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Quality quaffing: the best Christmas drinks

When it comes to washing down Christmas dinner, let this be the season to try something new.

Michael Harden
Michael Harden

The classy amontillado negroni at Melbourne's Kikiriki.
The classy amontillado negroni at Melbourne's Kikiriki.Josh Robenstone

As we hurtle towards "the season to be jolly" it's time to think about how to wash down all that ham and pudding. The original Welsh version of Deck the Halls suggested that while "laughing, quaffing altogether" we might like to "fill the meadcup, drain the barrel" but there are multiple alternatives to the "fa-la-la-la-la" of self-medicating with cheap cask wine. This isn't to say you need to spend a fortune (unless you want to), but finding ways to drink a little less, a little better and a little more interestingly could have you discovering your own personal spirit of Christmas. Here are some suggestions to help you on the journey.

Traditional

The Bar Book will help you mix a classic cocktail at home.
The Bar Book will help you mix a classic cocktail at home.Supplied
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When thinking of traditional Christmas drinks, eggnog usually crops up first, quickly followed by the thought that drinking a thick rich concoction laden with sugar, cream and eggs and spiked with bourbon, rum and cognac at a summer Christmas celebration might be a really bad idea. Still for those who love the sweet drinks, it can be irresistible. And there are ways to keep things a little lighter.

Tim Philips from Sydney CBD bar Bulletin Place advises always using free-range eggs for a better result and to thoroughly whisk the mix so that it becomes lighter and fluffier while Michael Madrusan, from Melbourne's Everleigh, suggests checking out the lighter styles of "flip" drinks (eggnog is one branch on the flip family tree), adding that it's a style best served as a post dinner drink or nightcap. His suggestion for an alternative to trad eggnog is the Fitzroy flip (see the recipe below).

For those looking for Australian traditional, the 1970 cookbook by Babette Hayes, 200 Years of Australian Cooking, gives an insight into the kind of celebratory drinks popular in the early days of European settlement.

A recipe for Milk Lemonade mixes sugar, lemon juice, sherry, milk and cream (strained several times through muslin) and seems to take its cues from eggnog while a drink enjoyed by wealthy merino farmers is more apt for the climate – a refreshing mix of fresh lime juice, water and whiskey served in a tall glass with plenty of ice.

Jason Williams, group bars manager at the Sydney-based Keystone Group, says that whisky is a great traditional choice at Christmas but he suggests forgoing the "usual blended suspects" for something a little different.

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"One of my favourite whiskies is Talisker from the Isle of Skye and they currently produce a wonderful variation called Talisker Storm," says Williams. "With the usual honey and salt with a hint of smoke, it has a certain intenseness of flavour with extra sweetness and smokiness that, neat, or with a dash of water, goes well with everything from oysters to dark chocolate."

Cool

Some might suggest that skipping Christmas altogether would be the coolest option but, in lieu of that, having a cool/fashionable/pretentious drink in your hand may well be the next best thing.

Given the rise and rise of craft beer across the beer-drinking world, you should have a few in your fridge if you want to appear to be keeping up. There are a number of Christmas Ales, big, boofy, high-alcohol Belgian ale-style beauties like the Red Hill Christmas Ale (8.3 per cent Belgian Ale with spice and dried fruit notes) and the Hop Dog BeerWorks Secret Santa (8.6 per cent Gingerbread Belgian ale that uses home-made gingerbread in the mash).

Keystone Group's Jason Williams points to gin being one of the coolest drinks around at the moment and anoints Yarra Valley-distilled Four Pillars barrel-aged gin as his Christmas gin of choice. Not only does he like the addition of cinnamon, lavender and pepperberry to the botanical mix but the aging, in former chardonnay barriques, "produces a warm, spicy profile, great for cocktails or even straight up on ice".

