Well, it's that time of year again (finally!). As we mentioned in the previous post, instead of an advent calendar (24 days prior to Christmas), we're doing a 12 Days of Christmas cocktail series – the days between Christmas and Epiphany. We're using the 12 Days of Christmas carol lyrics as a jumping off point (we also considered Bob and Doug's alternative 12 Days lyrics as well), but aren't sticking TOO closely to them (except for Day 1, funnily enough) – there won't be any foie gras cocktails on Day 6 (or will there …). Anyhoo .. welcome to Day 1!
Day 1 is also Christmas Day. So we wanted something light to sip while opening presents, snacking on Chex Mix and looking up the Nick Offerman version of the Yule Log on YouTube. Kate also has a pleasant memory of friends making a fruit-based cocktail on Christmas morning. Kate's idea was too much fruit for Drew .. so we decided to go with something a little lighter, but still fruit-oriented. And since the gift on Day 1 is a partridge in a pear tree – we went with .. PEAR! Using prosecco made this kind of like a pear mimosa!
Partridge in a Pear Tree Cocktail
- 2 parts pear juice concentrate (You probably could muddle your own pear here and add some simple syrup, but you can also just use some pear concentrate – to save time, so you can spend more of it drinking with your family). We used Ceres (but forgot to include it in the picture).
- 1 part rum
- 1/2 part pear brandy (we used one from a local (British Columbia) distillery, but you could put any crisp pear liqueur in here)
- 1 tsp fresh lime (even though we used pear concentrate, we will never skimp on fresh lemon or lime juice – nothing beats fresh citrus)
- 1 tsp cherry heering
- 1 tsp simple syrup
- few dashes chocolate bitters
- prosecco (or other sparkling wine)
Combine all ingredients except for sparkling wine and stir gently. Pour into champagne flute. Just before serving, top with sparkling wine.
Cocktail Notes
- If your pear brandy is too sharp or alcohol-y, the chocolate bitters will round it out nicely.
- We also tried Apothecary's Mystic Caravan bitters (smokey pear) which were quite nice as well.
- We used Myers's Rum Planters Punch version. This was nice and dark, but may not be to your liking. Feel free to sub in your favourite rum 🙂