Christmas Cocktails 39/50 - 50 makes for Christmas

Christmas is without a doubt the season of indulgence, so I have started planning a few festive treats by way of some Christmas Cocktails.  The supermarkets are usually full of offers on spirits in the run up to Christmas in a bid to entice us in to do our big shop.

I am kicking off with this one that is a firm favourite with the ladies in our family and is affectionately known as a winter warmer, I think it came from a Nigella Lawson interview I heard on the radio several years ago


A75cl  bottle of Prosseco or Cava  - Chilled (I usually just get which ever is cheapest,)

125ml triple sec or any other orange flavoured liqueur (you can buy Cointreau or Grand Marnier if you like a label)

500ml Cranberry juice - Chilled


Just put them all in a jug and pour into your flute or cocktail glass. Most of the supermarkets seem to stock the little mini bottles of Prosecco so you could easily make a scaled down version.

                                                                         
If you have made the investment in a bottle of triple sec another way you could use it is to add a little tot in your hot chocolate it is a rather nice bedtime indulgence.

Using the triple sec as a starting point you only need cranberry juice, vodka and lime and you have got yourself a Cosmopolitan much loved by the Sex in the city girls and the reddy/pinky colour garnished with a peel of lime give it a lovely festive colour.

                                                               


I am a big fan of Winter Pimms, we discovered this last year when we took a winter break in St Ives and popped into the St Ives Harbour hotel for gin o'clock.  It is quite a tricky beast to get hold of and I believe it is only available in Waitrose and it is always seems to be sold out when I make the pilgrimage to try and get some.  I was delighted when I found this recipe on Pinterest, I have kind of followed this but done my own thing, I mulled a carton of apple juice and added a capful of brandy a measure of Pimms (well the cheap equivalent!) to a mug and topped up with the mulled apple juice and added a slice of orange (it really does make a difference).  The mulled apple juice is delicious by itself and if you are not drinking alcohol it is nice to have a special drink that isn't full of gas.

Having invested in a bottle of brandy for the Winter Pimms I was then poking around to find other cocktail ideas to use it in and I followed a link to this delightful post from a life of geekery for "The brandy apple - an Autumnal cocktail".  It only has three ingredients one of which is brandy, hardly surprising cloudy apple juice is in there and it is just topped off with ginger ale, the good news is this is an Autumnal cocktail so you don't have to wait for it to get any closer to Christmas before giving it a go!  I am thinking that apple juice and ginger ale might also make a nice little mocktail

Cheers everyone a little celebration for make 39 of my 50 makes for Christmas

Do you have any favourite Christmas cocktails or drinks that remind you of Christmas?  When we were children I remember my Mum getting in some bottles of Babycham and a bottle of nut brown beer, she made shandy from the beer and we were allowed to have some (enough beer just to change the colour of the lemonade) and we thought that we were being very naughty!