What to Drink: Ten Christmas Cocktail Recipes

These cocktail recipes are sure to impress your friends and family (or maybe just yourself).

The Coco-Mallow

• Coco Lopez
• Coconut Milk
• Vanilla
• Evaporated Milk
• Bacardi
• Cinnamon
• Blowtorched Marshmallow

This cocktail from the festive drinks menu at Il Pampero restaurant is one of the best we’ve tried – gooey and devilishly sweet. Head there to try it for yourself.

Spiced Apple Tea

• 50ml Bombay Sapphire
• 15ml Martini Bianco
• 20ml fresh lemon juice
• 3 thin slices of apple
• 1 cinnamon stick; 3 clove; 3 cardamom pods (broken); 1/4 vanilla bean
• 1 black tea bag
• 15ml honey
• 150ml water
• 50ml unfiltered/cloudy apple juice

Add water, honey and apple to a pot and heat. Add spices and tea bag when hot and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove tea bag and add apple juice, then strain. Add Bombay Sapphire, Martini Bianco and fresh lemon juice and stir before serving. Serve in a large teacup, with orange zest, spent apple slices and nutmeg sprinkle as garnish. A wonderfully warming alternative to mulled wine.

Grey Goose French Coffee

• 35 ml Grey Goose La Poire
• 75 ml warm speciality filter coffee
• 15 ml demerara sugar syrup
• Double cream
• Garnished with ground nutmeg

Build all the ingredients into a French coffee glass (or similar), and float the double cream on top. Voilà! This French twist on a classic Irish Coffee uses Grey Goose infused with soft pear notes to add a depth of flavour.

Blackthorn English Cocktail

• 45ml. sloe gin
• 30ml. dry gin
• 22.5ml. Martini Rosso Vermouth
• 3 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters
• 15ml. chilled water

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with orange zezt twist. This dazzling cocktail is from Town Hall Hotel‘s Christmas collaboration with Dennis Severs’ House.

Chartreuse Chocolat Chaud

• Blend of hot milk and dark chocolate
• 25ml Green Chartreuse
• Topped with whipped cream
• Garnished with chocolate flakes

This lovely Christmas warmer is available at The Ivy Collection sites throughout London.

Negroni à la Française

• 45 ml Nouaison gin
• 45 ml La Quintinye Vermouth Royal Rouge
• 1 dash Orange Bitters

Gently blend ingredients in a mixing glass and strain into an old-fashioned glass over a large sphere ice cube. Garnish with an orange peel twist.

Ketel One Oranje Espresso

• 50ml Ketel One Oranje
• 25ml Mr Black Spirits: Cold Press Coffee Liqueur
• 25ml Cold-brew coffee concentrate
• One dash orange bitters

Shake all ingredients vigorously and strain into a chilled coupe, or over rocks in a large tumbler. Garnish with chocolate flakes and orange zest.

Spicy Gin & Tonic

• 50ml Ophir Gin
• Top up with Double Dutch Spices & Oakwood
• Garnish with ginger candy and orange peel

Even die-hard G&T fans will enjoy this festive spiced twist on the nation’s favourite tipple. Adds a little extra warmth, perfect for crisp winter nights.

READ MORE: Christmas Present Ideas for Foodies

Seedlip Virgin Cocktail

• 50ml Seedlip Spice 94
  
• 1/4 pear
  
• 3x sage leaves
  
• 3x drops of droplets non-alc Absinthe

This is the perfect cocktail for the non-drinker who wants something more exciting than an orange juice. Seedlip is the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits brand, and they do not disappoint!

Hot Tanqueray Cider

• 35ml Tanqueray No 10
• 15ml fresh lemon juice
• 15ml syrup
• 3 dashes bitters
• 3 dashes hot apple cider

Referencing the original hot toddy, the hot Tanqueray takes a traditional gin and gives it a distinctly seasonal twist. A perfect warming drink to beat the chills.

Winter In Marrakech

• 50ml Opihr Oriental Spiced Gin
  
• 25ml Amaretto
  
• 25ml cranberry juice
• 10ml lime juice
  
• Orange peel to garnish

This cocktail is sure to warm you from the inside out with its hint of oriental spice. Try this at your next festive dinner party and you’ll be sure to impress your guests. Serve in a martini glass with orange peel to give it the wow factor.

A White Christmas 

• 15ml of Mozart white chocolate liqueur
• 25ml of white chocolate ganache
• Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label champagne

Gently mix the white chocolate liqueur and white chocolate ganache. Top with champagne. Decorate with a candy cane (recipe from The Hari Hotel, Belgravia).

Lee Broom Cocktail

• 50ml Tanqueray n.10
•  30ml Connaught cordial ( pineapple, timur pepper and kombucha)
•  5ml freshly squeezed lime juice
•  5ml Galliano L’Autentico liqueur

Shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a spray of green mandarin essence as garnish. (Recipe from the Connaught Bar and Tanqueray No. TEN collaboration, served in a class created my iconic designer Lee Broom)

READ MORE: The Best Christmas Hampers