15 incredible cocktails we can’t wait to try this festive season

Planning a cosy night in this Christmas? Well, while you enjoy some festive movies or a catch-up with loved ones, you should try one – or some – of these delicious cocktails.

Whether you prefer an old fashioned or a mimosa, an Irish coffee or a glass of eggnog, we’ve got something for everyone. Impress your partner, sibling or friend with one of these incredible tipples over the next few weeks!

Check out some of our favourites, below. But remember, always drink responsibly.

Cranberry Mimosa winelab.ie

Ingredients:

• 1 lime, halved
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• Sweetened cranberry juice chilled
• 1 bottle Winelab’s AR Lenoble Rose Terroirs chilled
• 12 fresh cranberries
• 4 small sprigs fresh rosemary

Method:

1. Rim champagne flutes with lime and dip in sugar.
2. Pour 1/4 cup cranberry juice into each glass and top with Winelab’s AR Lenoble Rose Terroirs.
3. Use a toothpick to poke a hole through cranberries. Thread rosemary skewer through cranberries and garnish mimosas.

Roe & Co Cask Strength ’20 Boulevardier

Ingredients:

• 20ml Roe & Co Cask Strength 2020 Edition
• 20ml Campari
• 20ml Pedro Ximenez Sherry

Method:

Stir the ingredients together and serve over good ice in a rocks glass with a fresh pink grapefruit twist. Enjoy!

Hennessy’s Cranberry Christmas

Ingredients:

• 1.5 shots Hennessy VS
• 1.5 shots cranberry juice
• 1.5 shots ginger ale

Method:

1. Pour the Hennessy Very Special into a highball glass.
2. Add ice cubes to fill the glass.
3. Add cranberry juice and top with ginger ale.

Teeling Irish Coffee

Ingredients:

• 40ml Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey
• 20ml Teeling Stout Syrup OR At Home Spice Syrup (2 parts sugar, 1 part hot water, 1 TSP grated dark chocolate, ¼ TSP cinnamon, ¼ TSP vanilla essence).
• 120ml freshly brewed coffee
• Fresh cream
• Nutmeg

Method:

1. Preheat glass with hot coffee.
2. Add whiskey and spiced syrup.
3. Layer fresh cream on top using the back of a spoon.
4. Garnish with nutmeg or chocolate and enjoy!

Blood Orange Mimosa by Winelab.ie

Ingredients:

• 60ml fresh (or from a carton) blood orange juice, chilled
• WineLab’s AR Lenoble Brut intense, chilled
• Twist of blood-orange zest
• Fresh rosemary

Method:

1. Squeeze blood oranges to make fresh juice.
2. Fill serving glasses with blood orange juice until it’s about 1/3 full.
3. Fill the remainder of the glass with Winelab’s fruity AR Lenoble Brut Intense.
4. Garnish with blood orange slices and fresh rosemary or fresh thyme.

Winter’s Spirit

Ingredients:

• 1.5 shots Hennessy VSOP 2 shots Hot Water
• 0.5 shot Lemon Juice
• 0.5 shot Sugar Syrup

Method:

1. Mix the Hennessy VSOP, sugar, lemon and ginger in a glass.
2. Stir everything while gently to allow the sugar to dissolve.
3. Top with hot water and garnish with a ginger stick and an orange twist.

Santa’s Little Tipple

Ingredients:

• 1 Shot Glenmorangie Original
• 1 Shot Orange Juice 1/2 Shot Honey
• Top with Tonic
• Garnish with Orange Wedge

Method:

1. Juice half an orange.
2. Fill a highball glass with ice cubes and thick wedges of orange.
3. Pour all your ingredients over the top, and prepare a suitably long toast!

Teeling Hot Toddy

Ingredients:

• 50ml Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey
• 20ml lemon juice
• 10ml honey
• 100ml hot water
• 5 cloves
• 1 Sprig of rosemary

Method:

1. Add honey to your glass and add hot water.
2. Add whiskey and lemon juice and stir.
3. Stud a lemon wedge with your cloves and add it to the drink.
4. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary. Enjoy!

Eden One’s Winter Warmer; ‘Soil’

Ingredients:

• 60 ml Woodford Reserve Bourbon
• One teaspoon brown sugar
• 5 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Method:

1. Add one cube of brown sugar (or teaspoon) along with five dashes of the bitters into a rocks glass.
2. Break up the sugar and the bitters in a rocks glass.
3. Add 30ml of Bourbon and two large cubes of ice. Stir until the ice and sugar is completely melted.
4. Add another 30ml of Bourbon into the rocks glass, top up with ice and finish with an orange twist.
5. Sit back, relax and enjoy.

