Trying to get ahead of the game, I’ve got six people staying with me for a week this holiday season and I would love to make a kind of batch cocktail. I’ve made egg nog in the past and loved it, but I’ve got two avid egg nog haters and one gluten free dietary restriction. Is there anything I can make that is generally well liked but still fun? I like decorating my drinks and making them all fancy. I mostly drink whiskey based cocktails, but I also enjoy every kind of cocktail that doesn’t have gin.
I do make fancy cocktails for Thanksgiving but Christmas is more wine or bourbon here.
Strongly agree with coquito, yum. Cranberry stuff seems Christmasy, my mom used to make (besides the wassail) a sparkling cranberry vodka punch. It’s funny I never really thought of her as a cook, or much of a drinker but she did make punch or sangria for holidays.
Tepache is also a nice Christmas drink, pineapple cinnamon.
Whiskey and amaretto, strong but that seems a nice holiday flavor, a Godfather or similar might be a good one to pop in the freezer.
Does the pineapple in tepache get cooked? Or is there a way to cook it? I’m allergic to raw pineapple, but the allergy is manageable if it’s cooked.
No, the recipe is in the non-alcoholic pinned thread (it’s about as alcoholic as kombucha) but it’s fermented and sort of pineapple-adjacent, there’s no actual fruit in the finished product, I don’t know if that would also inactivate what bothers you.
Oh my gosh that reminds me - the Golden Crown by Katherine Bouchel is soooo good too, that uses roasted pineapple syrup, whiskey, mezcal, and chartreuse. Probably too fancy for a batch cocktail but the syrup would be a good way to use the pineapple if you do make tepache and can’t eat the fruit raw; tepache just uses the peels.