A Trio of New Holiday Cocktails

by

Holiday cocktails are a species in the genus of winter cocktails, drinks we mix from the end of October until the end of February. They include toddies, mulled wines, and eggnogs and cocktails made with rums and whiskies, liqueurs and cordials, and brown and orange spices.

Holiday cocktails are with us for less than six weeks—in with Thanksgiving, on through Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s, out with the Epiphany. Their days are few, but they’re among the year’s most beautiful. Days where we raise a glass to the love of family, friends, and community.

“This year more than ever, cocktails can help make the holidays more festive,” says the writer and cookbook author Valerie Peterson, whose Peterson’s Holiday Helper: Festive Pick-Me-Ups, Calm-Me-Downs and Handy Hints to Keep You in Good Spirits is the definitive guide on the subject. “While in years past we’d be gathering over that steaming pot of mulled cider with the family or sharing a spiked punch with colleagues, this year will be different for many of us. Toasting the season across the miles on Zoom with a well-crafted, seasonal cocktail can help bring us together.”

Here’s a trio of new cocktails as beautiful as the season. A trio of new classics to see us through the holidays. A trio of new evergreens to savor every holiday season.

The Sinterklaas

Dave Cornils, Bartender, Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge, 1579 S. Ninth St.

“The Sinterklaas was created for the holiday's here at Bryant’s back in 2014 and has been refined several times to become a favorite for events here around the holidays, as well as for at-home holiday imbibing. It’s far closer to the realm of the Negroni as opposed to eggnogs and mulled wines. What really makes it stand out is the Cranberry Shrub.”

Ingredients

2 ounces Bols Genever (or a gin of your choice)

1 ounce Cranberry Shrub

1⁄4 ounce Campari

Method

  •  Combine ingredients.
  •  Stir to chill.
  •  Strain into your choice of cocktail glass.
  •  Garnish with orange zest and cinnamon stick.

Ingredients for Cranberry Shrub

12 ounces cranberries, fresh or frozen

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

1 and 1⁄2 cups red wine vinegar

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Method 

  • Rinse and drain cranberries, removing any bad berries.
  • Combine all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
  • Allow to boil for about five minutes.
  • Remove from heat and cool.
  • Double strain and refrigerate.

Yields about one quart. Lasts up to three months refrigerated.

Rye Not?

Joe Solus, Bartender, Harbor House, 550 N. Harbor Drive 

“The flavors of winter inspired this cocktail. The spiciness of rye reminds me of the holidays, and it balances beautifully with the blackberry liqueur and lemon juice. The basil garnish imparts the cocktail with a hint of anise.”

Ingredients

2 ounces rye

1 ounce blackberry liqueur

1⁄2 ounce lemon juice

1⁄4 ounce simple syrup

Method

  • Combine ingredients.
  • Serve on the rocks.
  • Garnish with fresh basil leaf. (Slap the leaf in your palm to release its aromas and flavors.)

The Lucialini

Valerie Peterson, adapted from Peterson’s Holiday Helper: Festive Pick-Me-Ups, Calm-Me-Downs and Handy Hints to Keep You in Good Spirits by Valerie Peterson.

“Like me, the Lucialini combines Swedish and Italian ingredients, and is named after a saint important to both traditions. My dad always talks about the orange his brothers and sisters and he would get in their stocking every year, so there’s a hint of that, too.

“A Sicilian Catholic martyr, Santa Lucia appeared in Sweden in the midst of famine, bringing light and food. There has been speculation that the Swedes were already a little ‘lit’ when they saw the vision, but no matter. On the Feast of Saint Lucy, December 13, stave off the winter darkness in her honor with a bright sparkler made with Swedish lingonberries and Italian Prosecco.”

Ingredients

3/4 ounces lingonberry syrup / concentrate (such as Hafi or IKEA’s Dryck Lingon)

3 dashes orange bitters (such as Fee’s or Regan’s)

5 ounces Prosecco

Strip of orange peel for garnish

Method

  • Pour the lingonberry syrup into a Champagne flute.
  • Add the bitters.
  • Fill the flute with Prosecco and garnish with the orange peel.
  • Sip and see the light.

Gaetano Marangelli is a sommelier and playwright. He was the managing director of a wine import and distribution company in New York and beverage director for restaurants and retailers in New York and Chicago before moving to Wauwatosa.