Grab your shaker and some ice—it’s time for a holiday cocktail demo!
Get into the holiday spirit(s) on Meetup Live. Watch for a crash course in cocktail making with Camille Wilson, creator of The Cocktail Snob and author of Free Spirit Cocktails. Camille will walk us through the basics of mixology, teach us how to make three holiday cocktails, and share some techniques for customizing cocktails to fit your tastes. Impress your friends with a happy hour at home this holiday season.
Please use this Google Drive link for the recipes to follow along with Camille.
Timestamps:
- Introduction (1:23)
- Honey Old Fashioned (2:21)
- Trivia- Round 1 (13:41)
- Honey Whiskey Smash (17:32)
- Trivia- Round 2 (25:32)
- White Chocolate Peppermint Martini (29:26)
- Q&A (39:56)
Top Q&A questions and Resources:
- Can you share tricks for modifying drinks to become mocktails?
- Yes, that is a great question. My book Free Spirit Cocktails is actually a collection of 40 non-alcoholic recipes. So this is right up my alley. I’ll be honest, not every cocktail is easily translatable to a mocktail. But often sparkling water or tonic water can be used instead of alcohol. If you are into experimenting, I would also recommend alcohol-free spirits, these are spirits that have the taste and texture of alcohol but they don’t actually have any alcohol.
- When adding the ingredients to the shaker, is it important to add the liquor too, or can I leave the liquor in the glass with the ice, and then shake the ingredients separately?
- I would recommend adding everything to the shaker because if you add some ingredients to the shaker and then pour it on top of additional ingredients in the glass, things are not going to be blended well. Also, when you shake you’re doing it with ice which will dilute the alcohol, if you’re leaving the alcohol out, it’s not really getting diluted, and it’s not going to be as balanced as want it to be.
- For a large group, what would be a good holiday drink in a pitcher?
- I’ll give you two. One that I love especially for brunch is an apple cider mimosa. You can make it however you want, you could do half apple cider and half sparkling wine, or maybe you want mostly sparkling wine and a little bit of apple cider it’s totally up to you. The thing I love about it is when you serve it you could do a cinnamon sugar rim, which is a really fun little treat as you’re sipping. Another great cocktail is a daiquiri: it’s rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. That one is easy because it’s only 3 ingredients, and it’s 2 parts rum, 1 part sugar, and 1 part lime. If you’re doing a big pitcher, it could be 2 cups of rum, 1 cup of simple syrup, and 1 cup of lime juice.
Resources:
- The Cocktail Snob Blog
- Purchase Free Spirit Cocktails, here
- Instagram: @thecocktailsnob_
Last modified on November 28, 2022
