Christmas in a glass: The TCL Mulled FizzSo, there we were minding our own business when the folk from Tesco asked us to create a Christmas cocktail to promote the new Cocktail Finder section on their site…
Before you could say ‘every little helps’ we were in receipt of a beautifully packaged scarlet box, bursting with an array of carefully considered ingredients. Even Mr G felt like a Hollywood starlet as we released the ribbon to reveal a bumper package of goodies including Captain Morgan rum, Friexenet Cava, Smirnoff vanilla vodka, Disaronno liqueur, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and essential bits of kit such as a shaker, muddler and pourers. All we had to do was create a festive tipple based on the booty enclosed in the box.
We went down the mulled wine route. We didn’t want to do anything too scary or twiddly – hey, it’s Christmas, no-one works to work too hard for their drinks. Instead we kept it simple and seasonal by zoning in on spices and traditional flavours such as clementines, port and a good old glug of fizz.
Make up a big batch of the spiced syrup and store in the fridge – the rest is easy-peasy. We’ll be sharing this and one other festive cocktail recipe with Jo Good on BBC Radio London on Wednesday 21st. Tune in to hear what she thinks.
TCL Mulled Fizz
Ingredients:
35ml Captain Morgan rum
30ml spiced syrup*
20ml freshly squeezed clementine juice
15ml port
40ml sparkling wine
Orange peel or if you’re feeling flush, edible gold leaf to garnish
Method:
Add all ingredients except sparkling wine into a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously for about 15 seconds or until container feels nice and cold. You’ll need to strain the liquid twice to get rid of any stray bits from the spiced syrup. Pour into a chilled champagne flute, add the sparkling wine slowly and very gently. Stir carefully with a long spoon to combine the liquids. Squeeze orange peel to release oils over the drink. Garnish with a long, party-popper-style strip of orange peel or some edible gold leaf.
To make spiced syrup:
50ml caster sugar
50ml water
1 cinnamon stick
½ grated nutmeg
2 cloves
1 split vanilla pod
Warm ingredients together gently for three to four minutes, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so, then strain off into a jar.
Find this and other cocktail recipes on tescorealfood.com from later this week.
