Warm winter cocktails are the wonderful glue that make the holidays magical. 

But being born in the Southern Hemisphere, I spent many Christmases in my youth on a beach sipping a Summery cocktail in hand whilst applying sunscreen.

While LA is far from being a summer Christmas hub, drinks here are a lot different from traditional drinks served during Christmas in the East Coast or Europe.

Christmas cocktails have always been for me bright, colorful, cold and refreshing. 

Christmas may look a lot different this year but because  you can definitely use a drink here’s a selection that has made me happy at Christmas in the past.

So no matter what kind of festive cocktail you’re in the mood for, I’ve got you covered this season.

So get into the spirit and spread some Christmas cheer…

Salud from my family to yours….

Holiday Sangria

Sparkling and festive, this Ruby-red holiday sangria brims with Yuletide cheer.

Perfect and easy for the holidays. This year your house may not be filled with friends and family – but gather around your tree with that very special small group of your closest and don’t worry about mixing cocktails all night. Here’s something fun, seasonal and a bit special: A homemade holiday sangria, your new holiday party BFF. A crowd-pleasing punch to build a party around, if there ever was one.

A little sweet, a little fizzy with colorful seasonal fruit, and (best of all) meant to be made in advance – this  homemade holiday sangria is the drink of the season.

Preparation:

Wine: red wine sangria is the most traditional, and we love how festive it looks. Selecting a wine for your homemade holiday sangria doesn’t have to be stressful, but there are a few things to keep in mind when making your selection. See below!

Fruit: citrus fruits, particularly oranges, are traditional and ideal for a holiday sangria since citrus season peaks in winter. Cheery lemon and orange slices look almost like Christmas ornaments, alongside a handful of cranberries in a big, generous pitcher or punchbowl at the center of your table.

Brandy: warming as a mid-winter fire, with hints of sweetness and baking spice, brandy is a traditional sangria ingredient, and gives our holiday sangria recipe it’s oomph.

Spices: cinnamon is traditional, and again a perfect compliment to whatever holiday goodies you might be serving alongside your homemade sangria.

Fruit juice: our holiday sangria recipe gets an extra dose of merriment thanks to the addition of a bottle of sparkling apple juice. For an extra sparkle , you could even use a sparkling cranberry-apple juice to make your holiday sangria an even deeper and more dazzling red.

In a large pitcher (or punch bowl) combine all ingredients. Stir to mix, cover and set in refrigerator overnight to allow flavors to come together. Serve over ice garnished with fresh rosemary sprigs.

Gingerbread and Espresso Martini Cocktail

This velvety smooth, espresso and gingerbread cocktail is the perfect warmer for chilly days – or as a cheeky, alcoholic alternative to pudding. Sit back and let the bartender do the work at Brighton’s award-winning Pintxo People (pintxopeople.co.uk), and Pinchito Tapas in east London (pinchito.co.uk), or mix one up in a matter of minutes at home

Ingredients

• Ketel One vodka 50ml
• Espresso coffee 25ml, chilled
• Gingerbread syrup 15ml
• Coffee beans (3)

Preparation:

Rim a chilled martini glass with cinnamon and sugar.
Shake all the liquid ingredients together with some ice and strain into the glass. Add the coffee beans and serve.

Classic Peruvian Pisco Sour

If you want a break from the seasonal cinnamon and dark chocolate flavors, this lemony sour drink is the perfect refresher.

The pisco sour is a classic cocktail that you’ve likely seen on bar menus. It’s the national cocktail of my home country of Peru, where it’s made and loved. 

Pisco is distilled from fermented grape juice using specific grape varietals. While technically in the same classification as other brandies like cognac, pisco is in a category all its own. It’s high proof, typically clear, and can range from slightly sweet to herbal and bitter. It’s delicious mixed into cocktails.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces pisco
• 1 ounce Simple Syrup 
• 3/4 ounce key lime juice
• 1 egg white
• 2 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Preparation:

• Combine Pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg white in a cocktail shaker. Cover and shake for 10 to 20 seconds to emulsify the egg white. Add ice; cover and shake until chilled.
• Strain into chilled glass. 
• Garnish with 4 drops Angostura Bitters swirled with two straws.

Chambord Kir Royale

Nothing spells Merry Christmas the right way with this Chambord Kir Royal cocktail recipe! Make a special toast this season with the refreshing taste of raspberry and a spritz from your favorite champagne.

These Chambord Kir Royale cocktails are pretty, delicious, and couldn’t be easier to throw together. Best yet: they use only 3 ingredients!

Ingredients:

• Chambord – It’s a really delicious raspberry liquer!
• Bubbly – Use whatever you prefer here. I usually end up using Prosecco, mostly because it’s very affordable.
• Orange peel – A little twist of orange peel really makes everything pop.

Preparation:

1. Pour the Chambord into the bottom of a champagne flute.  
2. Top with champagne/sparkling wine/Prosecco or whatever bubbly you’re drinking. 
3. Garnish with an orange twist

The Cadillac Monicarita:

We all know the classic Margarita recipe: a cocktail made with tequila, lime juice, and orange liqueur. 

So, now imagine a Monicarita: it’s a Premium Version of a classic Margarita concocted by my sister in law Monica Irauzqui in Stowe, Vermont many Christmases ago to quench the thirst of the merry Irauzqui clan.

The “Cadillac” is just the reference to the premium version – “the most classic of luxury American vehicles”.

Not only is top-shelf liqueur used but also golden liquor is used, which is why you sometimes hear it called a Golden Cadillac Margarita. What do we mean by golden? Well, traditionally the golden-colored liqueur Grand Marnier – a brandy-based take on triple sec – is used instead of clear-colored triple sec. Also, the straw-colored reposado tequila, which is aged a minimum of two months in oak barrels — is used instead of silver (aka blanco aka plata) tequila.

