Five fabulous cocktails, zero mixology skills required.
Cocktail parties are back, and Christmas is the perfect excuse to throw one. Preferably without spending the entire evening behind the bar.
You've invited everyone over for Christmas cocktails. The music's on, the glasses are out and you've convinced yourself you're going to be the sort of host who casually produces an exceptional espresso martini. Except the children are wildly overexcited, you've still got food to prepare, you're nowhere near ready and the first guests are due in twenty minutes. Suddenly, learning how to make a perfectly balanced margarita seems a little ambitious.
“Because hosting a Christmas cocktail party shouldn’t mean spending the entire evening working behind the bar.”
And even if you do manage to pull off a round of impressive cocktails, who wants to spend the rest of the evening taking drinks orders? You're hosting a party, not working the Christmas shift at a cocktail bar.
Fortunately, ready-made cocktails have become rather more sophisticated than the overly sweet concoctions you might remember. We're talking proper spirits, carefully considered ingredients and drinks that require little more than a decent glass, some ice and perhaps a strategically placed garnish. All the theatre of a beautifully made cocktail, without the washing-up or the need to remember what goes into a Negroni.
So, whether you're hosting the entire family or having a few friends over for drinks, these five rather fabulous shortcuts mean you can spend less time playing barmaid and more time actually enjoying your own party. Revolutionary, really.
Espresso Martini
The Shortcut: Tommy's Fizz Espresso Martini (From £23.50)
The espresso martini has achieved the rather impressive status of being both a sophisticated after-dinner drink and the cocktail equivalent of announcing you're not quite ready to go home. It's also notoriously inconvenient to make for a crowd. Nobody wants to be pulling individual shots of espresso while the rest of the party moves on to the dancing.
Tommy's Fizz does the hard work with a blend of vodka, coffee liqueur and cold-brew espresso, finished with subtle notes of vanilla and tonka bean. At 13.5% ABV, this is a proper cocktail rather than a coffee-flavoured soft drink masquerading as one. Shake it well with ice, strain into a chilled martini glass and finish with three coffee beans. The only thing missing is the bartender, and frankly, we can live with that.
Spicy Margarita
The Shortcut: Pimentae Spicy Margarita Gift Hamper (£55)
A good spicy margarita should have a proper tequila kick, plenty of lime and enough chilli to make its presence known. What it shouldn't taste like is lime cordial with a vaguely Mexican ambition. Pimentae understands the assignment, combining tequila, fresh lime, agave and chilli in a 14.5% ABV cocktail that doesn't rely on artificial sweeteners to get the party started.
And because presentation is half the fun, the gift hamper comes with two crystal rocks glasses, Tajín seasoning for those all-important chilli-salt rims, dried limes and a round ice mould. In other words, pretty much everything you need to produce something that looks like it came from a very good cocktail bar. Just remember that these are deceptively easy to drink. The tequila hasn't disappeared simply because somebody else did the mixing.
Old Fashioned
The Shortcut: Daylesford Spiced Gingerbread Old Fashioned (£18.50)
If Christmas had an official cocktail, something involving bourbon and gingerbread would make a fairly convincing case. Daylesford's festive interpretation of the Old Fashioned combines bourbon, gingerbread syrup and vanilla bitters, delivering the warming, spiced flavours of the season without requiring you to start making homemade syrups. You've got enough going on with the actual Christmas baking.
Developed from a recipe by Sam Brown at The Fox, one of Daylesford's Cotswolds pubs, this is a distinctly grown-up proposition at 28% ABV. Pour over ice in a beautiful lowball glass, finish with orange zest and serve to anyone who considers Christmas cocktails a serious business. It's festive without being remotely childish, which is more than can be said for most of the household by Christmas Eve.
Vesper Martini
The Shortcut: No.3 Vesper Martini By Berry Bros. & Rudd (£33.25)
Some cocktails demand a little ceremony. The Vesper Martini is one of them, although the ceremony becomes considerably more enjoyable when somebody else has already measured the gin, vodka and vermouth. Particularly when the person responsible for the recipe is Alessandro Palazzi, head bartender at London's legendary Dukes Bar, where the martini is practically an institution.
Created in collaboration with No.3 Gin, this bottled Vesper is crisp, citrusy and wonderfully uncompromising, with notes of juniper, sweet orange and a little spice. At 28.6% ABV, it's certainly not pretending to be anything other than a serious martini. Chill the bottle thoroughly, pour into a suitably elegant glass and add a twist of orange peel.
Amaretto Sour
The Shortcut: Edmunds Cocktails Amaretto Sour (£34.95)
For anyone who prefers their cocktails a little sweeter, the Amaretto Sour offers the perfect excuse to bypass the Christmas pudding and head straight for another round of drinks. Although don't let the name fool you: a decent sour needs enough citrus to balance the sweetness, otherwise you're essentially drinking almond-flavoured syrup in a nice glass.
Suffolk-based Edmunds Cocktails makes its version with Luxardo Amaretto, lemon juice and sugar cane syrup, keeping the ingredients refreshingly straightforward. There's a proper measure of liqueur in every serve, while the lemon brings the sharpness that stops everything becoming overly sweet. The individually bottled cocktails also arrive with dried lemon garnishes, saving you another last-minute kitchen job. A quick shake with ice, a pretty glass and you're done. If only Christmas dinner were quite so accommodating.
