Cocktail Confidential Vol. 1: New Year's Eve Punchbowls, Bubbles and Nightcaps
Hindsight is always 20/23
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end, yeah!” -Dan Wilson in his band Semisonic’s 1999 Grammy Award nominated chart-topping hit ‘Closing Time’
Alright, here we are. First off, thank you so much for subscribing to this newsletter and reading my recipes and opinions. I hope you find them helpful, interesting and maybe even thought-provoking.
I decided in the last few days that I would be adding a section, maybe weekly but probably bi-weekly or even monthly, to write a bit about current events or hot topics in the service industry, and pass along some facts that hopefully will be found useful.
So with that said, New Year’s Eve will be here shortly, and I have decided to share some recipes for delicious punch bowls, sparkling wine cocktails and nightcaps that you can drink to celebrate another year in the rearview mirror and the wonderful times ahead in 2024. Or toast your failed 2023 resolutions like me.
Let’s get it.
Punchbowls
A punchbowl cocktail as its core is a large batched cocktail that can be put out for folks to serve themselves. Weirdly, ice is an imperative part of any good punchbowl, as you want to ensure the drink doesn’t become too watery too quickly. For that reason, it is usually recommended to use large ice cubes or even an ice ring that can be made in a bundt cake mold. You can also use any sort of baking dish or even Tupperware to make a large cube. I think a large cube has less surface area than a lot of little cubes, so it melts slower. That’s science, if I am remembering correctly from 11th grade chemistry.
Sipping Soundtrack: LCD Soundsystem- This is Happening
What you’ll need:
Punch bowl
Ladle for serving
Big pieces of ice or one large ring
Measuring cups
Air Mail Punch
In a punchbowl, combine:
16 oz/2 cups aged rum such as Banks 5 Year, Plantation Original Dark or Flor de Cana 4 Year
8 oz/1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
8 oz/1 cup honey syrup (see below)
1 bottle/750 milliliters sparkling wine such as Spanish Cava, Italian Prosecco or French Brut
Stir the mixture, add the ice and garnish with orange wheels and mint leaves.
Honey syrup - Combine 2/3 cup honey with 1/3 cup warm water, and stir to integrate.
Italian in Louisville Punch
In a punchbowl, combine:
8 oz/1 cup rye whiskey such as Rittenhouse or Old Overholt
8 oz/1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
12-24 oz/1-2 cans San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa Blood Orange Soda, depending on how sweet you’d like it
1 bottle/750 milliliters Prosecco
Stir the mixture, add the ice and garnish with orange wheels. Feel free to adjust with more lemon juice if it is too sweet, some more blood orange soda if it is too tart or more booze if you’re trying to forget.
Bubbles
Champagne and other sparkling wines are synonymous with celebrations and New Year’s Eve. But sparkling wine can be a bit boring and fall short of expectations if you’re unfamiliar with all the seemingly endless laws and definitions involved in European wine making. For example, Italian Prosecco labeled as “Extra Dry” is allowed to contain residual sugar, and is therefore going to taste relatively sweet. Make it make sense.
So buy some shitty sparkling wine, pour it over some better tasting stuff and enjoy.
Sipping Soundtrack: Donna Summer - Bad Girls
What you’ll need:
Wine glasses or coupes (Champagne flutes are ridiculous, but use them if you have them)
Jigger for measuring, if you want to be fancy. Note on this below.
Champagne Cocktail
The original! Sugar, warming spice bitters and bubbles!
1 sugar cube
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
5 oz Champagne or French Brut style sparkling wine
Drop the sugar cube into a wine glass and top it with the 3 dashes of bitters. Slowly pour Champagne over the top. It is gonna bubble like crazy, hopefully. This drink can be garnished with a lemon twist if you’d like.
Note: If you don’t know what 5 ounces of wine looks like, it’s a standard glass pour that you’d get in a restaurant, not from your single aunt drinking Yellowtail on Thanksgiving.
Hugo Spritz
Elderflower is a floral, bright and delicious addition to most classic drinks. It is nicknamed “bartender’s ketchup” because of its versatility in pairing with almost anything.
.5 oz elderflower liqueur such as St. Germaine
5 oz dry sparkling wine such as French Brut or Spanish Cava
1 oz sparkling water (optional)
In a wine glass filled with ice, add sparkling wine, then sparkling water then elderflower liqueur. This can be garnished with a lemon wheel or a nice thicc bunch of mint.
Note: If you don’t have a jigger, which is a bar tool for measuring liquid ingredients, to measure out a half ounce just throw in a “splash” of elderflower liqueur. It’s New Years Eve - just have fun.
Benediction
Benedictine, featured in this cocktail, is an herbal French liqueur reminiscent of spiced honey. It is featured in lots of classic New Orleans cocktails like the de le Louisiane and Vieux Carre. Always nice to have on the home bar.
.5 oz Benedictine
1 dash orange bitters
5 oz dry sparkling wine such as French Brut or Spanish Cava
1 peel from an entire orange for garnish
Build the Benedictine, orange bitters and sparkling wine in the wine glass. Roll the orange peel up tightly so it resembles a rose and drop it into the glass. Hand it to a friend with a smug grin on your face and hope they’re impressed.
Note - Again, .5 oz is just a splash. 5 oz of wine is a regular glass pour.
Nightcaps
“Liquor before beer, in the clear. Beer before liquor, never been sicker” -All of us, lying to ourselves because that’s not a real thing
‘Nightcap’ is actually an old folk medicine term meant as an alcoholic beverage to induce sleep aka one last drink before you pass out. They’re usually spirit-forward, meaning lots of alcohol without juice or syrups. Think Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Negroni, etc.
Sipping Soundtrack: Hailu Mergia + The Walias - Tche Belew
What you’ll need:
I made this section easy because hopefully you’re night has been wild enough that you’ll be reading this with only one eye open. These will all be built in the glass you’ll drink them out of.
Old Fashioned
Please don’t make this with bourbon. Please.
.5 tsp white sugar
1 tsp warm water
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
2 oz rye whiskey such as Rittenhouse or Old Overholt
Add the sugar, water and bitters to a tumbler glass. Using a spoon or a teeny tiny whisk, mix it all up until the sugar is melted. Add the rye whiskey, then some ice cubes and give it a quick stir. Garnish it with a lemon twist or an orange twist.
Negroni
The perfect cocktail. This recipe calls for gin, but you can absolutely replace it with bourbon, rye or mezcal!
1 oz gin, preferably a London dry style such as Beefeater
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth
Add all ingredients to a glass with ice and stir for a few seconds. Garnish with an orange twist, wedge or wheel.
Note: this is an equal parts cocktail, so all you really have to do is put the same amount of each ingredient into a glass. How you do that and how large you make it is up to you.
Warm Milk with Honey
Just kidding. But actually far better for inducing quality sleep than alcohol.
Alright, that’s it for this week. I hope you enjoyed any of these recipes you may have made, and please feel free to leave a comment if something wasn’t clear. Thank you again for spending some of your time reading Cocktail Confidential and Happy New Year.
Next Thursday, will be the proper beginning of Cocktail Confidential with a recipe for Spicy Ginger Syrup and some words about Dry January. Until then!
Tche Belew fucks