The 9 Best Holiday Cocktails, From Eggnog to Boozy Hot Chocolate
Despite what the marketing teams may say, there’s no such thing as an “Easter Cocktail.” Nor, for that matter, are there designated cocktails for President’s Day, Purim, or the Autumnal Equinox. But the December holidays? You could buy a different book on “Holiday Cocktails” every day and you’d run out of shelf space before you ran out of drinks.
December just hits different. No one ever tells you to “get in the spirit” of Arbor Day but getting into the spirit is practically what the month of December is all about—it’s cold and the sun sets at like 2 pm and so everything about our rituals is there to inspire a little seasonal cheer, from the lights to the gifts to the legion of cocktails offering themselves up for a bit of warmth. December is here to invite you to indulgence, to treat yourself. Holiday shopping and visiting family isn’t necessarily a stress-free experience but put both palms around a mug of a well-made Mulled Apple Cider and tell us this isn’t the most magical time of year.
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Our favorite holiday cocktail list is stacked with old favorites. This time of year, is all about tradition, so whether it’s the liquid hug of a Hot Toddy or the celebratory dazzle of the French 75, here are nine cocktails to have and share this upcoming month.
Peanut Malt Flip Cocktail
The Peanut Malt Flip sounds weird. A glance at the ingredients looks weird. And this apparent strangeness is one of its principal charms, because make one for yourself and you’ll find it doesn’t taste strange in the slightest—just pure, decadent deliciousness. The scotch gives body, cream gives richness, and as for the Peanut Butter, we write, “the peanut butter is what makes it art.” Click here to discover who is responsible for such a marvelous gift of a cocktail, or just make one yourself with the recipe below.
2 oz. scotch
1 oz. cream
0.75 oz. simple syrup
1 tbsp. peanut butter
1 egg
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker, seal tight and shake without ice for about five seconds to whip and emulsify the egg. Add ice and shake for 10 to 12 seconds, strain into a large coupe or wine glass and garnish with some freshly grated nutmeg over the top.
Hot Toddy
The Hot Toddy is the ultimate winter drink. Some drinks are so foundational to our understanding of mixed beverages that they’re less invented than discovered, like fire itself. Some Hot Toddys are like Whiskey Sours (whiskey, citrus, sweetener and hot water) and some are like Old Fashioneds (whiskey, sweetness, spice and hot water), but either way, the Hot Toddy is, we write, “like whiskey chicken soup, the perfect drink to displace any physical or emotional chill.” Find out how to heat the ingredients without igniting them here, or just brave it with the recipe below.
2 oz. whiskey
0.75 oz. lemon juice
0.75 oz. honey/ginger
4-6 oz. boiling water
Boil water. Pour boiling water into a mug, to pre-warm it. After a minute, empty water, add ingredients (see below), top with boiling water and garnish with a lemon or orange slice studded with cloves and/or a cinnamon stick.
Old Cuban
Among Champagne cocktails, the Old Cuban is in a class all its own. Most cocktails that incorporate bubbles lean into the bright electricity of the sparkling wine, while the Old Cuban—a bunch of aged rum, some lime and mint, sugar and bitters—is a deeper and more seductive affair, we write, “round and redolent with vanilla and oak that moves it from poolside to inside, as if under a slowly twisting ceiling fan in a smoky room.” It feels, we acknowledge, both old and Cuban. Find out why it’s actually neither of those things here, or just make a few after dinner according to the recipe below.
1.5 oz. aged rum
0.75 oz. lime juice
0.75 oz. simple syrup
6-8 mint leaves
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 oz. sparkling wine
Add all ingredients except wine to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake well for 10 to 12 seconds and strain into a flute or stemmed cocktail glass. Top with wine and garnish with a mint leaf or sprig.
Boozy Hot Chocolate
Say less. For many if not most, the phrase “Boozy Hot Chocolate” is enough for a “yes, please.” It is also, we discovered through rigorous testing, “a robust and durable template, one that practically begs for customization and there’s no one best way to do it.” You could just add a shot of whatever’s closest in reach to microwaved Swiss Miss and it would still be pretty good, but we spent some time decoding how to really make it shine. Make it according to our favorite recipe below, or check out all your options here.
6 oz. milk or cream
45 g semi-sweet chocolate chips (weight is a much more accurate measure in this instance)
1 tsp. sugar
1.5 oz. reposado or a?ejo tequila
Pre-warm your mug with some hot water. Add all ingredients (except alcohol) to a small saucepan over low heat and stir, taking care not to scald the milk. Empty the hot water from your mug and add 1.5 oz. alcohol. Once all the chocolate is dissolved and the temperature is where you want it (usually about 150 degrees—milk scalds at 170), pour hot chocolate into mug, stir briefly to combine and garnish with as many baby marshmallows as will fit.
Eggnog
Eggnog is a hard sell because most people have only had the bad kind, those boring and occasionally gross cartons that line the dairy section of the supermarket every December. Not to overstate it, but this is a tragedy. Our hot take: “[Eggnog is] ounce-for-ounce, one of the most outrageously delicious things you can drink.” If you like ice cream, you’ll like eggnog. Don’t just take our word for it—try it yourself according to the recipe below, or find out how long you can and perhaps should age it, here.