The Cadillac Monicarita will forever evoke beautiful memories for me of Christmases past spent with my family – it’s a great way to step up your cocktail game with very little effort while spoiling your loved one

Ingredients

• Ice cubes
• 1 Lime thinly sliced (saving the end piece to rub the glass)
• Sea salt or other flaky sea salt, for garnish
• 1/2 ounces good quality Anejo tequila or any other style of 100% agave tequila that you like
• 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier Cointreau or other orange liqueur
• 3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 ounce agave syrup or simple syrup

Preparation:

Make The Crushed Ice: Wrap a handful of ice cubes in a clean kitchen towel or in a ice bag and, using a rolling pin or mallet tap on it until all the ice is broken up and crushed into pieces ranging from pea-sized to snowflake sized.

Shake The Cadillac Monicarita: place the tequila, lime juice, agave, and orange liqueur in a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake well until chilled and frosty, about 15 to 20 seconds.

Serve The Cadillac Monicarita: Right before you going to serve the drink, discard the ice water, rub the rim with the end of the lime then dip it in salt, pressing to adhere.

Strain the margarita into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice (with a salted rim, if desired). Garnish with a few slices of the lime and serve.

Christmas Cosmopolitan 

A festive twist on a popular classic drink. Christmas Cosmopolitan is made with pomegranate juice, ginger ale for sweetness and, of course, vodka.

This could be called a pomegranate ginger martini, but Christmas Cosmopolitan is a much more fun name.

Let’s talk about the vodka. Plain or flavored vodka can be used. Lemon, blueberry, cranberry, apple or pomegranate, just to name a few.

If you’re looking for Christmas tequila drink, you can replace the vodka, with tequila. The same goes if you’re a gin drinker, as well.

Best served well chilled in a stemmed or stemless martini glass. To help keep it cold, keep your glasses in the freezer right up until you make the drink.

To make a festive garnish, take fresh sprigs of rosemary and poke a hole through with a toothpick then thread them onto the leaves of the rosemary.

Bust just because this is a Christmas cocktail, it can be served all month long.

Perfect for those lockdown nights !

Ingredients:

• Vodka
• Cointreau or Triple Sec
• Cranberry juice
• Lime juice
• A twist of lime
• Zest of orange
• Sprig of rosemary
• 100 ml (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) Vodka
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) Cointreau or Triple Sec
• 250 ml (1 cup) cranberry juice
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice 
• 1 cup ice cubes
• Garnish of your choice – orange, lime or rosemary 

Preparation:

• Put all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker or jar.
• Shake well to thoroughly combine the ingredients and ensure they are chilled.
  Strain into a martini glass or another glass of your choice.
• Serve with a garnish if you wish. I like orange peel, a twist of lime and sometimes a sprig of rosemary for a festive touch!

Hot Buttered Rum

This cozy spiked drink is great for chilly fall evenings or as a cocktail for holiday season.

Here’s a drink that’s ideal for sipping by the fire on a chilly evening: Hot Buttered Rum! Even just saying the name makes you warm inside. This historic drink has been around for centuries. Modern takes on it get a little wacky, so we’ve gone back to its roots to bring you the “real” way to make it. This version is subtly sweet, cozy-spiced with cinnamon and allspice, and spirit-forward with boozy dark rum. Oh: and there’s just enough butter to make it lightly creamy. It’s enough to warm your toes…and your soul.

Hot buttered rum is a drink of dark rum, hot water or cider, butter, sugar, and spices. It’s been around since approximately the 1650’s, when rum distilleries opened in New England and colonists started adding rum to drinks and punches.

The concept behind hot buttered rum is to make a “hot buttered rum batter.” The batter features butter, sugar and spices. Each drink has a dollop of the batter along with rum and hot water. Our take on the recipe stays true to the historical version: there’s just enough butter and sugar to make it lightly sweet and creamy: but it’s not like a milkshake.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons salted butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons spiced butter
• 2 ounces rum
• 6 ounces boiling water

Preparation:

• Make the spiced butter: Roll the butter with a rolling pin until it is flattened. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Use a spatula the butter together with the sugar and spices until everything is incorporated. Use immediately or refrigerate until making the drinks. 
• To make the drinks: Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of the spiced butter to each glass. Add rum and boiling water and stir until combined. If you like a sweeter drink, top it with whipped cream.
• Some recipes use apple cider for a sweeter spin. I prefer drinks that are lightly sweet and boiling water is most the most traditional.

Tequila Casa Dragones Joven

Dubbed the “Tastemakers’ Top Tequila” by Forbes Magazine, Casa Dragones Joven is a small batch, master blend of 100% Blue Agave silver and extra aged tequila, rested in new American oak barrels, for a complex, smooth taste that is perfect for sipping and pairing with food.

Casa Dragones is hailed as the world’s finest sipping tequila for its complex, smooth taste. 

I have been a huge fan of Casa Dragones for many years: it’s rich silky body, with brilliant platinum hues: a full body with a sleek texture on the palate.

It has subtle floral and citrus aroma with notes of sweet roasted agave. 

Soft and smooth with hints of vanilla and spiced undertones, balanced with delicate notes of pear with hints of hazelnut.

No lime. No salt. No problem. 

The best tequilas are not meant to be quickly slugged back as a shot or dumped into a sugary margarita mix. They’re for slower, sophisticated sipping, savored one sip at a time.

Casa Dragones Joven is my favorite sipping tequila of choice…and Oprah’s…