Boise originals: Five creative craft cocktails for the holidays
Thai’s
Peppermint candles flicker on the mantle, gingerbread cookies bake in the oven and Nat King Cole croons holiday classics on the stereo. The scene’s set for an epic holiday party except for one essential element: the right drinks.
This year, ditch the store-bought eggnog and syrupy mulled wine and treat your nearest and dearest to a festive craft cocktail. Whether you’re a novice mixologist or an expert barkeep, you can take your holiday tipples to the next level with a few simple tricks.
The secret to crafting the perfect holiday drink is balance, says Brian Livesay, a longtime bartender and The Matador’s general manager. In the season of sugarplum fairies and candy canes, Livesay says, it’s important to make sure your cocktails aren’t too cloying.
“The trick is to add just enough sugar to make it sweet enough, without overpowering everything else,” he said.
Livesay’s SnowDay gets its bite from El Mayor Anejo Tequila and Laird’s Applejack, and is rounded out by a squeeze of lemon juice, a dash of bitters and a lick of sweetness from homemade spiced apple syrup. For an extra festive touch, Livesay pours the drink over a large chai tea-infused ice cube.
Taking the time to make something from the ground up will make your creation festive.
“Anyone can go to the liquor store and buy bottles of things to mix,” Livesay says. “If you make something from scratch, you make it your own.”
At Capitol Bar on State Street, Kevin Hopper likes to keep his holiday drinks simple. And the trick to that, he says, is simple syrup.
“It’s so easy to prepare and it just makes making a drink a lot easier,” Hopper says.
This winter, Hopper is shaking up the Woohoo, a minty combination of house-made chocolate simple syrup and Wondermint schnapps, an artisal spirit that blends peppermint extract, bitter almond, rosewater and absinthe.
“It’s like schnapps but it’s not as biting and syrupy,” says Hopper. “When paired with our chocolate syrup it almost tastes like a thin mint cookie.”
Kevin Baker at Mai Thai has an easy trick for serving holiday cocktails at home without being stuck behind the bar: batching.
Though the practice isn’t allowed in Boise bars, Baker recommends that home mixologists make a large pitcher of drinks in advance to ease their stress once guests arrive.
His favorite batchable holiday sipper is an extra-stiff riff on a holiday staple.
“In Puerto Rico they do a Coquito, which is like a Puerto Rican eggnog,” Baker says. “It’s rum, scotch, bourbon, honey syrup, lime zest, and a whole egg and nutmeg.”
If you’re looking to keep your holiday libations local, Grit American Cuisine in Eagle recently released its own Daywalker Whiskey, a locally crafted bourbon aged for two years in uncharred oak barrels that have been infused with orange peel and vanilla bean.
Bartender Matt Eggers recommends pairing Grit’s whiskey with a house-made cranberry simple syrup and a spritz of ginger beer.
“We’re calling it the Aunt Loosey, inspired by the relative you might only see once a year at the holiday parties,” said Eggers. “We wanted to go for an easy drink using the house-made cranberry syrup to give it a holiday feel. During the holidays you don’t want to worry about making anything too complex.”
And Eggers adds that there’s a golden rule for hosting a great holiday cocktail party: “Make sure you have enough for everybody.”
The Matador’s Bengala Roja (Red Sparkler)
Yield: 1 cocktail
1 1/2 ounces El Mayor Blanco Tequila (or other blanco tequila)
1/4 ounce Patron Citronge orange liquor
1/2 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
3/4 ounce vanilla-cardamom pomegranate syrup (recipe follows)
Pinch of silver pearl dust (edible glitter), reserved
Orange for making twists
Fill a tall mixing glass or cocktail shaker with ice, add all ingredients and shake well. Strain into flute or coupe glass (old-style champagne glass). Add pinch of silver Pearl Dust and stir gently.
VANILLA CARDAMOM POMEGRANATE SYRUP
Yield: about 11 ounces, enough for 15 cocktails
2 cups pomegranate juice
1 vanilla bean, split
10 green cardamom pods
1 teaspoon dried orange peel
3/4 cup sugar
Combine juice, vanilla, cardamom and orange in a small, non-reactive sauce pot. Place over very low heat and let simmer to reduced by half, about 30 to 40 minutes. Pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove solids. Then add sugar and stir to dissolve. Let syrup cool, then place in sealed container and store in refrigerator. Can be made a few days in advance.
Capitol Bar’s WooHoo
Yield: 1 cocktail
1 1/2 ounces Wondermint schnapps
1 1/2 ounces chocolate simple syrup (recipe follows)
Soda water
Combine Wondermint and chocolate simple syrup over ice. Stir and top with a splash of soda water.
CHOCOLATE SIMPLE SYRUP
Yield: 1 cup
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Bring water, sugar, vanilla and salt to a simmer. Allow sugar to dissolve, remove from heat and stir in cocoa powder. Place in an air-tight container and store in the refrigerator.
By Kevin Hopper
The Matador’s SnowDay
Yield: 1 cocktail
1 ounce El Mayor Anejo Tequila (or other anejo tequila)
1 ounce Laird’s Applejack
3/4 ounce fresh-squeezed Lemon Juice
3/4 ounce Spiced Apple Syrup (recipe follows)
2 dashes Regan’s orange bitters
1 large Chai tea-ice cube (recipe follows)
1 red apple, seeded, thinly sliced
Add all ingredients in a mixing glass or cocktail shaker and shake well. Strain into a rocks glass over a single chai-tea ice cube. Garnish with apple.
SPICED APPLE SYRUP
Yield: about 11 ounces enough for about 15 cocktails
2 cups unsweetened apple cider
1 cinnamon stick
6 cardamom pods
8 allspice berries
10 pink peppercorns
6 coriander seeds
3/4 cup sugar
Add all ingredients to a small, nonreactive pot and place over very low heat. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, until reduced by half to one cup. Strain fluid to remove solids. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Cool and store in refrigerator. Can be made a few days in advance.
Chai-tea ice cubes: Make a batch of half-strength chai tea using tea bags, not a liquid concentrate that contains sugar. Pour into large ice cube mold and freeze. As the cubes melt, your drink will evolve.
By Brian Livesay
Mai Thai’s Coquito
Yield: 1 cocktail
1 ounce honey simple syrup (a one to one mix of water and honey)
1 ounce Famous Grouse scotch
1 ounce Buffalo Trace bourbon
1 ounce Gosling’s rum
1 raw egg
Fresh grated nutmeg
Lime zest
Combine honey simple syrup, scotch, bourbon and rum into a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously and strain into second clean cocktail shaker. Discard ice. Add the egg and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass and top with fresh grated nutmeg and lime zest.
By Kevin Baker
Grit American Cuisine’s Aunt Loosey
Yield: 1 cocktail
1 1/2 ounces Ground Game Daywalker whiskey
3/4 ounce cranberry simple syrup (recipe to follow)
Splash Gosling’s Ginger Beer
Candied ginger
Combine whiskey and simple syrup. Stir and pour over ice. Top with a splash of Gosling’s and garnish with piece of candied ginger.
CRANBERRY SIMPLE SYRUP
1 pound fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 quart water
Combine whole cranberries and sugar in a sauce pan. Pour in the water and bring to a low boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Then put into a blender and pulse to break up the berries. Strain through a fine mesh sieve to take out the solids. Place in an air-tight container and store in the refrigerator.Can be made a few days in advance.
By Matt Eggers
This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Boise originals: Five creative craft cocktails for the holidays."