Spice up New Year’s with these fabulous festive cocktails
JOBURG – From nutmeg and orange Christmas coffee to red wine sangria, enjoy these delicious drinks.
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- Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Pudding Vodka
Ingredients
1 piece of mace blade
2 sticks of cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
1 lemon
1 orange
300g currants
200g chopped mixed peel
450g light muscovado sugar
1 litre quality vodka.
Method
- Warm the spices in a dry pan over a low heat for 10 minutes, or until the aromas are released.
- Grate the lemon and orange rind into in a bowl, then squeeze in 2 tablespoons of each juice.
- Combine with the rest of the ingredients, including the warmed spices. Mix well, cover and chill for 3 to 4 days, stirring a few times daily, if you can.
- To bottle the vodka, line a sieve with muslin and strain. Discard the cinnamon sticks, but reserve the soaked fruits for other uses.
- Decant the vodka into clean bottles and seal – this will store for up to one year, and can be served from the freezer or at room temperature.
- Distell’s Black Bottle Bitters and Cola:
Ingredients
1 part Black Bottle whisky
2 to 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 parts cola
Orange wedge
Ice.
Method
Fill the glass to the rim with ice cubes. Add the bitters, Black Bottle whisky and cola. Stir and add orange wedge.
- Amarula Dom Pedro
Ingredients
60ml Amarula
30ml espresso
120ml vanilla ice cream
25ml thick cream
Chocolate powder or pieces for garnishing
Method
Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker or blender. Seal the container, shake or blend thoroughly and pour into a glass. Garnish with chocolate powder or pieces.
- Red Wine Sangria
Ingredients
1 (750ml) bottle of red wine
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 orange, cut into wedges
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 ounces brandy
2 cups ginger ale or club soda
Optional: Lemon or orange wheels
Method
- Gather your ingredients.
- Pour the wine into a pitcher and squeeze the juice from the lemon and orange wedges into the wine.
- Toss in the fruit wedges (try to remove seeds first, if possible) and add the sugar and brandy, stirring gently until the sugar dissolves.
- Cover the pitcher with plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight to marry the fruit and wine flavours.
- Add the ginger ale or club soda just before you serve it. Garnish with freshly cut lemon or orange wheels if desired.
- Nutmeg and orange Christmas coffee
Ingredients
4 tablespoons ground coffee
1 small cinnamon stick
2 pitted dates
Pinch of ground nutmeg
2 cloves
Strip of pared orange zest.
Method
- Put the ground coffee, cinnamon stick and dates in a large cafetière. Add the ground nutmeg, cloves and orange zest, then pour over 400ml freshly boiled water.
- Stir gently with a wooden spoon to combine, then leave to steep for 4 minutes. Slowly push down the plunger and serve in espresso cups.