3 DIY Christmas Cocktails

This season, we’re overJOYed to share a selection of festive libations from some of Vancouver’s very best bartenders and restaurateurs. Make ’em yourself, and cheers to the holidays! —Vita Daily

boulevard kitchen & oyster bar’s aquas caliente. A boozy bevvy that brings the heat, Boulevard’s new festive cocktail for the 2017 holiday season, Aquas Caliente (Watch Out It’s Hot!), is a creamy blend of mescal, noilly pratt, ancho reyes, crème de cacao and Kahlua. This well-crafted drink is designed to tantalize, balancing both sweet and spicy flavours with a festive kick.

Ingredients:

1.25 oz Sombre Mezcal
.75 oz Noilly Pratt
.50 oz Ancho Reyes
.15 oz Crème de Cacao
.25 oz Kahlua

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a coupe glass and finish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

café medina’s pomme de moluccas. Medina bar manager Marc Slingsby-Jones’ boozy take on a classic apple cider offers an enchanting blend of aged rum, apple brandy and a sweetly spiced homemade Moluccas syrup.

Ingredients:

1 oz Flor de Cana (any aged rum will do)
1/2 oz Calvados
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz fresh apple juice
3/4 oz Moluccas Syrup*

Moluccas Syrup (makes 1L)

1 kg sugar
1 L water
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole nutmeg
8 cloves
4 whole all spice
1/2 vanilla bean
Peel of half an orange

Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to boil, then simmer for 1 hour. Remove from heat and allow to cool overnight. Strain to remove spices before use.

Method:

Add all ingredients to cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into coupe or glass of choice. Garnish with apple slices dusted in cinnamon and sugar.

wildebeest’s cashew on the flip-side. From Wildebeest bartender Will Ford, this unique twist on the classic rum-and-eggnog offers a cheeky mix of rum, dessert wine, cashew milk, whole egg and house-made winter spice syrup. Shaken with egg to create a frothy consistency and finished with a grating of tonka bean, the creamy concoction is sweet-and-smooth libation to enjoy during the Yuletide season and pairs well with Wildebeest’s meaty menu.

Ingredients:

30 ml El Dorado 15-yr rum
15 ml Ron Zacapa 23-yr rum
15 ml Apostoles 30 Jerez Sherry
30 ml cashew milk
1 whole egg
15 ml Winter Spice Syrup*

*Winter Spice Syrup

Slice and scrape the seeds from one vanilla pod into a small sauce pot with two cinnamon sticks and five star anise. Add 500 g of sugar (white is fine but Demerara is better) and 500 ml water. Slowly bring to a boil then reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cover. Let cool for 30 minutes then strain out the spent spices. Refrigerate in an airtight container (the syrup will keep for a couple months).

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Dry shake without ice to emulsify the egg. Add lots of ice to the cocktail tin and shake vigorously for 20 seconds. Fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass and grate some tonka bean with a micro plane to garnish (if you don’t have tonka bean, use cinnamon).