Holiday cocktails often lean toward the sweet and bright, but that isn’t the only way to do a festive cocktail. At San Fransisco bar and restaurant Dirty Habit, located in the Hotel Zelos, they have a holiday cocktail list that’s a little edgier than the usual — keeping the fun and festive air, but making use of ingredients like spiced whiskey, ginger beer, and pomegranate liqueur.
The recipes include three festive specials that will be available from Friday, November 29 through December, but if you can’t make it to California then the bar has also shared its recipes so you can try to recreate the drinks at home.
You’ll need ingredients like Bad Sweater whiskey, which is an aged whiskey spiked with flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, cacao nibs, brown sugar, Valencia orange peel, and vanilla bean, and Pama Pomegranate Liqueur, which is made with pomegranate juice, vodka, and tequila. You’ll need to get your cooking skills out for the spiced brown sugar syrup, plus you’ll need to round up the usual home bar suspects like amaretto, heavy cream, and ginger beer.
Between the options for something creamy, something gingery, and something spritz-like, you’re bound to find an alternative take on a holiday cocktail which appeals to your palate.
The Naughty List
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Bad Sweater whiskey
- 1 oz heavy cream
- ½ oz Amaretto
- ½ oz spiced brown sugar syrup
Kentucky Reindeer
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Bourbon
- 1 oz orange juice
- ½ oz lime juice
- ½ oz spiced brown sugar syrup
- top with ginger beer
Winter’s Chill
Ingredients:
- 2 oz white rum
- 1 oz Pama pomegranate Liqueur
- 1 oz cranberry juice
- mint leaves
- top with club soda