Bramble Mulled Punch

Ingredients:

• 45ml Bombay Bramble
• 20ml mandarin oleo saccharum (or alternatively mandarin sugar syrup)
• 15ml freshly squeezed lime juice
• 100ml raspberry & hibiscus tea
•  Nutmeg, star anise, cloves
• Lemon wheel (garnish).

Method:

1. Add all the ingredients (excluding garnish) to a pan and warm slowly on a hob allowing the flavour to infuse.
2. When serving, ensure the temperature is above 50°C and decant in glasses before garnishing.

The Sexton Whiskey Signature Cocktail

Ingredients:

•  60ml The Sexton Irish Single Malt
• 15ml freshly made coffee (preferably espresso strength)
• 10ml coffee liqueur
• 10ml maple syrup
•  3-5 squares of dark chocolate

Method:

1. Pour 60ml of The Sexton into a glass over ice.
2. Add the freshly made coffee, coffee liqueur and maple syrup.
3. Stir all ingredients until desired dilution is met.
4. Garnish with 3-5 square of dark chocolate.
5. Serve and enjoy!

The Winelab.ie’s Spice 75

Ingredients

• 60g of golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp of allspice
• 200ml Rum
• 600ml Winelab’s AR Lenoble Brut Intense, chilled
• 90ml lime juice
• Orange twist

Method

1. Gently warm 60g golden caster sugar in a pan with 30ml water and 1 tbsp allspice. Cook gently until the sugar has dissolved, then leave the mixture to cool.
2. Strain through a sieve lined with a coffee filter (or a double layer of kitchen paper).
3. Pour 60ml of the spiced syrup into a cocktail shaker along with 200ml rum and 90ml lime juice.
4. Shake with ice and strain between five flute glasses.
5. Top up with the Winelab’s AR Lenoble Brut Intense and garnish each with an orange twist.

Gastro Gays’ Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

• 50ml Bourbon or Whiskey (Rye is traditional, but a whiskey of your choice)
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 small Siúcra sugar cube
• 15ml simple Syrup (Siúcra Caster Sugar & water)
• Orange or lemon twist

Method:

1. To make simple syrup just combine equal parts sugar and filtered water in a saucepan, bringing it to the boil until the liquid goes crystal clear. Allow to cool a little before decanting into a sterilised jar. Keep in the fridge.
2.  For the Old Fashioned, begin by placing a small sugar cube in an old fashioned/rocks glass and pour in three shakes of Angostura Bitters alongside 1 tsp of simple syrup. With the top of a bar spoon, muddle and stir the sugar until it’s dissolved.
3. Add ice cubes to the glass, then the bourbon or whiskey and stir using the bar spoon about 15-20 times to chill the cocktail down.
4. Garnish with an orange peel, spritzing the oils over the cocktail and rubbing the rim of the glass before garnishing.

Bushmills Black Bush Creme 

Ingredients:

• 25ml Bushmills Black Bush
• 30ml cooled black coffee
• 15ml Creme de Banana
• 10ml vanilla syrup
• 7.5ml Branca Menta
• Double cream
• Ice

Method:

1. Add all ingredients (except the cream) to a mixing glass and stir over ice until chilled.
2. Strain into a fresh glass.
3. Float cream on top.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Teeling Eggnogg (serves 6)

Ingredients:

• 200ml Teeling Small Batch
• 3 eggs (separated into whites and yolks)
• 100g caster sugar
• 250ml whole milk
• 200ml double cream
• 1 TSP vanilla essence
• 1 TSP fresh orange zest
• Fresh nutmeg
• Fresh orange zest

Method:

1. Whisk 3 egg yolks in a bowl with 50g of caster sugar until the mixture is pale yellow and thick (this is best done with an electric handheld mixer).
2. Stir in 250ml milk, 200ml double cream, 1 TSP vanilla essence, 1 TSP fresh orange zest and then 200ml Teeling Small Batch.
3. When ready to serve, using a handheld electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until foamy and opaque. Add 50g of sugar and whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.
4. Pour the eggnog into a large bowl and fold in the egg whites until well combined.
5. Ladle the eggnog into glass tumblers and serve with a little freshly grated nutmeg and fresh orange zest over the top of each glass.

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