food

Christmas Cocktails

Bring good cheer with our wine expert's classy cocktails

Snowball

Advocaat is enjoying something of a revival at the moment. To make this drink look even more festive, dip the rim of the glass (any glass will do, but a champagne saucer looks particularly good) in freshly squeezed lime juice. Then place it, rim down, into a bowl of sugar.

1 part chilled advocaat
2 parts chilled lemonade
½ lime, squeezed
sugar to decorate the glass

Mix the ingredients together and serve with a slice of lime and a cherry.

Santa’s Christmas Delight

3 parts Irish whiskey
1 part freshly squeezed lime juice
soda water
few drops of grenadine

Mix the ingredients together. Serve in a tall glass on ice. As a variation, try using ginger ale rather than soda water or Schweppes Russian. Father Christmas (aka Mum or Dad) will love it.

Christmas Champagne Cocktail

3/5th glass of chilled brut champagne or Spanish cava or Australian sparkling wine 1/5th glass cointreau
1/5th glass Absolut mandarin vodka
1 sugar lump

Mix all the ingredients together. Serve in a champagne flute and decorate with either a slice of orange or a few segments of tangerine.

Holly-tini

A festively coloured green version of the famous cocktail.

2 parts vodka or gin
1 part dry martini
½ part crème de menthe

Either mix in a cocktail shaker with ice or simply serve on ice in a martini glass.

Festive Fizz

50ml of cherry or blueberry-infused Disaronno Amaretto
25ml fresh lemon juice
5ml/1 tsp sugar syrup
Dash of Angostura Bitters (optional)
top up with prosecco

Add the Disaronno Amaretto, lemon juice and sugar to a shaker filled with ice, then strain into a highball glass filled with crushed ice. Top up with Prosecco and add a dash of Angostura Bitters. Garnish with either a pair of stalked cherries or a couple of blueberries.

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