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Thanksgiving Cocktails to Serve at Your Home Bar

Looking to stock your home bar with ingredients for some interesting specialty drinks to serve at your Thanksgiving dinner?  Here is a compliation of 18 fun Thanksgiving Cocktail recipes.  Happy Thanksgiving!

1.   Chilled Pumpkin Latte 

1 ounce Blue Ice Vodka

¾ ounce coffee liqueur

¾ ounce DaVinci Pumpkin Pie Syrup

Build over cubed ice in a 12- to 14-ounce Collins-style glass.

2.   Pumpkin Pie Martini

4 parts Blue Ice Vodka

1 part DaVinci Pumpkin Pie Syrup

Cinnamon Sugar

Add Blue Ice and Pumpkin Pie Syrup to a cocktail shaker, shake well and strain. Garnish with an orange slice and pour into a cocktail glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar.

3.   Apple Pie

1 1/4 oz Blue Ice Vodka

3/4 oz Tuaca Liqueur

1/2 oz Sweet & Sour

Fill with Chilled Apple Cider

Build in order over ice in a 12 oz glass, garnish with a lemon slice, a long cinnamon stick, and a straw.

4.   Gingersnap

½ part ginger brandy

1 part spiced rum

4 parts eggnog

Crumbled gingersnaps

Put your gingersnaps in a blender and grind until you have cookie crumbs. Use the cookies to rim highball glasses. Mix the eggnog, rum, and brandy in your glasses. Serve with an intact gingersnap for dunking.

 5.  Vanilla Cranberry Cape Cod 

1 1/2 oz. vanilla flavored vodka

Red cranberry juice

Lime wedge and fresh cranberries for garnish

Fill a tumbler glass with ice and add ingredients.  Spear a couple of fresh cranberries and a lime wedge with a cocktail pick to place in the glass as a garnish.

6.   Hot Hazelnut Cider 

1 gallon apple cider

2 Bartlett pears, washed, cut into wedges

4 cinnamon sticks

1 Teaspoon ground ginger

Franjelico Hazelnut Liqueur

Place cider, pears, cinnamon sticks and ginger in a large pot. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, remove cinnamon sticks. Keep cider in pot over low flame on stove for guests to help themselves. Or place cider in a round chafer over low flame with a ladle and mugs nearby on buffet table. Set a bottle of Franjelico Hazelnut Liqueur on the side for the grown-ups to add to their drinks.

7.   Carmel Pumpkin Pie

2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs

1-1/2 ounces milk

1-1/2 ounces vanilla vodka

1-1/2 ounces Bailey’s Crème Caramel

1-1/2 ounce spiced pumpkin liqueur

Cinnamon stick for garnish

Whipped cream for garnish

Dip the rim of a martini glass in water and then dip in graham cracker crumbs.  Combine milk, vodka, crème caramel, and pumpkin liqueur in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into prepared martini glass.  Garnish with a cinnamon stick and a dollop of whipped cream. 

8.   Mayflower Martini 

6 parts vodka

2 parts dry vermouth

Olive

Combine liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with olive and mini American flag.

9.   Sage Mojito 

Juice of 1 lime

2 mint leaves

2 sage leaves and 1 sage sprig for garnish

1 oz. simple syrup (recipe below)

2 oz. light rum

Club Soda

Add juice, mint, sage and syrup into a tall glass. Crush mint and sage using the back of a spoon or a muddler. Fill glass with crushed ice and add rum. Fill remainder of glass with club soda and stir. Garnish with a sage sprig.

Simple syrup: combine equal amounts of sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat until boiling and sugar has dissolved. Cool and transfer into a cruet or bottle.

10.  Pumpkin Spiced Margarita 

2 oz Camarena Reposado Tequila

1 can pumpkin puree

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 pinch nutmeg

2 cups water

½ oz orange liqueur

Juice of ½ a lime

Make a pumpkin simple syrup by combining pumpkin puree with brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and water in a saucepan over low heat. Stir for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, cool and strain. Combine the juice of half a lime, Camarena Reposado Tequila, and 2 oz pumpkin simple syrup. Shake well and serve on the rocks.

11. Berry Thankful 

2 ounces Baileys Original Irish Cream

8-9 raspberries

Crushed ice

Place 4-5 raspberries at the bottom of a rocks glass and lightly muddle them.  Top with crushed ice.  Add Baileys Irish Cream.  Garnish with three speared raspberries.

12.  Cranberry Bourbon Spritz 

2 oz ice

1 shot bourbon

2 shots natural, unsweetened cranberry juice

splash of Peychaud's Bitters

1/4 tsp agave nectar

2 lime wheels

ginger ale

Place ice in a rocks glass.  Add the bourbon, cranberry juice, bitters, and agave nectar.   Stir gently to mix. Squeeze one of the lime wheels into the glass and drop in.  Top off with ginger ale. Garnish with remaining lime wheel.  Toast the upcoming Thanksgiving season!

13.  Pomegranite Mojito 

2 lime wedges

5 sprigs mint

1 teaspoon sugar

3 or 4 dashes Angostura bitters

2 ounces light rum

1-1/2 ounce pomegranate juice

Splash of soda

Lime wheel for garnish

Place the lime wedges, mint, sugar and bitters in a glass and muddle. Add ice, rum and pomegranate juice. Stir, top with soda and garnish with a lime wheel.

 14.  Pumpkin Pie 

1 part kahlua

1 part spiced pumpkin pie filling

2 parts coconut rum

4 parts cold milk

6 ice cubes

Garnish with cinnamon

Put everything but the cinnamon in a blender. Mix on high. Serve in graham cracker crust highball glasses and sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

 15.  Rosemary Pear Cocktail 

6 to 10 Seckel pears

4 cups (32 ounces) vodka

1 cup sugar

12 fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) pear nectar

4 cups (32 ounces) sparkling water

Put enough pears into a 48-ounce glass jar to fill. Add vodka. Seal jar, and let stand at room temperature 2 weeks (up to 2 months).

Heat sugar and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Add rosemary; remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes. Discard rosemary. Let cool completely. Syrup can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 month.

Fill 12-ounce glasses halfway with ice. Add 4 tablespoons vodka, 2 tablespoons syrup, and 3 tablespoons pear nectar to each. Top with 1/2 cup sparkling water. Serve garnished with rosemary sprigs.

16.  Turkey Trot 

1 part bourbon

2 parts 7-Up

2 parts cranberry juice

Mix everything in a highball glass and drink on the rocks.

 17.  Royal Cider Grog 

6 parts apple cider

1 part Crown Royal

Cinnamon sticks

Warm the apple cider in a mug. Top it with the Crown Royal and stir with a cinnamon stick.

 18.  Cranberry Cocktail 

1 oz. Grey Goose vodka

1/2 oz. Chambord

3 oz. cran-raspberry juice

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add Grey Goose vodka, Chambord and cran-raspberry juice.

Strain and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with a frozen cranberry skewer.

Please remember to drink responsibly!