Man! Is it already December 23rd?!? Ugh. How'd that happen? If you're like me, today (and let's face it, tomorrow) is for rounding up last minute gifts. Have you been out there today? It's kinda crazy.... Nothing like waiting to the last-minute. Oh well, we'll do better next year...
But chances are you have all the materials and ingredients you need to put together a totally thoughtful Christmas gift that's actually completely last-minute! Just open up your liquor cabinet and bottle a batch of your favorite cocktail! Even if your bar is less than well-stocked, your neighborhood liquor store will have everything you need and should still be open. God bless 'em. When I happened upon this idea, I realized I actually happened to have a 5 liter oak barrel of a favorite cocktail barrel-aging already. Man, this is easy. But even if it's not as simple as pouring directly from a barrel to a bottle for you, the cocktail I had on hand, A Long Week, doesn't need to be barrel-aged (but it's cool; stay tuned for more post on that process) and is a very simple recipe: it's equal parts El Tesoro Plata Tequila, Cynar and Carpano Antica. To serve just stir the cocktail with ice in mixing glass, serve up in coupe, add few drops of mole bitters, garnish with orange peel (and you could totally get away without bitters or the garnish if you need to). So A Long Week is definitely a great option for this last minute gift, but Manhattans, Negronis and anything that doesn't contain perishables (like citrus or diary) will also work perfectly for your bottled cocktail christmas gift. So just choose your favorite; the recipient will loved that you love it.
So all I did for this last minute gift was fill a bottle with the cocktail, fill up an eyedropper vessel with some mole bitters and grab some oranges from the grocery store. Then I printed the ingredients and serving directions on kraft paper and used my tag punch and hole punch to make gift tags which I tied on the bottle with baking twine. Boom! Done! A hand-crafted Christmas cocktail gift.
Materials/Ingredients:
- printer
- kraft paper
- craft tag punch
- hole punch
- baking twine
- glass vessel to bottle the cocktail
Extra credit:
- bitters eyedropper vessel (if your cocktail calls for bitters)
- oranges (garnish)
