Cheers To These Seasonal Sippers!
Nolet’s Silver Raspberry Mint Fizz is a great cocktail to make for guests during the holiday season. (Photo: Nolet's Silver Gin)
This time of year is when folks get all festive when it comes to cocktails. Hot Toddies. Champagne Cocktails. Hot Buttered Rum. And, of course, there’s the infamous Spiked Eggnog.
While you’re probably looking forward to indulging this season, you might want to consider a few new twists to some traditional drinks. Nolet’s Silver Dry Gin, for example, has created the Raspberry Mint Fizz for you to make at home. It’s smooth and minty chocolaty, plus any cocktail with a frothy egg white has got to be good.
Here’s the recipe:
2.5 oz Nolet’s Silver Dry Gin
.5 oz lime
.5 oz lemon
.75 oz chocolate mint syrup
.5 oz trimbach frambois
1 egg white
Dry shake. Shake with ice. Add 1 oz Lindeman's Frambois Lambic to glass and strain shake cocktail over it. Garnish with raspberry and sprig of chocolate mint.
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If Champagne’s more your style, Michael Jordan's Steak House is now offering a bubbly cocktail that’s a brand new twist to the classic holiday drink. It’s also the ideal sipper for those shopping along the Mag Mile. Or, if you’d rather serve it at home, here is the recipe:
In a Champagne flute add a sugar cube and soak with Peychaud bitters. In a cocktail shaker add:
1 oz Calvados
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz Combier Triple Sec
Shake with ice and strain into flute. Top with Champagne.
Other great spots featuring delicious holiday cocktails and more:
Balsan, which is tucked away on the third floor of the Elysian hotel, is in the middle of the shopping action in the Gold Coast. Through Jan. 1, they’re tempting shoppers to stop in for house-made apple cider doughnuts paired with Noah Mill’s Bourbon spiked cider cocktail.
Instead of cocktails, Frontier has decided to focus all its attention on the Twelve Beers of Christmas. In December, diners may choose from a dozen of craft micro-beers, including the likes of Bell’s Christmas Ale, Smuttynose Winter Ale, Delirium Noel and New Holland Cabin Fever Brown Ale. Bottles range $5-$10.
Leopold’s decked its halls with festive décor and holiday-focused drinks from new beverage manager Caroline Hamilton. Highlights on her menu include Apres Fall of Bordelet Poire sparkling cider, spiced cranberry and 3 Pins Alpine Liqueur and the New Fashioned of High West Double Rye, Kirshwasser cherry brandy, muddled orange and Peychaud’s bitters.
If you get your cocktails at one sixty-blue, you’ll be able to spend even more money on holiday gifts. On Fridays and Saturdays, the West Loop resto features $5 hand-crafted cocktails as well as some very good beer and wine selections. We’re pretty pumped about the Dirty Pickle Martini (160 cucumber-infused Boyd and Blair organic potato vodka, house-made pickle juice), The Little Tune (160 lemon-infused Prichard’s Rum, Small’s Gin, Hum, vanilla syrup) and Cinnamon Soho (cinnamon-infused Lion’s Pride oat whiskey, sweet vermouth, cherry bitters), which you can sip in the upscale lounge.
And you’ll want to raise your glass to Roka Akor's fantastic wintertime libations. Designed to complement the Asian-inspired menu, special offerings include Romansan, a delicious shochu with apple juice, mint, passion fruit and cinnamon, and The Berry Tree of peppermint candies infused into shochu, berry meritage tea, fresh whipped cream and freshly grated clove.
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