12 egg yolks
18 oz. white sugar
36 oz. whole milk
24 oz. heavy cream
12 oz. aged rum
12 oz. Cognac
8 oz. bourbon
? tsp. salt
Separate the eggs and keep the whites to use somewhere else—like a merengue or your Whiskey Sour. Using an immersion blender or mixer, beat the yolks with the sugar in a large mixing bowl until the mixture lightens in color. Add dairy to a large bowl, then add the liquor and salt, then slowly beat in the egg mixture. Pour into glass jar or bottle and store in the fridge indefinitely. To serve, pour about 5 oz. into a small glass and garnish with some freshly grated nutmeg. Serves 24.
Mulled Apple Cider
Mulled Apple Cider cocktails are one of winter’s chief delights, worth making for the smell alone and preparing some for family or friends is practically a love language. It’s the perfect marriage of sweetness and spice, not only served hot but also given a boost from Irish whiskey, that, we write, “warms you from the inside in a way you otherwise can only get by watching videos of soldiers coming home to their dogs.” Click here to find out how most recipes get this cocktail so wrong, or just make it yourself the right way by following the recipe below:
1.5 oz. Irish whiskey
4.5 oz. hot mulled apple cider
1 oz. unsweetened half-whipped heavy cream
Pour whiskey and cider into a pre-heated mug, leaving a little less than one inch of room from the rim. Gently pour half-whipped unsweetened cream so it layers on top. Garnish with a pinch of ground cinnamon. Take a sip and reflect on how some parts of winter are actually pretty nice.
French 75
The French 75, we note, “is so deeply associated with celebrations that it’s practically intrinsic (to drink them is, in and of itself, a celebration).” What other choice could there be for New Years Eve? There are other cocktails, certainly, you could deploy—the Airmail and Old Cuban come to mind—but they’ve all studied at the feet of the French 75. Find out more about the three main variations here, or just make our favorite, below.
1 oz. Beefeater Gin
0.5 oz. lemon juice
0.5 oz. simple syrup (1:1)
3 oz. Champagne (real, French Champagne)
Shake first three ingredients over ice. Strain into a chilled flute and top with about 3 oz. of chilled Champagne.
Brandy Alexander
Consider the Brandy Alexander, a cocktail so old the mere mention of it invites the images of grandparents and gramophones. The Brandy Alexander is brandy (Cognac, usually, that most celebrated type of brandy), crème de cacao, and cream. Almost as early as you can find it mentioned you can find it insulted and dismissed—in 1930’s host guide Shake Em Up, authors Virginia Elliot and Phil D. Strong lump it into a category for “tender young things who have just been taken off stick candy,” and offer that you can use crème de cacao to “make them up some kind of [drink] and push them under the piano to suck on it.” The reliably grumpy David Embury, in 1948, calls it “deadly” because it “taste[s] harmless,” and waves it off as “a futile waste of good liquor.”
If you catch yourself nodding along, I have a question for you: Have you ever actually tasted a Brandy Alexander? If you had, you’d already know that the Brandy Alexander is not just worth your time but is in fact shockingly delicious, and one of the best things you can have after a meal. There is, of course, a way to make it too sweet, but increase the measure of Cognac just a touch and the drink becomes locked into balance, a decadent delight, the chocolate and cream round and deeply satisfying, all driven by the Cognac’s powerful oak and fruit.
1.5 oz. Cognac or brandy
1 oz. cream
1 oz. crème de cacao
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake hard for eight to 10 seconds. Strain off the ice into a cocktail or coupe glass, and garnish with a shave of fresh nutmeg.
Spiced Tequila Punch
In the world of tequila, it’s the raw brightness of the blancos that garners most of the attention, but when you get into the a?ejos—tequilas that have slumbered in oak barrels for a few years—you open up a whole new world of potential. You could have a lovely time just drinking Manhattan variations with a?ejos and sherry instead of whiskey and vermouth, but add some fresh citrus and cinnamon in a large format, and introduce your guests to the deeply spiced luxuriousness of aged agave spirits.
6 oz. spiced syrup
18 oz. a?ejo tequila
6 oz. Amontillado sherry
6 oz. lemon juice
30 oz. chilled cinnamon tea
To make the spiced syrup take 1?2 cup sugar, 4 oz. water, four to six cloves, two to four allspice berries and one star anise pod, and combine in a small pot over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reduce to simmer, covered, for five minutes, then remove from heat and let cool. Once the spiced syrup has been off heat for about five to 10 minutes, peel six lemons and add the peels to spiced syrup, then stir briefly. Let cool to room temperature, then strain out solids. Combine spiced syrup with the rest of the liquids and chill. When it’s time to serve, pour mixture into a large serving bowl and add a very large piece of ice. Garnish with cinnamon sticks, star anise pods and orange wheels.
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