love a drink that uses tequila?

Ingredients

Ice
30ml Tequilla
180ml cranberry juices
30ml pineapple juice
Orange slice to decorate

Method

Pour ice into a high ball glass. pour in the tequila and cranberry juice. Then carefully pour in the pineapple juice to the top of the drink and decorate the glass with an orange slice.

The virgin drink for this week is a red and delicious yumminess that can literally be drunk through out the day. If you fancy upping the alcohol, splash in some Cointreau into the mixing process. This is obviously not to be consumed on the way to work!

Image by Shutterstock
Image by Shutterstock

Grenadine Soda

Ingredients

1/2 scoop prange sorbet
1/2 scoop raspberry sorbet
1 1/2 tablespoons of grenadine
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
Juice of 1/2 a lime
100ml soda water
Finely chopped orange slice to decorate

Method

Put the sorbet, grenadine and lime juice into the blender and blend. (A hand held blitzer works too, if used in a deep bowl). Pour into a glass and top with the vanilla ice cream. Pour soda water over the sorbet mix and ice cream then stir gently. Decorate with the orange.

Enjoy the cocktails this week and always drink responsibly!

All recipes this week are adapted from ‘501 must drink cocktails’ from Bounty books.