Cocktail Hour (and After-Dinner Drinks)

The Perfect Old Fashioned, According to Chris Kimball

Two types of whiskey, two kinds of bitters, all completely worth it.

By Claire LowerDecember 18, 2023

This Thanksgiving, Drink Cocktails from Your Freezer

Make it now, serve it later

By Claire LowerNovember 20, 2024

Cranberry-Gin Smash

Muddling—using a thick baton-like tool or spoon to lightly crush ingredients—helps extract flavorful essential oils and juices. In this recipe, we muddle fresh rosemary and cranberries with a bit of sugar, then add additional cranberry juice for color

Swedish Spiced Wine (Glögg)

At the holidays, hot mulled wine is consumed across Europe. We’re particularly fond of the Scandinavian variety, glögg. It is made with red wine and sugar, plus a robust cast of warm winter spices. Often bolstered by brandy, rum or aquavit—a caraway-f

Vieux Carré

This New Orleans’ classic straddles the delicious space between an Old Fashioned and a Manhattan: rich and bold, yet not heavy. Typically, this drink is made with a combination of Angostura and Peychaud's Bitters, the latter of which adds anise-minty

By JM HirschOctober 26, 2020

Pomegranate Mimosa

Inspired by the classic Champagne cocktail, we wanted to dress up a glass of sparkling wine without masking the flavor. We kept the bitters, but rather than sprinkle them on a sugar cube—which usually is dropped to the bottom of the glass—we combine t

Coquito

Coquito is a traditional Christmas cocktail from Puerto Rico that often is compared to eggnog. Though creamy and rich, it doesn't always contain eggs. It's traditionally made from a blend of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk,

Hot Brown Buttered Cider

This alcohol-free drink combines the flavors of two holiday favorites—mulled cider and hot buttered rum. Lemon juice keeps the cider tasting light and bright. We top it with browned butter in which we bloomed cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla bean. The but

Citrus and Bay Sangria

Though we often associate white wine sangria with warmer months, cutting back the sugar and flavoring it with warming spices—cardamom and bay leaf—make it a perfect holiday punch. Dry vermouth adds depth of flavor and underscores the seasonings. We li

Reposado Negroni

Sid Datta of Cunard Tavern in East Boston turned us on to this subtly smoky, slightly fruity version of the classic negroni, which replaces the gin with tequila. Reposado tequila has been aged up to a year, which gives it more nuance and less bite tha

Oaxacan Hot Chocolate

This is our adaptation of traditional Oaxacan hot chocolate, which uses freshly roasted cacao beans to provide chocolate flavor and finely ground nuts rather than dairy to add richness. Since cacao beans are hard to find in the U.S., we opted for unsw

By Julia RackowOctober 8, 2018

Yayo

This cocktail is traditionally made with a Spanish lemon-lime soda that is less sweet than most available in the U.S. We found that combining fresh lemon juice and seltzer water, then upping the vermouth, not only made up for the loss, but also kept o

White Sangria

This white sangria, our adaptation of Janet Mendel’s Manchegan white wine cooler from “Cooking from the Heart of Spain,” is light, refreshing and relatively low in alcohol, making it a great choice for summer sipping. You might expect a base of Spanis

By Julia RackowMay 24, 2018

New York Sour

Fruity reds work well for this float, but whatever you have on hand will do. In a pinch, maple syrup and agave are good substitutes for rich (2:1 sugar to water) simple syrup.

French 75

A half-teaspoon of a saltwater solution—and Angostura bitters—give exceptional balance to this slight tweak on the classic French 75. We liked the clean flavors that resulted from almost-equal proportions of gin and sparkling wine. To prepare the salt

By JM HirschDecember 31, 2017

Cinnamon-Smoked Whiskey Sour

Lake Placid bartender Zachary Blair crafted this cocktail with aged rum but says any hard liquor will work. We made versions with gin, scotch and gold rum and preferred the heft and balance that bourbon gave this citrusy cocktail. Blair recommends usi

By JM HirschAugust 7, 2017

Orgeat Old Fashioned

Classic old fashioneds are made with angostura bitters, but we liked the way orange bitters accented the almond-floral flavors of the orgeat. We liked Woodford Reserve Orange Bitters best, but the more common Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters al

Gin Alexander

Cream-based cocktails can be cloying and heavy, and we found most recipes for the brandy Alexander—brandy, crème de cacao and heavy cream—to be no exception. But its predecessor—the Alexander, made with gin—was lighter, with pleasant herbal and spice