BOOZE!

[Hetyanni]

I've just bought an apple and cinnamon gin. I am considering a bottle of Amaretto but neither me or dh like coke as a mixer so not sure. Cremant is purchased for Christmas lunch/evening.

Winter is coming - what'll you have to drink?

@HelloTreacle9

Have you tried the Stones special reserve? So good! chef's kiss

Righto, finally my kind of Christmas topic! These are my boozy plans for the festive period;

From October onwards I switch from white wine to red wine (pref merlot) warmed slightly by the fire in a decanter. Port is also allowed from October/November onwards, especially where there is cheese. Port can be mixed with brandy if the day has particularly sharp edges which need softening quickly. There is nothing more festive than a warming port in a small cut crystal glass.
Mulled wine can be drunk from early December onwards (until 1st Jan)- it can be made stronger with brandy depending on your taste and plans for the next day. Mulled port is delicious but is also like rocket fuel and should be avoided at all costs if you don’t want to crawl to bed after an hour.
Buck’s Fizz goes down well if it’s officially too early in the day to drink anything stronger or if you have plans later on.
I’ve spent years making and drinking Damson gin but I’m finding it a bit syrupy recently despite reducing the sugar content considerably over the years. Mix it with Prosecco for a delicious cocktail (see also Crème de Cassis) but beware it goes down far too easily!
That’s pretty much it I think- maybe a bottle of Bud with a turkey curry.

Wtf is cremant? I’ve seen it mentioned a couple of times now, first time I presumed it was a weird autocorrect

It’s okay, I googled and found out
I think it’s safe to say I can live without it in my booze cabinet !!

Depending on who's driving...

If it's not me, I'll be making chocolate orange vodka in the dishwasher. Otherwise it'll be a very small glass of fizz with lunch to toast absent friends and then a glass or two of Bailey's after I've dropped MIL home.

Amaretto in black coffee, Amaretto in coffee with cream, Amaretto in hot milk, Amaretto over ice cream, Amaretto neat, Amaretto on the rocks. Christmas is pretty much the only time I drink Amaretto so I make hay whilst the sun (doesn't) shine.

Glass of Prosecco (or cremant!), splash of amaretto, squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of cherry gin or a couple of frozen cherries. Bliss.

Also, use it to make amaretto biscuits. Ridiculously easy to make and taste amazing!… www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/amarettibistcuits_67183#:~:text=Method.%201%20Preheat%20the%20oven%20to%20170C%2F325F%2FGas%203.,of%20the%20mixture%20approximately%202cm%2F%C2%BEin%20apart%2C%20...%20

Ooh, nice thread!

I never drink creamy stuff, have not much of a sweet tooth, and can't stand whiskey ... except at Christmas when I have to have Baileys!

No one has yet said brandy, but I love that - I have to have some to soak the Christmas cake, and I really want calvados this year. My brother does calvados and baileys with milk, and it's lovely - like a really creamy, boozy apple pie.

Oh, and this thread is making me want fruit gin! I haven't made it since the year before DP was pregnant. We'd made sloe gin in a 2 litre bottle then forgot about it for months in a house move. We hauled it out, and to our disappointment saw we must have made much less than we'd thought. Since it was Christmas and DP was past the first trimester we figured she could have a tiny taste. ... OMG! It turned out we had made the full two litres and it had been quietly evaporating since then, so what we had was deliciously fruity but also very, very strong. Poor DP barely got to smell it. It was so good, though, we promised to make it again some time when neither of us is pregnant.

I've mentioned it on another thread but I love a Santa's Little Helper (from Nigella's Christmas book.):

1 measure brandy
Half a measure Cointreau
Half a measure amaretto over ice

I also like having cranberry juice and prosecco for a festive buck's fizz.

Ah Kuhlua ,drink of the 90’s. Equal measures of this, Baileys and an orange liqueur like Cointreau or Grand Marnier makes the most delicious Christmas shot (aka a B52).

I’ve bought Baileys as was on offer in Tesco and makes a good gift for neighbours etc.
Other than that I stock up on 25% wine when it’s available.

However its Beaujolais Nouveau time this week. I’ll be drinking that first before anything too Christmasy. Happy Days!

Every festive season M&S do a prosecco with clementines and cranberries, a kind of Christmassy Buck's Fizz. It's delicious, cheap at under a fiver, and low alcohol at 4%. I've started stocking up, bottle at a time (it's a long walk from my house to M&S).

This is a difficult thread to read right now, as DH and I are doing Dry November. Much better than Dry January (who needs THAT month to be any more joyless?), but it does mean I will be diving face first into the booze cupboard on 1st December, with my newly-refreshed liver, and won't emerge until New Year.

Meanwhile, taking notes and quietly stocking up......

Us too! And finding Dry November much harder than Dry January... 😨