From left: Woodford Reserve Brulee Old Fashioned. Photograph courtesy of Woodford Reserve / A Seapea Fizz cocktail. Photograph courtesy of Phaidon. December is fast approaching, and with it comes weekends filled with festive events. Whether you’re hosting your own soirée or have been entrusted with mixology duties at a friend’s gathering, a well-crafted cocktail can be the perfect way to entertain guests before the main event. Below, the T Australia team has curated a selection of drinks to suit every occasion.
Brulée Old Fashioned
For an after-dinner treat on Christmas eve, once you’ve successfully tucked the kids into bed.
Ingredients:
– 60ml Woodford Reserve Straight Bourbon Whisky
– 15ml créme de cacao
– 2 dashes Angostura bitters
– 1 dash chocolate bitters
– Orange slice dusted with sugar, to garnish
Method:
1. Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and diluted.
2. Strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube.
3. Garnish with an orange slice dusted with sugar and torched until caramelised.
The Frosado
For New Years Day, when nothing else will do.
Ingredients:
– 45ml Don Julio Rosado
– 30ml Giffard Pink Grapefruit Liqueur
– 20ml lime juice
– 15ml pink grapefruit juice
– Shaved or pebbled ice
– Pink salt rim
– Half a slice of pink grapefruit
Method:
1. Wet the rim of your glass and rotate the rim in pink salt.
2. Batch all liquid ingredients together.
3. Fill half the glass with shaved ice and pour in batched liquids.
4. Top up the glass with more shaved ice so the ice is sitting proud, above the glass if possible.
5. Garnish with pink grapefruit garnish slice.
Dale DeGroff’s Harry’s Original Martini
For when you need a kick after a heavy Christmas dinner.
Ingredients:
– 60ml Grey Goose vodka
– 15ml sweet vermouth (Cocchi Vermouth di Torino Vermouth)
– 15ml Noilly Prat dry vermouth
– 2 dashes gum syrup
– 2 dashes Ferrand Dry Curaçao
– 1 dash Bogart’s Bitters (Bitter Truth)
– 1 lemon zest coin for flavour
Method:
1. Assemble all ingredients except for the lemon zest coin in a mixing glass or martini beaker with cracked ice.
2. Stir well to chill and dilute.
3. Mist the inside of the chilled glass with the oil from the lemon zest coin.
4. Discard the spent zest and strain liquids into the glass.
5. Garnish with the coin-sized zest and serve immediately.
La Fine Fraise by Thibault Massina, creative director of Le Syndicat, Paris
For when you need a summery flavour that the whole party will love.
Ingredients:
– 10ml cocoa liqueur
– 10ml strawberry syrup (see below for recipe)
– 15ml Blanche Armagnac, not aged Armagnac (if you don’t have Blanche, you can use vodka)
– One teaspoon lemon juice
– A drop Tabasco
– Sparkling water to top
Method for strawberry syrup (or you can use a store-bought one):
1. Take 300g strawberries.
2. Hull and cut them into quarters.
3. Put them in an airtight jar.
4. Add 300g white sugar.
5. Mix and let the sugar melt and absorb the water from the strawberries.
6. Filter through a sieve to recover the strawberry oleo.
7. Keep in a cool place.
Method for La Fine Fraise:
1. Put all the ingredients (except for the sparkling water) in a highball.
2. Fill the glass with ice cubes.
3. Stir once.
4. Fill with sparkling water.
5. Stir a second time.
6. Use a strawberry cut in two as garnish.
Seapea Fizz
For a lazy afternoon spent by the pool.
Ingredients:
– 22 ml absinthe
– 22 ml simple syrup
– 22 ml fresh lemon juice
– 1 egg white
– Soda water, chilled, to top
Method:
- Add all ingredients except soda water to a cocktail shaker and shake without ice for at least 20 seconds.
- Add ice and shake for an additional 15 to 20 seconds.
- Strain into a coupe glass and top with soda water.
