Santa’s sidecar cocktail

Name: Santa’s sidecar cocktail
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: Serves 10
Ingredients: 500ml cognac; 250ml Cointreau or another triple sec (orange liqueur); 125ml blood orange juice, plus extra to serve; 125ml cranberry juice; ¼ tsp fine sea salt; Pearl sugar or caster sugar to serve

Portion size: Serves 10
Hands-on time 5 min, plus chilling
Difficulty: easy

Dairy-free

Gluten-free

Vegan

Tom Shingler

Head of food, delicious.

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Like an upside-down Santa hat, this tangy, citrus-forward sidecar cocktail is balanced by the warming complexity of cognac. The perfect pre-dinner aperitif to make sure everyone is ho-ho-hoing as they sit down to eat.

Plan your festive shindig with more canapé and cocktail ideas.

Before you start

This bottled cocktail will keep indefinitely in the freezer.

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Ingredients

500ml cognac
250ml Cointreau or another triple sec (orange liqueur)
125ml blood orange juice, plus extra to serve
125ml cranberry juice
¼ tsp fine sea salt
Pearl sugar or caster sugar to serve

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Method

Mix the cognac, Cointreau/triple sec, both juices and 250ml water together in a freezerproof container/jug/bottle with a lid. Transfer to the freezer until ready to serve.
To serve, pour a little orange juice into a shallow dish and scatter the sugar over a second dish. Dip a martini glass or coupe glass into the juice, then into the sugar to create a sugar rim. Give the cocktail a good shake, then pour 100ml into the glass.

Nutrition

190kcals Calories
0g Fat
0g Protein
7.3g (7.1g sugars) Carbs
0g Fibre
0.1g Salt

Quick wins & tips

Bottled cocktail tips from head of food Tom Shingler: Most – but not all – cocktails can be mixed in advance. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Take it with a pinch of salt You’ll notice a tiny amount of salt in this cocktail recipe. It’s a trick I picked up from a master mixologist a few years ago that I swear by. Just like in food, salt opens up the palate to make your cocktail taste more of itself (without tasting salty). It’s a subtle yet effortless improvement – and a neat talking point.

Enjoy the water feature Cocktails are shaken or served with plenty of ice not only to cool them down, but also to dilute the mixture with a little water. This tempers the harshness of the alcohol, allowing you to taste the cocktail more. If you’re pre-mixing cocktails designed to be served in glasses without ice, you need to add some water to account for the dilution.

Stay chilled Pre-mixed cocktails can be kept in the freezer, meaning you can make them ahead of time and they’ll be perfectly chilled at all times. Alcohol doesn’t freeze, but if you have a higher concentration of non-alcoholic liquids in your cocktail (fruit juices or water to account for dilution, for example), they can become a little slushy. Don’t fret – a good shake of the container or bottle will break up the slush and remix the cocktail in an instant, ready to pour.

Master the golden ratio The beauty of cocktails is that they’re easily scaled up – you just need to keep the ratios the same. This recipe makes enough for 10 drinks, but for bigger gatherings the recipe be doubled, tripled, quadrupled or more.