Put down the eggnog and open your liquor cabinet. Dust off those alcohol bottles and invite some friends over for these classic and curious holiday cocktails created by mixologists from the Happy Noodle House’s Bitter Bar and Tahona Tequila Bistro. Cheers!
Tom & Jerry (serves one)
by mixologists James Lee and Mark Stoddard at the Bitter Bar
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 oz aged rum
1 oz Cognac
1 oz hot milk
4 oz hot water
Nutmeg
1 allspice berry
1/2 clove
Directions: Separate the egg white and yolk in two bowls. Add rum and brandy to the yolk and beat together until frothy. Beat the egg white until it peaks, then add milk, sugar, ground allspice and clove. Fold in the rum, brandy and yolk into the other bowl. Stir again. Strain into a mug and top with hot water. Top it off with ground nutmeg.
About the Tom & Jerry: A classic winter cocktail that was originally devised by sports writer Pierce Egan in the 1820s to help publicize his book and play called Tom and Jerry, or Life in London. Bowls of this rich warm cocktail were the staple at countless 19th century saloons as soon as the first snow.
Holiday Pimm’s Cup (serves five to six)
by mixologists James Lee and Mark Stoddard at the Bitter Bar
Ingredients:
3 cucumber wheels (about 1/5 whole
cucumber)
1 lime, quartered
1 lemon, quartered
1/2 orange, quartered
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 cup Pimm’s No. 1 Liqueur
1/2 cup Charbay Green Tea Vodka
1/3 cup Leopold Bros. Three Pins
Alpine Liqueur
Ginger ale
Directions: In a shaker, muddle separately: cucumber, rosemary, lemon, lime and orange. Fill pitcher 3/4 full of ice, pour muddled ingredients on top.
Add: 1/2 cup Pimm’s No. 1 Liqueur, 1/2 cup Charbay Green Tea Vodka, 1/3 cup Leopold Bros. Three Pins Liqueur. Stir and top with ginger ale
About Holiday Pimm’s: Pimm’s No. 1 is a gin-based aperitif that was invented in the 1820s in England by oyster-bar owner James Pimm. Its secret formula is a refreshing combination of dry gin, fruit juices and spices. Bitter Bar bartenders are crafting the famous Green Tea Pimm’s with a holiday twist. The result is a refreshing, seasonally appropriate cocktail with all of the fresh flavors of the coveted Green Tea Pimm’s. In addition to the winter spice flavors in the Leopold Bros. Three Pins Alpine Liqueur, the addition of fresh rosemary releases its aromatic oils and imparts an evergreen spruce flavor.
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Holiday Rum Punch (serves eight to 10)
by mixologist Ben Foote at the Bitter Bar
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Dark Rum (Myers, Appleton
Estate or Gosslings)
1/2 cup Batavia Arrack van Oosten
(Colonial Indonesian rum, just for
punches)
3/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice,
strained
3 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves
3 allspice berries, cracked
2 star anise
Peel of one orange
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cranberry juice
6 dashes Angostura bitters
1/2 cup ginger beer
1 cup water
For garnish: One large block of ice in punch bowl (as an aesthetic touch, freeze sliced fruit into ice block). For each serving glass, garnish with 1 orange slice and 1 cinnamon stick.
Directions: Prepare one day prior to serving. In a bowl or shaker, muddle orange peels (to extract oils) and angostura bitters. Add water, lemon juice and brown sugar, and stir until dissolved. Pour into large, sealable mixing vessel. Add remaining ingredients, and stir for five minutes. Seal and store in refrigerator to infuse overnight. The next day, strain punch through a chinois to remove spices and peels.
Combine with a large block of ice in punch bowl, and serve with ladle into glasses. Garnish with orange wedge and cinnamon stick.
About rum punch: The spices used in this punch make it a great holiday treat. Punch recipes are said to stem from an ancient East Indian recipe of five ingredients. The term punch is derived from panch, the Hindi word for “five.” Arrack (Southeast Asian rum; the Bitter Bar uses Batavia Arrack), tea or spices, sugar, water and citrus are the five ingredients found in most punch recipes.
British sailors of the 1700s were very fond of the concoction. They spread the punch recipe to seaport taverns.
There, the original punch recipe was tinkered with, of course, and many came to consider themselves “master punch brewers.”
Spiked Pumpkin Chai
by Tahona Tequila Bistro bartenders
Ingredients:
3 oz steamed milk or soymilk
1 oz 1921 Crema
1 oz Pumpkin Infused Tequila*
3 oz Chai Concentrate (Tahona uses
Third Street)
*Pumpkin Infusion: Can be made in large or small batches (one small pumpkin to one liter of tequila). Cut pumpkin into squares and steam until soft. Add spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, etc. to flavor.
Add three liters of your favorite blanco tequila and let sit for about six to eight days.
The longer, the better.
