Holiday Cocktail Recipes

I have been asked a lot to share some holiday cocktail ideas, and so here are a few recipes that I have put together for anyone looking to imbibe with a little creativity. These are designed as batch or kit style recipes, but I have also listed the solo drink recipes below. Enjoy!
BOURBON THYME CIDER
For the family sized recipe – because you should be sharing with at least one other someone in the holidays…you will need
1, 750ml Baks apple cider from Poland
1, 375ml Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon
1 (10-oz.) bottle club soda
6oz BMitch’s Holiday Thyme Simple Syrup
1 juicy apple, thinly sliced
Thyme sprigs for some garnishing
 
To make the drink – in a tumbler combine
2oz Bourbon, 1oz of Holiday Thyme Syrup, 4oz cider all with ice and top with soda for some fizz. Stir gently. Garnish with a slice of apple and a thyme sprig.
 
BMitch’s Holiday Thyme syrup
1 cup organic cane sugar, 1 cup H2O, a fist full of dollars – I mean thyme sprigs
In a pot add water and turn on the burner, add sugar and stir, turn off burner and add the thyme for about 10 minutes once the sugar goes clear. You should roll the thyme in your hands before adding to the syrup as this will open up the oils in the leaves.
 
 
CLASSIC NEGRONI
I know – not exactly a traditional holiday drink, but it is so good when made right and is mellow enough to have anytime, plus with a little twist – it can be very holiday. I also think of oranges around the holiday, plus gin – so this just works for me. I like mine over ice so the ice melts slowly and dilutes the drink while I sip. Easy-peasy to remember recipe – all you have to know is 1-1-1…
 
1oz Berkshire Mountain Distiller’s Greylock Gin
1oz Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth
1oz Cappelletti Aperitivo Il Specialino – or can use any Italian/American dark Aperitivo
 
Stirring is key here – combine everything in mixing glass with ice and stir the heck out of it. Pour over fresh ice in a big rocks tumbler and add a swath of expressed orange peel. Sip and savor while you are cooking.
 
 
POMEGRANATE STORM
Again, you should be sharing so here is the shopping ingredient list for making more than one…
1, 375ml Brugal Anejo Rum from the DR
1, 8oz Element Shrub Blood Orange Saffron
6oz Pomegranate Molasses Syrup
4, 12oz bottles of Hosmer Mountain Extreme Ginger Beer (the best ginger beer)
1 Juicy Orange
 
To make the drink, combine
2oz Rum, .75oz Shrub, .75 of the Pom Molasses in a tumbler with ice, and then top with the best Ginger Beer and a wheel of the orange.

The Pomegranate Molasses is available as a bottle purchase at many upscale grocery stores – usually in the baking goods section or possible Middle Eastern foods section. It is also easy to make and is a key ingredient in many dishes from North Africa and the middle east. Can be a great base for a non-alcoholic drink as well – just top with club soda over ice and enjoy.