This year, whether you’ve got a four-hour drive to your parents’ house followed by awkward conversations with your step-siblings or if you’re staying home and doing a Friendsgiving, consider adding another level of fun by introducing Shotsgiving to your loved ones. What is Shotsgiving, you ask? Only the best Thanksgiving meal possible: one made entirely of shots.
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We say that you should introduce them because if you’re planning on doing Shotsgiving, it’s not advisable to do it by yourself. What better way to get grandma to stop asking why you haven’t settled down with a nice girl than to offer her a shot of ginger liqueur?
If you prefer wine or cocktails, we’ve got suggestions for those too. But first, shots.
Side Dishes
- Cranberry sauce: Koval Cranberry Gin Liqueur
Made with thirteen botanicals sourced from local, organic farmers in the Midwest, Koval’s cranberry gin liqueur is a sweet yet tart take on cranberry spirits. The gin botanicals round out the flavor profile, offering a depth that is akin to digging into grandma’s homemade cranberry sauce. - Mashed potatoes: Grand Teton Potato Vodka
What kind of Thanksgiving meal would it be without mashed potatoes? Grand Teton steps in here with a spirit made from, you guessed it, potatoes. Distilled to the equivalent of 20 times and polished with charcoal and garnet crystal, this vodka is flavorful and smooth, with or without ice. - Rolls: Templeton Rye
With so much gravy and other good things in need of being sopped up on a Thanksgiving plate, you can’t not have bread of some sort. To solve that problem, we’ve gone with Templeton Rye, which exudes the spicy notes that rye lovers look for. It also has just enough sweetness to balance these notes out, making it great to stuff yourself on when Grandma takes too long to get all of the appetizers out in time. - Side salad: La Quintinye Vermouth Royal
While a salad should probably be a shot that contains multiple different spirits, we’ve gone with a flavorful, aromatic vermouth that incorporates 28 different plants and spices — enough greens go into this vermouth that the Jolly Green Giant would think it’s a long lost child. - Side salad (again): Prairie Organic Cucumber Vodka
A runner-up in Best American Flavored Vodka category of The Manual Spirit Awards 2018, Prairie Organic Cucumber Vodka is made from English cucumbers and is fresh, light, and full of real cucumber flavor. Paired with the vermouth, you’ll have yourself a smorgasbord of salad flavors. - Carrots: Boardroom Spirits Carrot
Made from 100% carrots that are processed and distilled, this is literally a side dish made into alcohol. The fragrance is like shaved carrots with a flavor reminiscent of coleslaw. All you’re missing is a little bit of butter. - Stuffing: Modern Spirits Celery Peppercorn Vodka
This vodka tastes exactly like it sounds. It’s best served in a drink like a Bloody Mary, but the flavors of celery and peppercorns work perfectly here for a nice stuffing. For those who want a different kind of stuffing or dressing, try substituting an apple brandy such as Laird’s for an apple-stuffing-flavored side. - Sweet corn: Glen Thunder Corn Whiskey
For sweet corn, you want an unaged whiskey that really brings those sugary corn flavors to the forefront. Glen Thunder from Finger Lakes Distilling in Burdett, New York, captures that essence, with a fresh corn nose and great smoothness on the palate.
Main Course
- Turkey: Wild Turkey Rare Breed
We’re cheating a little here and going with the name. That being said, there’s nothing better to anchor a meal than a good shot of bourbon. In the case of Rare Breed, this bourbon is barrel proof and rich in tobacco and oak flavors that are perfect to sip on all night long. For an added bonus of real turkey, you could always fat wash it (or, heck, fat wash it with ham and double up on the mains).
Desserts
- Gingersnap cookies: Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur
Simultaneously sweet and spicy, Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur offers up all of the flavors you love in ginger-flavored cookies, just in liquid form. After a long heavy meal, this spirit will awaken the senses and get you ready to close it out with some other desserts. - Strawberry rhubarb pie: Boodles Rhubarb & Strawberry Gin
While this might seem like more of a spring or summer drink (and indeed it works great in light cocktails), the slightly sweet, slightly tart nature of this gin would be a perfect representation of an (in our opinion) underrated pie option. - Blueberry pie: Art in the Age Black Trumpet Blueberry Cordial
Seeing as both black trumpet mushrooms and blueberries are harvested at the same time in New Hampshire, Tamworth Distilling decided to mix both together in a liqueur that is both savory and sweet. The two ingredients play off each other for a rich, fruity, smoky spirit that would be the perfect end to a long meal. (This was also a runner-up in this year’s The Manual Spirit Awards Best Liqueur category.) - Apple pie: Barking Irons Applejack
Made in New York (from a blend of New York apples), this applejack harks back to some of the first spirits made in the good old U.S. of A. Rich, fresh apple flavors mingle with oak, honey, and vanilla notes in each sip, making for a nice sipper for lovers of brown spirits. - Hot tea: Townshend’s Spice Tea Liqueur
Made using a blend of black tea, ginger, cassia, sweet orange peel, and other botanicals, Townshend’s Spice Tea offers up a sweet, spicy tea that is as good straight as it is slightly heated as part of a warming cocktail. - Coffee: Copper & Kings Destillaré Intense Café
After more dishes than you’ve got fingers, a nice cup of coffee would be a welcome respite. This liqueur from Louisville’s Copper & Kings starts with copper pot-distilled American brandy. From there, Café is infused with fair-trade Arabica cold brew coffee, Madagascan vanilla, cardamom, and honey, leading to a delightfully intense blast of coffee flavor.
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