It’s getting colder. And with each dwindling degree on the thermometer or fresh inch of white fluff on the ground, we’ll lose our resolve to trudge outside—even to a favorite bar. Fret not. Freeze not. We asked some top bartenders to share recipes and recommendations for winter imbibing at home. Whether you need the perfect punch for your party, a hot cocktail to kill the chill or a stomach-settling digestif after a huge holiday meal, we’ve got you covered.
If you’re planning a holiday party, serving punch has an obvious selling point: Short of hiring a bartender, batching a beverage in advance is the easiest way to ensure you don’t miss your own bash because you’re mixing cocktails all night. Besides, a communal cocktail encourages a sense of sociability. The gravitational pull of the punch bowl makes it the party’s hub, where guests return to mix and mingle in different combinations.
Katie Emmerson, bar manager at The Hawthorne, recommends her Speedwell Punch. It’s a perfect pick for any holiday season soiree, thanks to a festive combination of olde New England ingredients: cranberries, tea and rum, the last a major Massachusetts export in the early American colonies. And it’s particularly appropriate for Thanksgiving gatherings, as Emmerson named it for the smaller ship that was supposed to sail alongside the Mayflower, bringing Pilgrims to their future home in Plymouth. Alas, the Speedwell sprung a leak and never made that famous voyage. Boozehounds: Consider this an early admonition about breaking the seal too soon.
Speedwell Punch
Ingredients:
6 lemons
2 cups white sugar
2 cups double-strength rooibos tea
6 oz. cranberry liqueur
4 oz. Benedictine
12 oz. white rum
12 oz. dark rum
Peel your lemons to create homemade oleo saccharum, a sugary oil commonly used in classic punches. It’s easy: Muddle the lemon peels with the sugar to release oils. (Let it sit overnight, or for two hours at minimum.) Then squeeze the peeled lemons to produce two cups of juice. Combine ingredients, stir to dissolve the sugar, strain out the lemon peels and refrigerate. When it’s time to serve, add ice to your bowl and garnish with grated nutmeg.
(Serves 6-10 people)
Rather than buying bags upon bags of ice, Emmerson suggests making one large ice cube by freezing water in a generously sized Tupperware container.
Jackson Cannon bar knife. Naturally, Emmerson suggests nicking the knife designed by the Hawthorne’s owner and esteemed mixology guru, created in collaboration with 164-year old company R. Murphy Knives in Ayer, MA.
The Usual Suspects
SEAN WOODS OF RIBELLE
Believe it or not, Woods had never even tended bar before becoming the opening bar manager at this breakout Brookline restaurant. Clearly his crash course paid off, yielding competitive skills that scored him the “Punch King” crown during the Boston stop of the Cochon 555 culinary series.
Ingredients:
1 liter cognac
1 liter Benedictine, an herbal liqueur
22 oz. fresh lemon juice
5.5 oz. ginger syrup
(Almost) 3 bottles of dry sparkling wine
Woods says to drink a “good size glass” of one bottle, then use the remainder and two more. He recommends brut or extra dry brut. Combine ingredients and serve chilled, with or without ice.
(Yields about 22 servings.)
A vintage Jim Beam decanter. Woods loves scouring antique stores for old-timey bar tools, and has a collection of the bourbon maker’s many commemorative vessels, which come in shapes like Corvettes and cowboys.
Atholl Brose Milk Punch
ALEX THIBAULT OF CATALYST
Everyone knows eggnog. Why not try this winter-apropos alternative from Scotland? Still a popular drink during Christmas and Hogmanay (Scottish New Year), it’s said to be named for the 1st Earl of Atholl, who subverted a rebellion by spiking the enemy troops’ well with this booze—so it should preempt any holiday squabbles.
Ingredients:
To make the brose:
1 cup of rolled oats
Pinch of Salt
2 cups of water
To make the punch:
1 cup of brose liquid
1 cup of whiskey
3/4 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of honey
For the brose, soak 1 cup of rolled oats in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt. Allow to stand for at least 2 hours before straining the brose away from the oats. Mix 1 cup of the brose liquid with 1 cup of good blended whiskey (Famous Grouse works well) and ¾ cup fresh heavy cream; sweeten to taste with honey (a quarter cup is a good place to start). Mix well and enjoy either chilled or warmed up slightly on the stovetop.
Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails. This just-released tome features 500 recipes from the influential NYC joint, winner of America’s Best Cocktail Bar at Tales of the Cocktail.
Presidential Punch
DAREN SWISHER OF JM CURLEY
Head bartender Swisher recommends this twist on the classic cocktail El Presidente. It honors New England’s rum heritage while integrating sherry, an on-trend cocktail ingredient that also adds body, preventing a punch from getting too watery as it dilutes during your party.
Ingredients:
1 750 mL bottle of Amber rum (Swisher likes Ipswich’s Privateer)
1 ½ cups dry curaçao (or a cognac-based orange cordial like Grand Marnier)
1 ½ cups oloroso sherry; Swisher recommends Gutierrez Colosia Sangre y Trabajadero or El Maestro Sierra 15-year
¼ cup pomegranate juice
4 lemons
2 oranges
3 bags of black tea (English breakfast)
¾ cup Demerara sugar (or Sugar in the Raw)
1 bottle dry sparkling wine
1 whole cinnamon stick
A day prior, peel 3 lemons (wrap in plastic and save for later) and 1 orange. Muddle the peels with your Demerara sugar until very fragrant, cover, and stand at room temp for at least 12 hours.
Five hours before serving punch, steep 3 black tea bags in 1 cup of boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove bags and chill the tea. Four hours before serving, add the chilled black tea to the citrus peel and sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved. Add sugar and tea mixture to the rum, sherry, curaçao and pomegranate juice along with the juice of three lemons (pulp strained and discarded); stir to combine and chill.
Pour punch base into bowl, add ice and one thinly sliced lemon and one thinly sliced orange. Top individual cups with sparkling wine as served, or add entire bottle to bowl just as first guests arrive. Garnish with grated cinnamon.
Holiday Spirits
By Scott Kearnan | Photo Credit: Adam Detour; Prop Styling: Sierra Baskind / Ennis Inc.; Drink Styling: Monica Mariano / Ennis Inc. | Nov. 21, 2014
It’s getting colder. And with each dwindling degree on the thermometer or fresh inch of white fluff on the ground, we’ll lose our resolve to trudge outside—even to a favorite bar. Fret not. Freeze not. We asked some top bartenders to share recipes and recommendations for winter imbibing at home. Whether you need the perfect punch for your party, a hot cocktail to kill the chill or a stomach-settling digestif after a huge holiday meal, we’ve got you covered.
A Knockout Punch
If you’re planning a holiday party, serving punch has an obvious selling point: Short of hiring a bartender, batching a beverage in advance is the easiest way to ensure you don’t miss your own bash because you’re mixing cocktails all night. Besides, a communal cocktail encourages a sense of sociability. The gravitational pull of the punch bowl makes it the party’s hub, where guests return to mix and mingle in different combinations.
Katie Emmerson, bar manager at The Hawthorne, recommends her Speedwell Punch. It’s a perfect pick for any holiday season soiree, thanks to a festive combination of olde New England ingredients: cranberries, tea and rum, the last a major Massachusetts export in the early American colonies. And it’s particularly appropriate for Thanksgiving gatherings, as Emmerson named it for the smaller ship that was supposed to sail alongside the Mayflower, bringing Pilgrims to their future home in Plymouth. Alas, the Speedwell sprung a leak and never made that famous voyage. Boozehounds: Consider this an early admonition about breaking the seal too soon.
Speedwell Punch
Ingredients:
6 lemons
2 cups white sugar
2 cups double-strength rooibos tea
6 oz. cranberry liqueur
4 oz. Benedictine
12 oz. white rum
12 oz. dark rum
Peel your lemons to create homemade oleo saccharum, a sugary oil commonly used in classic punches. It’s easy: Muddle the lemon peels with the sugar to release oils. (Let it sit overnight, or for two hours at minimum.) Then squeeze the peeled lemons to produce two cups of juice. Combine ingredients, stir to dissolve the sugar, strain out the lemon peels and refrigerate. When it’s time to serve, add ice to your bowl and garnish with grated nutmeg.