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Vermouth is another cool option. There's a certain retro cred to this refreshing aperitif, especially when it's served simply over ice with a twist of orange. It's ideal on a hot day before a heavy Christmas lunch. There are plenty on the market but the locally produced Maidenii or Regal Rogue are good options, especially as they're increasingly present on the more fashionable bar shelves around town.

Bulletin Place's Tim Philips also gives a nod to sherry as being back "big time". He suggests heading for the drier styles like manzanilla, oloroso and fino and drinking them cold.

A good way to be doubly cool then is to drink an amontillado negroni, also known as a negroni Donata. This version of the coolest cocktail around swaps the sweet vermouth in the traditional negroni recipe (gin, Campari, vermouth, in equal parts) for the nutty rich notes of amontillado sherry. It's not only a seasonally appropriate deep red but it's food friendly and particularly good pals with ham.

Philips has also come up with a cool Christmas cocktail alternative to eggnog. The Scorched Orange Daiquiri "is a combination of northern hemisphere flavours (mulled wine, burnt orange, spice) mixed for a southern hemisphere climate". See the recipe below.

Budget

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This is the one where the adage "drink less but better" really comes into play, so those five-litre casks on pre-Christmas sale for $11 are not part of this particular plan.

There are plenty of good wine punch recipes floating around that will make the most of some cheaper wine (and there are good ones out there, as Aldi's success with its $12.99 Victorian shiraz at the recent Sydney International Wine Competition can attest). Tim Philips suggests sangria as an excellent festive season drink, combining equal parts red wine and orange juice that's spiced with fresh ginger, sliced peach and star anise. You can add sugar to taste.

Another drink perfect for the budget-conscious and ideal for the temperature is the Pimm's Cup, a punch made with one part Pimm's to two parts lemonade, a generous dash of fresh lemon juice (to taste) and apple, lemon and cucumber slices. It's pretty, refreshing, sophisticated in a sort of English garden party kind of way, and it also goes a long way.

Michael Madrusan suggests the budget conscious learn to make classic cocktails that have just a few ingredients like an Americano (a festive red), a Tom Collins or, his current favourite, a Coaster (gin and bitters served on the rocks with a lemon twist) while Jason Williams advises you invest in a good cocktail book like The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique by Jeffrey Morgenthaler that is "a great resource for those wanting to make their own cocktails but don't have access to a full bar".

Splurge

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Kind of obvious, right? You just go to the champagne section of any good bottle shop and head for the vintage Krug or Dom Perignon. And while there's absolutely nothing wrong with that and there should probably be a great deal more of it, there are other drinks to include in the mix that will add interest to the allure.

Michael Madrusan suggests a French 175 using excellent champagne, top-shelf cognac (the real stuff, from the French Cognac region) a little sugar and some lemon juice.

Jason Williams thinks that rum is perfect for Christmas, particularly Appleton Estate 50 Year Old Independence Reserve Jamaica Rum. It is, he says, "an amazing drop" with "sweet, soft flavours of grilled tropical fruit and baking spices". It's $5000 a bottle but it would definitely make for a Christmas to remember.

Recipes

Fitzroy flip

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30ml aged rum

15ml Pedro Ximenez sherry

15ml honey syrup (two parts honey to one part warm water)

15ml cream

1 egg yolk

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ice

nutmeg

1. Put all the ingredients, except the ice and nutmeg, into a shaker and shake to emulsify.

2. Add ice and then shake again, hard.

3. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with nutmeg (preferably freshly grated).

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Scorched orange daquiri

40ml Havana Club 3-year-old rum

10ml Regal Rogue

20ml lime juice

20ml scorched and mulled syrup*

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2 dashes Angostura Bitters

ice

1. Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake for 10 seconds until ice cold.

2. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

*Syrup: Heat one cup of white sugar over a low heat until it turns to caramel. Add a sliced orange, half a vanilla pod and cover with the caramel. Deglaze pan with a half cup of red wine, reduce, add half a cup of water and turn off heat. Cover and let infuse for three hours, until cool. Strain syrup into a clean bottle.

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