What happens when you combine the flavors of roasted cranberries with fragrant cloves and rich brown sugar with clementines? A festive homemade gift to inspire the cocktail lover in your life.
These holiday inspired cocktail mixers are fun, flavorful, a bit unexpected and begging for a chance to toast salud! with loved ones. The technique to make them is simple and can be easily adapted to personal taste by swapping out any of the spices, citrus and fruits. Merely boil together equal parts water and sugar, add your chosen flavorings and steep for at least one hour and up to one day. Pour into pretty glassware and store for up to one month in the fridge.
We love to combine the Roasted Cranberry-Clove Mixer with champagne and a few whole cranberries for a festive toast during the holiday season. On the other hand, the Clementine-Brown Sugar Mixer is practically begging for a splash of bourbon, a low ball glass and a cozy night by the fire. Package these jewel-toned mixers along with a few handwritten cocktail recipes and you have the makings of a splendid holiday gift.
Roasted Cranberry-Clove Mixer
Makes 1 cup
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup water
3/4 cup cranberries
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Sprinkle the cranberries with cloves and roast for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan set over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from heat.
Combine the clove roasted cranberries with the sugar-water mixture and allow to steep for at least 1 hour.
Strain and pour into canisters.
Clementine-Brown Sugar Mixer
Makes 1 cup
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup water
1 clementine; peeled and pith removed
Juice of ½ clementine
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan set over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from heat.
Add the clementine peels and allow to steep for at least 1 hour. Stir in juice and vanilla extract.
Clementine-Brown Sugar Old-Fashioned
Makes one cocktail
1 ounce clementine-brown sugar mixer
Dash of Angostura Bitters
2 ounces bourbon whiskey
Clementine peel; for garnish
Combine Clementine-brown sugar mixer and angostura bitters in a rocks glass. Fill halfway with ice and stir. Pour in bourbon whiskey. Top with more ice and stir to combine. Garnish with a Clementine peel.
Roasted Cranberry-Clove Champagne Cocktail
Makes one cocktail
11/2 ounces cranberry-clove mixer
Champagne or sparking wine
Whole cranberries; frozen
Pour the cranberry-clover mixer into a champagne flute and top with champagne or sparkling wine. Garnish with cranberries.
Related: Straight Up: How to Create Your Own Cocktail Recipes
(Images: Rebekah Peppler)
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Where do you find bottles like that? I've been looking everywhere I can think of, and nada.
Cost Plus/World Market may have something like this.
Diasuki, do you have a Container Store nearby? They have those bottles and others.
Do you know if this would be able to be processed (in a different bottle, maybe) in a hot-water bath to make it shelf-stable?
Daisuki, Ikea's got them. But I think they're a bit bigger than these...
Look online at Crate and Barrel. They definitely have a variety of jars, bottles, etc.
We have done quite a few syrups as by-products to our canning experiments. We've often hot water bath canned them. In fact, I have some apricot on my shelves right now from our many ppunds of apricots day: http://winebookgirl.blogspot.com/2010/07/apricot-jam-easy-way.html
Drinking stock syrup? I guess it's reasonable...
Please note: that one month storage life is NOT a joke.
Earlier this year I made some ginger simple syrup (in that exact bottle, yes from Container Store), used about half of it for Tom Collinses, and then forgot about it in the fridge. Those jars are awesome looking but a bitch and a half to clean mold out of!
You can get these and similar small cute bottles at Sur La Table. Also, if the syrup is made in a 2:1 sugar to water ratio, it'll last a lot longer, up to 6 months in the fridge. Sugar is after all a fantastic preservative.
Oh, so here's another question... for the brown sugar clementine syrup, do you use the clementine for anything, or just the peel? I mean, I see that it says to use the juice of half a clementine, but is that from the one you peeled, or are you supposed to add the fruit from that one into the syrup at any point?
Thanks! :)
I was wondering the same thing about the clementine. It sounds delicious.
@katy! and ksg
For the clementine, I peeled it first, then juiced half of the peeled clementine. No need to use the actual fruit in the syrup (the other half is a great snack however!)
Thanks, everyone! I'll take a look around the internet for bottle/container stores nearby. Ikea's a drive, unfortunately, but there is a C&B within driving distance of me. :)
@rebekahp - thanks!! :)
I found similar bottles at The Container Store and Sur La Table. Sur La Table has bottles that look exactly like these ($3.29 each in N. California - cheaper than at The Container Store).
I tried both recipes and the Clementine Brown Sugar mixer is far superior. Add a little ginger to the cranberry one and increase the quantity of cranberries if you really want to taste them. Or use raspberries instead (1/2c sugar, 1/2c water, 3/4c raspberries makes a lovely, thick, flavorful syrup) - a little fresh ginger is great with the raspberries, too!
Can't wait to try this. I found that Specialty Bottles out of Seattle has quite a few options for containers. They don't have a retail store but can be found and ordered online. I've always gotten my orders in a timely fashion for my vanilla extract and holiday liquors I've made. We live 4 hours from any major city so I'm always researching online options.
Are these super-sweet? They sound great but also...maybe not suitable for people who like things more sour or bitter.
I work at World Market, and we have them in the store. If you live in a state with a World Market, I suggest going there. Usually the stores will have a lot of different cute containers.