(Serves 6-10 people)
Rather than buying bags upon bags of ice, Emmerson suggests making one large ice cube by freezing water in a generously sized Tupperware container.
Jackson Cannon bar knife. Naturally, Emmerson suggests nicking the knife designed by the Hawthorne’s owner and esteemed mixology guru, created in collaboration with 164-year old company R. Murphy Knives in Ayer, MA.
The Usual Suspects
SEAN WOODS OF RIBELLE
Believe it or not, Woods had never even tended bar before becoming the opening bar manager at this breakout Brookline restaurant. Clearly his crash course paid off, yielding competitive skills that scored him the “Punch King” crown during the Boston stop of the Cochon 555 culinary series.
Ingredients:
1 liter cognac
1 liter Benedictine, an herbal liqueur
22 oz. fresh lemon juice
5.5 oz. ginger syrup
(Almost) 3 bottles of dry sparkling wine
Woods says to drink a “good size glass” of one bottle, then use the remainder and two more. He recommends brut or extra dry brut. Combine ingredients and serve chilled, with or without ice.
(Yields about 22 servings.)
A vintage Jim Beam decanter. Woods loves scouring antique stores for old-timey bar tools, and has a collection of the bourbon maker’s many commemorative vessels, which come in shapes like Corvettes and cowboys.
Atholl Brose Milk Punch
ALEX THIBAULT OF CATALYST
Everyone knows eggnog. Why not try this winter-apropos alternative from Scotland? Still a popular drink during Christmas and Hogmanay (Scottish New Year), it’s said to be named for the 1st Earl of Atholl, who subverted a rebellion by spiking the enemy troops’ well with this booze—so it should preempt any holiday squabbles.
Ingredients:
To make the brose:
1 cup of rolled oats
Pinch of Salt
2 cups of water
To make the punch:
1 cup of brose liquid
1 cup of whiskey
3/4 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of honey
For the brose, soak 1 cup of rolled oats in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt. Allow to stand for at least 2 hours before straining the brose away from the oats. Mix 1 cup of the brose liquid with 1 cup of good blended whiskey (Famous Grouse works well) and ¾ cup fresh heavy cream; sweeten to taste with honey (a quarter cup is a good place to start). Mix well and enjoy either chilled or warmed up slightly on the stovetop.
Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails. This just-released tome features 500 recipes from the influential NYC joint, winner of America’s Best Cocktail Bar at Tales of the Cocktail.
Presidential Punch
DAREN SWISHER OF JM CURLEY
Head bartender Swisher recommends this twist on the classic cocktail El Presidente. It honors New England’s rum heritage while integrating sherry, an on-trend cocktail ingredient that also adds body, preventing a punch from getting too watery as it dilutes during your party.
Ingredients:
1 750 mL bottle of Amber rum (Swisher likes Ipswich’s Privateer)
1 ½ cups dry curaçao (or a cognac-based orange cordial like Grand Marnier)
1 ½ cups oloroso sherry; Swisher recommends Gutierrez Colosia Sangre y Trabajadero or El Maestro Sierra 15-year
¼ cup pomegranate juice
4 lemons
2 oranges
3 bags of black tea (English breakfast)
¾ cup Demerara sugar (or Sugar in the Raw)
1 bottle dry sparkling wine
1 whole cinnamon stick
A day prior, peel 3 lemons (wrap in plastic and save for later) and 1 orange. Muddle the peels with your Demerara sugar until very fragrant, cover, and stand at room temp for at least 12 hours.
Five hours before serving punch, steep 3 black tea bags in 1 cup of boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove bags and chill the tea. Four hours before serving, add the chilled black tea to the citrus peel and sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved. Add sugar and tea mixture to the rum, sherry, curaçao and pomegranate juice along with the juice of three lemons (pulp strained and discarded); stir to combine and chill.
Pour punch base into bowl, add ice and one thinly sliced lemon and one thinly sliced orange. Top individual cups with sparkling wine as served, or add entire bottle to bowl just as first guests arrive. Garnish with grated cinnamon.
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