The tart sweetness of the cranberries marries beautifully with the resinous, slightly bitter punch of the gin and tonic
Wishing all of our Catbird Life friends out there a Holiday season filled with joy and love! We’ll be celebrating at home with a few cocktails, cake, and a non-traditional spaghetti and meatballs dinner. The go-to cocktail in our household is a classic Gin & Tonic, which is especially refreshing on a warm summer evening, yet still perfect for wintertime evening given its bracing piney bite. Heading into Christmas week with a hankering for a G&T and half a bag of fresh cranberries still hanging out in my refrigerator from Thanksgiving, I was inspired to somehow combine the two together. Little did I know that my spur-of-the-moment concoction would make such an appealing and delicious holiday cocktail! The tart sweetness of the cranberries marries beautifully with the resinous, slightly bitter punch of the gin and tonic, transforming the plain old G&T into a blushingly beautiful deep pink that can’t help but beg for a toast under the Christmas tree. If you love a good Gin & Tonic (click here for a great article about this cocktail’s fascinating connection to British colonialism), I hope you’ll give this great holiday version a go! Here’s the recipe I concocted:
Cranberry Gin & Tonic with Sugared Cranberry Garnish
Gin & tonic water proportions are per one cocktail
Ingredients
6 oz fresh cranberries (half a regular-sized 12 oz. bag)
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 oz. gin (I prefer the bracing bite of Tanqueray)
4 oz. tonic water (Schweppes or Fever Tree)
1 lime
Crushed (not cubed) ice
Rocks cocktail glass
Cocktail skewers, bamboo or metal
Preparation
- In a medium pan, combine 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil and simmer five minutes until slightly reduced. Remover from heat.
- Add in the fresh cranberries and stir well. Allow the cranberries to rest in the syrup for at least an hour while syrup cools and thickens slightly.
- In a medium bowl, add 1/2 cup sugar. Using a slotted spoon, transfer 6-12 cranberries from the syrup mixture into the bowl of sugar. Carefully toss in the sugar until each cranberry is sugar-coated and looks frosty!
- Cut lime in half crosswise. Cut a wheel-slice from one half, approximately 1/4 inch thick. Then cut the wheel in half so that you have two half-moon slices of lime. Onto the cocktail skewer, skewer the sugared cranberries and the lime wedge in whatever decorative fashion makes you happy. Set aside for garnish.
- Fill the bottom of a rocks glass with a heaping tablespoon of the cranberries in syrup. Muddle in the bottom of the glass with the end of a wooden spoon or a cocktail muddler until the cranberries are smashed and very juicy.
- Fill the rocks glass with crushed ice. Add in 2 oz. gin and then top off with 3-4 oz. of tonic water. Stir until your gin and tonic blushes deep pink.
- Garnish by laying your pretty frosted cranberry skewer on top of the glass (if you immerse into the cocktail, all your cranberries will lose their frosty prettiness). Enjoy!
Be sure to check out all of the other great recipes From the Kitchen at Catbirdlife.com. Click HERE to subscribe or you may follow us on Instagram or Twitter.
ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS BY STACEY UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
