Celebrating the holiday season right means making spirits bright! This wintertime cocktail features gin, lemon, cranberry, spiced agave, rosemary and Owl’s Brew Chai and Cranberry hard tea. This is a simple, seasonal cocktail with a festive touch from the rosemary wreath garnish and Demerara sugar rim.
We found the recipe for the five-spice agave nectar on Punch, which blends agave with water, cinnamon, black peppercorn, white peppercorn, star anise, clove, ginger and salt. It’s well worth making as it can be stored and used in place of simple syrup or regular agave throughout the winter season.
Topping this strong, citrus-filled cocktail with a carbonated hard tea (as opposed to a sparkling water or club soda) adds more depth. Owl’s Brew is one of the few hard teas on the market that we drink; it’s made with clean ingredients and tastes authentic because it is. Note that most hard tea and seltzer products on the market are made with “natural flavors,” which almost always contain chemicals.
In any case, this cocktail is a crowd pleaser and the garnish makes for an especially nice conversation starter. It can also be made in advance, so that you can easily serve to guests upon arrival.
Cranberry chai chiller
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz. gin
- .5 oz. cranberry juice (we prefer cold pressed)
- .5 oz. spiced agave nectar (recipe via Punch)
- .25 oz. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1.5 oz. Owl's Brew Spiced Chai & Cranberry Hard Tea (see product)
- 3-4 sprigs rosemary
- 3-4 cranberries, for garnish
- 1 green apple, for garnish
- ¼ cup demerara sugar, for garnish
Instructions
- To make the sugar rim: Place sugar in a small dish. Line the rim of a rocks glass with a lemon slice, so that the rim is coated with lemon juice. Dip the rocks glass into the small dish full of sugar, and gently twist glass back and forth, until the rim is evenly coated with sugar.
- To make the wreath: slice a green apple lengthwise and cut a circular hole in the middle of slice. Stick rosemary sprig stems into apple, making sure they cover the circumference of the apple slice. Cut the end of a wooden toothpick off. Place cranberry on top of apple where you'd like it to sit. Slightly lift the apple off cutting board and stick sharp end of toothpick through both the apple slice and the bottom of the cranberry, so that the cranberry sticks in place. Repeat with 2-3 other cranberries as desired.
- In between your hands, lightly smack 1 of the rosemary sprigs to express the flavor. Add the sprig to a cocktail shaker, followed by ice, gin, cranberry, lemon and agave.
- Shake ingredients vigorously, then strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.
- Top with splash (approx. 1.5 oz.) of Owl's Brew hard tea.
- Garnish with apple-rosemary wreath.
