Three Christmas cocktails, and a martini I would make again

It was ten in the morning and I was about to make Christmas cocktails. I’d wanted to try something different after spending most of my Christmases in the UK over the previous eight years, but this was the only time I could fit the filming in. A mince pie mimosa, a Christmas martini and homemade eggnog were on the menu.

The martini turned out to be my favourite, despite some rather generous substitutions. The mimosa was pleasant but missing the flavours I’d hoped for, and the eggnog left me trying to decide whether I loved it or hated it. I could not make up my mind about that texture.

The mince pie flavour stayed at the bottom

The mince pie mimosa began with a syrup of light brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon and brandy. My spice jars looked cute, but getting anything out of them was another matter. My fingers didn’t fit and neither did a normal spoon, so I found a smaller teaspoon and got on with it. The smell of brandy soon filled the room.

Once the syrup had thickened, I poured it into champagne flutes. I was worried that leaving it too long would make it difficult to get out of the pan, so I moved fairly quickly. Then I realised I’d forgotten the clementine juice. It was supposed to go into the syrup, and mine was already sitting in the glasses.

I squeezed the clementine and added the juice separately instead, then topped the glasses up with Prosecco. That was my version of fixing it. The brown syrup sat at the bottom while the rest of the drink looked much lighter, and I had to try to mix it together.

It wasn’t bad. Mostly, though, I could taste clementine and Prosecco, rather than the ginger, cinnamon, brandy and sugar I’d put into the syrup. I’d wanted more cinnamon in particular. I would try this one again because I hadn’t followed the method properly, and it wouldn’t be fair to blame the drink entirely for that.

My Christmas martini had several substitutions

For the martini, I made another syrup with sugar, mixed dried fruit and cinnamon. The fruit I’d found at Tesco had cranberries and apricots in it, and I used a whole cinnamon stick even though the recipe called for half. After simmering it, I had to leave it to infuse and cool. Waiting was becoming a recurring problem.

After leaving it to infuse, I strained the fruit out. The syrup looked much more watery than the first one, which made me slightly suspicious. Then I started assembling the drink with what I’d managed to buy, rather than quite what the recipe asked for.

I used whiskey instead of bourbon, then brandy with a splash of raspberry syrup in place of cherry brandy. I couldn’t find everything in the shop. My reasoning for the last substitution was that cherries and raspberries were both red fruits, which is probably not the most precise approach to cocktails. I also eyeballed a smaller measure using a larger measuring cup.

I nearly forgot the ice and didn’t have martini glasses either. After all that, I loved the result. The whiskey flavour came through strongly, while I couldn’t really pick out the raspberry or the homemade syrup. It was a strong drink, and that was exactly what I enjoyed about it. This was the one I wanted to finish.

Eggnog was a love-hate situation

My family didn’t have eggnog at Christmas in Canada because my parents didn’t like it. I’d had the non-alcoholic carton version myself, but making it was new to me. Watching egg yolks, vanilla and condensed milk go into the bowl was not a particularly appetising start, and then I added brandy.

There was another sugar syrup to wait for. It wasn’t cool enough when I wanted it, so I had to leave things longer, and the finished eggnog spent a couple of hours in the fridge before I came back to taste it. This experiment involved considerably more waiting than I’d have liked.

The brandy was very noticeable, and the drink was creamy and warming. It was also thick in a way that I found quite gross. It wasn’t lumpy, but the smooth texture still bothered me, which made the verdict ridiculous. Part of me loved it and part of me hated it. The martini was a much easier decision.

Watch my Christmas cocktail experiment.