Aldi Christmas Cocktail Challenge

We're on the countdown to Christmas now and with a whole month of festivities ahead of us there'll be plenty of opportunities to have a Christmas cocktail. I have been asked to take part in the Aldi Christmas Cocktail Challenge so I have already been sampling a variety of cocktails over the last few weeks, all in the name of research of course! I have made cocktails before but I'm certainly no expert and I'm more experienced in drinking cocktails than making them, but this seemed like a fun challenge to take part in so how could I refuse? 

I started off by mixing a few different concoctions, some too sweet, some too strong and some too bitter and after a few tipsy tasting sessions in the kitchen I've come up with two recipes that I feel have just the right balance of flavours and also feel festive. I think a good Christmas cocktail should make you feel Christmassy, have Christmas flavours and also have a Christmas inspired name, I feel like I have achieved this with my two festive cocktails.

Santa's Sleighride

My first cocktail is called Santa's Sleighride, I think Santa would love this as a pick-me-up on Christmas Eve, though I'm certainly not advocating drinking and sleighriding! I've used brandy, Coca Cola and Monin Tonka bean syrup which has wonderful caramel and vanilla tones. The brandy gives the cocktail a lovely warmth and the Coca Cola and tonka bean syrup give the drink a delicious caramel flavour. However, when the milk ice cubes start to melt the cocktail takes on a different twist and the flavour is similar to Baileys. The more the ice cubes melt the drink gets creamier and creamier and I love that you end up with another version of the drink at the end.

Ingredients

40ml Napolean Brandy
20ml Tonka Bean Syrup
60ml Coca Cola
Milk

Method

- Pour some milk into an ice cube tray and freeze for a few hours in the freezer. I used star shapes to make it more festive
- Add the brandy and tonka bean syrup to a cocktail glass and stir.
- Pour in the Coca Cola to fill the glass
- Add the milk ice cubes immediately before serving

Rudolph's Festive Fizz

I've taken inspiration from the bright red colour of this cocktail and called it Rudolph's Festive Fizz after everyone's favourite reindeer's nose. This zingy cocktail is really fresh and fruity and I've used gin, ginger beer, cranberry juice, freshly squeezed orange juice and finished it off with cranberry ice cubes. I wanted to use festive flavours in my Christmas cocktails and both ginger and cranberry are typically seasonal and work really well together on the palate.

Ingredients

60ml Oliver Cromwell London Dry Gin
splash of Ginger Beer
120ml Cranberry Juice
x1 Orange (a tangerine or clementine will do too)

Method

- Add the gin to a cocktail glass
- Add a splash of ginger beer
- Pour in the cranberry juice to fill the glass
- Cut the orange in half and squeeze a generous amount of juice into the glass
- Stir the cocktail and add in the ice cubes

Tip

- I made these cocktails in a cocktail martini glass but you can make a larger drink over ice if you have tumblers or pint glasses. Half fill the glass with crushed ice, add the ingredients as above then fill the glass to the top with the Coca Cola or Cranberry juice depending which cocktail you are making.

I hope you'll give these cocktails a try and let me know what you think. How about making these cocktails on Christmas Eve and leaving them out for Santa and Rudolph? They will make a refreshing change from a glass of milk and I'm sure Santa would appreciate a Christmas cocktail after a hard nights work though he might need to bring an elf with him as his designated sleigh driver.