Looking to make your New Year’s Eve party a real ball? Use this night as an opportunity to show off your stylish side, the right cocktail is key to let guests know that they are in the right place for the evening. Play your cocktail game right and everyone will be a happy camper. Check out some good, easy choices below.
Fruit or Berry Champagne Cocktails: A staple of any good New Year’s party, you’ll want to stock up on some champagne. Fret not here is an easy way to take that boring bubbly and spruce it up to another level.
Choose a fruit (ex: mandarin oranges, blackberries or pomegranate) and a similar or complimentary liqueur. Its a good idea to experiment beforehand with the proportions, but a good start is four ounces champagne and one ounce of liqueur (or juice). You use the actual fruit as a garnish, a delicate peel of orange perhaps laid nimbly on the surface or some berries plopped in the bottom of the flute.
Citrus 75:
- ½ a clementine
- 1 ½ ounces gin
- ½ ounce limoncello
- ¾ ounce lemon juice
- 1/2 ounce honey syrup
- A cocktail shaker and Ice
Muddle the clementine in the shaker then add the other ingredients. Shake that bad boy a few times, then strain it into a chilled cocktail glass. Top with champagne and garnish with a lemon twist or orange wheel.
Cranberry Moscow Mule: This cocktail requires a little planning ahead, but it’s well worth it.
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cups water
- 1 cup of ginger cut into strips
- 1 ½ cups fresh cranberries
- Sauce pan
- ½ of a lime
- 2 ounces of vodka
- club soda
- Sauce pan and ice
Mix sugar, water and ginger in a sauce pan; bring that mixture to a boil then let it simmer. Add cranberries after the sugar has dissolved, remove pan from heat and place a dish or bowl on top to weigh on the cranberries. Let that sit for about two hours, then remove and place the cranberries on a baking sheet and roll them in sugar. Spear those cranberries after they dry with a toothpick to be used as a garnish later.
Take the syrup concoction and strain it into a jar. Mix together 1 ½ ounces of your syrup with the juice from ½ of a lime and 2 ounces of vodka in a Collins glass with a sugared rim. Add ice and stir, then top with club soda and the cranberries as a garnish.