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Ten cocktails to serve this Thanksgiving

25 November 2024 By Ted Simmons

Capture seasonal flavours and be the star of your gathering this Thanksgiving with one of these festive cocktails.

The Hendrick’s Apple mule used gin, lemon juice, apple cider, and ginger beer

The holiday season is in full swing, with Thanksgiving celebrated in the US this year on 28 November. Much attention gets paid to the food, and whether you are grazing all day or saving yourself for the main event, a well-mixed cocktail can boost the festive vibe and accentuate classic Thanksgiving flavours of maple, cinnamon, honey, apple, cranberry, and more. These cocktails do the trick with whiskey, gin, vodka, and Tequila as a base.

And beyond these, we have 10 cocktail recipes for November, which include a Cranberry Ginger Punch and a Spiced Rum Toddy.

Bourbon Maple Cinnamon Old Fashioned

A blend of sweetness and spice from Templeton captures the warmth and comfort of the season.

Ingredients

60ml Templeton Fortitude Bourbon
15ml maple syrup
1 splash water
1 dash ground cinnamon
1 orange slice
1 cinnamon stick
1 maraschino cherry

Method: Mix maple syrup, water, cinnamon, and Templeton Fortitude Bourbon in a rocks glass. Stir until the syrup dissolves. Add ice, garnish with an orange slice, cinnamon stick, and maraschino cherry.

Honeybee

This twist on a Gold Rush makes SirDavis, the new rye whiskey from Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Moët Hennessy, the star.

Ingredients

60ml SirDavis American Whisky
22ml lemon juice
15ml honey syrup*
Garnish: Honeycomb

Method: Add liquid ingredients to a shaker tin with the ice going in last. Shake for dilution and pour into a coupe glass. Garnish with honeycomb.

*To make honey syrup, add two parts honey and one part water into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the honey is dissolved. Allow to cool and transfer to an airtight container.

Apple Mule

Created by Erik Andersson, Hendrick’s East Coast brand ambassador, this Mule riff is as simple to make as it is delicious to drink.

Ingredients

60ml Hendrick’s Gin
44ml apple cider
15ml lemon juice
44ml ginger beer

Method: Build all ingredients in a rocks glass over ice and stir well. Garnish with apple slices and mint.

Miso Glazed Carrot

A popular Thanksgiving vegetable gets the food-as-cocktail treatment here, courtesy of Aviation gin.

Ingredients

30ml Aviation gin
30ml miso maple syrup
15ml carrot juice
15ml lemon juice
7.5ml Frangelico

Method: In a mixing glass, add ice and all ingredients. Stir ingredients to combine for 20 seconds. Add ice to a tall glass (beer, collins, etc). Garnish with fresh parsley.

Apple Cider Collins

Fall flavours of apple, maple, and browned butter come together for this crisp Collins.

Ingredients

60ml Taffer’s Browned Butter Bourbon
50ml apple cider
15ml maple syrup
15ml lemon juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 apple

Method: Cut three thin apple slices and set aside. Combine the remaining ingredients in a mixing glass or tin and shake with ice until well chilled. Strain into cocktail glass with ice. Garnish and serve.

Thanks Given

This is a Cosmo meets a French 75, as fall flavours coalesce for a drink that’s fruity, herbal, and effervescent.

Ingredients

15ml Cointreau
15ml cranberry sauce
30ml dry sparkling wine
7.5ml lemon juice
Fresh sage leaves
30ml vodka

Method: Add all ingredients except sparkling wine to a shaker. Add ice and shake until well-chilled. Fine strain into coupe glass. Finish with sparkling wine and garnish with a sage leaf and orange wheel, if desired.

Optional: Rim glass with sage sugar. To make, grind sugar together with a few sage leaves in a small food processor or spice.

Golden Oak

It doesn’t get easier than this two-ingredient drink, which tops the newly released Angel’s Envy Triple Oak with hard cider.

Ingredients

44ml Angel’s Envy Triple Oak
133ml European-style hard cider

Method: Combine all ingredients into a chilled Highball glass with ice. Stir lightly to combine. Garnish with a long lemon peel or thin apple slices.

Cranberry Paloma

If there’s cranberry on the table considering putting some in your glass via this Paloma take.

Ingredients

44ml Milagro Silver
22ml lime juice
22ml cranberry juice
15ml thyme simple syrup
60ml pink grapefruit soda

Method: Pour all ingredients, except pink grapefruit soda, into a Boston shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a Highball glass with fresh ice. Top with pink grapefruit soda and garnish with skewered cranberries.

S’More Espresso Martini

The fireplace will feel like a campfire with this Espresso Martini variant that uses S’mores-flavoured whiskey.

Ingredients

60ml Mash & Mallow Whiskey
15ml coffee liqueur
60ml hot espresso
2 dashes coffee bitters
Three coffee beans (optional for garnish)

Method: Add Mash & Mallow, coffee liqueur, espresso and bitters in a shaker. Add three cubes of ice and shake vigorously until the ice is melted entirely. Double strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with three coffee beans.