Thanksgiving 2017 Signature Cocktail and Other Party Tips

Welcome to my blog!  Today's post is full of information regarding how to make your Thanksgiving celebration this week incredible, from a libations standpoint.  Previously, I have written about the importance of a signature cocktail for Thanksgiving.  Read about that and get three other proven delicious signature Thanksgiving cocktail recipes here.

My wife and I are hosting our families this year for Thanksgiving dinner.  I wanted to come up with a new recipe for a signature cocktail.  My initial attempts at creating something tasty were complete failures.  You can read about that here.  But if you first don't succeed, try again, which is what I did.  And it paid off.

So after purchasing additional ingredients, and a bit of experimentation, the Thanksgiving Signature Cocktail of 2017 is below:

Thank-You, Honey (2017)

2 oz fresh apple cider
1.5 oz Wild Turkey American Honey
1 oz Martinelli Sparkling Apple Pomegranate Cider
0.5 oz cranberry juice
2 dashes Regans' Orange Bitters #6
2 dashes Peychaud's Bitters

Combine above ingredients into a mixing glass, adding the sparkling cider last.  Mix with ice (especially if juices aren't originally chilled).  Serve in a large glass (double rocks) with a chunk of clear ice.  Garnish with a sprig of rosemary, an orange peel, some fresh cranberries on a pick, or some whiskey marinated cherries.

Some tips regarding creating the cocktail:

Chill the juices prior to mixing, especially the sparkling apple-pomegranate cider.

I used a honeycrisp variety of the fresh apple cider, but I'm sure most any fresh cider will work great

I used organic cranberry juice from Whole Foods.  This isn't the cranberry juice cocktail, but rather the bitter, real cranberry juice.

You can substitute any orange bitters you may have, but Regans' has no equal.

You can use any creole bitters, but Peychaud's in indubitably the gold standard.

Readers of my blog will know that I like my signature cocktails a bit sweet, juice forward, but with an understated liquor-punch.  This way the drink is approachable for all adults, drinkers and social drinkers alike.  While I love spirit-forward cocktails, not all guests can appreciate that.  Consuming a drink that appears like bourbon will easily eliminate half my guests (for right or wrong).  And while you can choose your friends (bourbon drinkers), you're stuck with your family, so you might as well make a cocktail that will unify everybody.

In addition to buying ingredients for you cocktails, don't forget the aromatics and garnish.  But do you really want to up your game a notch?  If so, might I recommend starting some whiskey soaked cherries?   I got the idea from a bartender I met in town.  He used dried cherries from one of those natural grocery stores.  His product, cherries soaked for 3 months, while delicious, was flat.  Not in flavor, but in dimension.  The cherries he used didn't have much body to them.

My variation on the theme is as follows:

• Take a small glass jar (I used an old honey jar, but a jelly jar would be fine)
• Add  dried cherries until jar is 1/2 to 2/3 full (I used the Costco Montmorency dried tart cherries)
• Fill remaining space with 1/3 bourbon, 1/3 scotch, and 1/3 brandy.  You can add some bitters if you'd like (I didn't)
• Shake at least once a day
• They are ready to eat after a day, but the longer it soaks the better

 

As you can see from the picture above, I've consumed a bunch of my cherries already.  They have been soaking for 2 weeks.  You can use the cherry-tinged whiskey-alcohol as a sort of cherry bitters or flavoring to add to an old fashioned or Manhattan.  In my opinion, these cherries (photo above) work great because they plump up some after soaking in the liquor.  This way, there is a texture and punch to this garnish.  The plump flesh of the soaked cherry reminds you of a premium cherry such as a Luxardo, but the whiskey flavor profile avoids the undue sweetness of a Luxardo or Maraschino.

I didn't want to use a premium bourbon to soak cherries, so I used my Costco brand (Kirkland signature) bourbon that I bought 5 years ago but never drank because it is all burn and no flavor.  I used my Costco sized bottle of brandy (that is not even half-way empty, despite being 10 years old), and some Chivas my father-in-law gave me for a present.  (What else do you do with Chivas, other than maybe make a Blood and Sand?)

The last order of business is to make some clear ice for your amazing signature cocktail to really shine.  Nobody likes cloudy ice.  Clouds are for the sky, not your rocks glass.  There are many methods to accomplish this, but one way is the following:

In a small cooler, fill approximately 2 inches with distilled water

Stick in the freezer for at least 24 hours

Once frozen, remove from freezer. 

After 5-10 minutes, invert the cooler to remove the ice chunk and let sit for 30-40 minutes to temper (become defrosted)

Once tempered, use an ice pick and hammer to make chunks of ice for your cocktail, otherwise use a large serrated knife to score the chunk, then tap the knife with the hammer to cut into cubes.

Using distilled water allows the least amount of impurities to cloud your cubes.  But by freezing the ice in a cooler, you create unidirectional freezing, which makes for a more clear product.  I used a small Coleman cooler (as seen above), and pried off the lid.  I have a storage freezer in the garage, so I just place the whole cooler in there, and after 24 hours, it is frozen solid.

The photo of the Thank You, Honey cocktail at the top of this page has a clear ice chunk in it.  You can't see it in there?  Precisely.  (Or should I say pres-ice-ly?)

It is Monday now.  Time is of the essence!  Purchase your ingredients.  Start your ice.  Soak your cherries!  Get ready to have a great Thanksgiving.  Be sure to let me know how your drinks turned out (whether you use any of my recipes, or please share your own).

Leave comments below and have a great Thanksgiving with your friends and family!