![\"PXL_20211213_030202666\"](\"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/6a00d8345190b469e202942f8e0be1200c-350wi.jpg\" "\\"PXL_20211213_030202666\\"")
<\/p>\nWe're squarely in the middle of the holiday season, and I've got several festive drinks to consider. Whether you're hosting people for a party, want something rich to sip by the fire, or something crisp and light to accompany a feast, this selection will have you covered. <\/p>\n
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Are you throwing a party? You're going to be busy and running around anyway to take care of everything and make sure everyone is having a good time, and you likely won't have the bandwidth to take drink orders or shake up custom cocktails. There are two ways to handle the drinks while preserving your sanity as the host – either do something large-format so guests can serve themselves, or set out a bunch of options (and provide a little bit of guidance) and let them roll their own. <\/p>\n
![\"Punch\"](\"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/6a00d8345190b469e202942f8e0b0e200c-350wi.jpg\" "\\"Punch\\"")
For the former, Punch is the way to go. It gets a party started, and people gravitate to the bowl, serve themselves, and loosen up as the conversations start and the "flowing bowl" works its magic. You don't want something too high-octane here; it shouldn't be the strength of a cocktail. The whole idea is that you'll have some, want a little more, and each time you go back for another ladleful you'll talk to someone else, and it'll be a lovely time.<\/p>\n
![\"C1main.tom.and.jerry\"](\"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/6a00d8345190b469e20282e138e2df200b-350wi.jpg\" "\\"C1main.tom.and.jerry\\"")
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Another large-format drink that's a little less well-known these days (unless you're from certain parts of the Midwest) is Tom & Jerry. It's a very old drink, having recipes in print since at least 1827, and it's kind of a soothing, boozy hot eggnog that's rich and delicious. In a 1932 short story, "Dancing Dan's Christmas<\/a>," Damon Runyon praised it<\/a>:<\/p>\n This hot Tom and Jerry is an old time drink that is once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas with, and in fact it is once so popular that many people think Christmas is invented only to furnish an excuse for hot Tom and Jerry, although of course this is by no means true.<\/p>\n It was all the rage through the second half of the 19th century, but fell out of style around the turn of the 20th. It's a little bit of work; you separate eggs and make kind of a batter with the yolks, sugar, spices, and booze, then lighten the batter with the beaten egg whites. To serve, dollop a generous spoon of the batter into a mug, add rum and brandy and top with not-quite-boiling milk. A lot of work? Sure. Festive? Indubitably. I like the variation by Audrey Saunders<\/a> of New York\u2019s Pegu Club. (It closed last May<\/a>. I miss it.)<\/p>\n The other approach mentioned above is to just set out a bunch of different options for your guests, and let them mix and match to their hearts' content. If you choose things that go together well (think apple-y things<\/a>, red wine, and baking spices), it's what CNN's Eatocracy blog dubbed the Garanimals of holiday drinks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of course, there's always eggnog \u2013 and you can do way better than the too-thick, annato-colored sludge sold at the grocery store. Making your own is super-quick and it's fresh and tasty. Cocktail blogger and ace bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler\u2019s recipe<\/a> is simple, fairly light in texture and has an intense, eggy flavor tempered with brandy and spiced rum. You make it in the blender, and it\u2019s a snap to put together. (Just don\u2019t use a commercial blender, as it can heat the contents. Sweet scrambled eggs don\u2019t make a tasty holiday treat.) Jeff told me that it ages well, so I'm trying that now for the first time – I made it a couple weeks ago, and am tucking it into the fridge until Christmas Eve. (is it safe<\/a>? Sure is - Rockefeller University microbiologists tested eggnog<\/a> aged for three weeks and found that it was sterile<\/a>, with less bacteria than the store-bought stuff! It's all about the booze.)<\/p>\n For a big holiday meal like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, I tend to steer away from cocktails to accompany the feast. Too boozy. Too strong and intense. You're in a marathon, not a sprint. My pick requires a little bit of work ahead of time, but it's delicious: Eve, a very simple infusion of McIntosh apples in dry vermouth<\/a>. Slice six apples thin with a mandolin, cover them with a liter of dry vermouth (Noilly Prat is perfect for this, but any will do), and let it sit in the fridge for five days, giving it a gentle shake every day.<\/p>\n Sometimes, though, a traditional cocktail is what you want for your holiday libation. It doesn't have any particular connection to holidays except in my mind, but one of my favorites that I tend to serve is the Honey Fitz<\/a>, a delectable sour from Jackson Cannon<\/a> that's a variation on the older and more famous Brown Derby<\/a> and De Rigueur<\/a> cocktails. The Brown Derby uses bourbon, the De Rigueur uses blended Scotch, and the Honey Fitz uses aged rum, mixing them with grapefruit juice and honey syrup. The Honey Fitz also accents its flavor with a dash or two of Peychaud's Bitters<\/a>, the complex, tart New Orleans-derived bitters that are a must in any proper Sazerac<\/a>. The recipe calls for Ron Zacapa 23<\/a>, which is completely delicious and works very well, but for extra-special occasions, I break out the very good (and slightly<\/em> illicitly obtained) Havana Club 7<\/a> from Cuba. Fresh-squeezing the grapefruit juice also really elevates this particular drink.<\/p>\n And the last holiday cocktail I'll leave you with is the R\u00e9veillon<\/a>, created by my friends Chuck Taggart<\/a> and Wesly Moore. Named after the New Orleans (and French) tradition<\/a> of long, luxurious holiday dinners, the R\u00e9veillon combines dry apple and pear brandies with spicy sweet vermouth, allspice liqueur (often referred to as allspice dram or pimento dram), and aromatic bitters. Fee Brothers's Old-Fashioned bitters<\/a> work the best in this drink, with their heavy cinnamon note, but Angostura bitters also work well and add clove and other baking spices to accent.<\/p>\n Happy holidays to you and yours!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We're squarely in the middle of the holiday season, and I've got several festive drinks to consider. Whether you're hosting people for a party, want something rich to sip by the fire, or something crisp and light to accompany a feast, this selection will have you covered. Are you throwing a party? You're going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes","category-seen-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nog\"](\"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/6a00d8345190b469e202788060519d200d-350wi.jpg\" "\\"Nog\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"Eve\"](\"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/6a00d8345190b469e20282e138e2ea200b-350wi.jpg\" "\\"Eve\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"Reveillon\"](\"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/6a00d8345190b469e20282e138e2f7200b-350wi.jpg\" "\\"Reveillon\\"")
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