7 delicious global Christmas cocktails to bring you cheer this holiday

I love Christmas. From the decorations to blasting holiday playlists, I'm all in. But one of my favorite December treats is holiday booze. You've probably tried eggnog and mulled wine, but allow me to expand your Christmas beverage palate with a few other favorites from other cultures.

Read on for holiday cocktails from around the world...

Mocktail Recipe Roundup

Now that our little peanut is no longer residing in my womb, I can indulge in an adult beverage whenever I choose. Well, not exactly whenever I choose... I still have to balance it with every 3 hour feedings or pumpings so I have to do a complex new mommy calculus to figure out the exact right moment to indulge. You better believe I have sat on our back patio breastfeeding and balancing a beer on my My Brest Friend pillow simultaneously.

In my first mocktail article, I did a roundup of my experiences out at restaurants in Atlanta. Since it's raging hot and humid here in Atlanta, I am feeling for my prego friends who can't kick back with a nice cool cocktail. So here's a roundup of some delicious booze free beverages you can make at home.


Booze Free Bee's Knees (the boozy version is one of my faves)

2 oz tonic water

¾ oz fresh lemon juice

½ oz Clover honey syrup (mix 2 parts honey with 1 part water)

In a mixing glass, add ingredients. Fill with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon disc or twist.

Mock Bellini

2 oz nectar of your choice (peach for a classic belllini, I also like pear)
enough sparkling cider to fill the rest of your glass

Virgin Dark & Stormy (another Adventurous Tastes fave)

8 ounces ginger beer (it's not alcoholic)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp molasses
crushed ice

Directions: Combine all ingredients over crushed ice in glass. Stir and garnish with lime wedge.

Virgin Grapefruit Mojito 

Frozen Mango Mockolada

Virgin Pimm's Cup

Virgin Mary's (A bloody mary is one of those drinks that honestly tastes the same sans alcohol. I like mine extra spicy)

A Word on Mocktails

Pinewood mocktail

Since I'm el prego, I've become a connoisseur of non-alcoholic beverages as of late. Turns out you get widely varying responses from restaurants when you request a mocktail. I've honestly been shocked by how many cocktail-centric restaurants proclaim that they can't make a mocktail for me. I want to drink something more fun than water and share a "drink" with my friends, and some places simply won't accommodate. How hard is it to leave alcohol out of a drink?

So cheers to the restaurants that have whipped up something wonderful for me so far. The Pinewood's delightful Pimm's Cup knock-off was a treat, and Sage in Las Vegas and Ecco both created delicious ginger based mocktails on the fly. Cardamom Hill's Mango Ginger is a flavor bomb even without the gin. Vegas's Parasol Up bar at the Wynn even has a mocktail section of their menu. The teetotalers of America thank you!

Often it's not complicated. A Bloody Mary is always a good booze-free option, and STG's was excellent. Floataway Cafe didn't go to any great lengths, but they were at least willing to give me their hot apple cider minus the bourbon at a lower price tag.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't offer a boo, hiss for the restos that left me high and dry. Holy Taco told me that they didn't have a way to charge me for a mocktail, so could they interest me instead in a glass of grapefruit juice? Uh, not what I had in mind when my friends were throwing back margaritas. Heck, mix a couple of juices together, throw in some seltzer and charge me juice prices for it. Bam! Problem solved.

Barracca, a newly opened sceney spot in NYC's West Village, had a nice cocktail list and big bar. Surely a "mixologist" could come up with something to serve me? Nope, waitress didn't even bother to ask, just said "no, there is nothing we can do for you." Their lack of willingness to even attempt to make me happy despite the big money I was dropping on the meal was a major turn off.

Restaurants, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I come to you for not just a meal, but also for an experience, and a tasty and interesting drink is part of that. I miss cocktails, so can't we just pretend together?

Drink Up: Italian Shandy

It's hot. You're thirsty. But you don't want to get wasted (it is a weekday after all). Thank the NY Times Magazine and Mario Batali because this drink is just what the doctor ordered:

Italian Shandy

Mix Half a bottle of lager (we used Pilsner Urquell) with San Pellegrino Aranciata (or limonata). Add a couple drops of bitters. Gulp down and imagine you're Piazza Navona!

Places I Love to Get Smashed: Bookhouse Pub

You know the place: the neighborhood restaurant/bar/shop that is so good and so welcoming that whenever you walk in you feel a bit guilty that you aren't a more frequent visitor.  I was overcome with that pang of guilt on a recent visit to Bookhouse Pub, tucked away on Ponce across from Murder Kroger and Greens, a/k/a the drive-through liquor store.

There's a lot to love about Bookhouse.  It has patios in front and back and a dark, cozy bar/dining room that looks like the library of a small monastery.  It's filled with some of Atlanta's most genuine hipsters.  Not the poseur, look-at-me I'm more hipster than thou hipsters that infest L5P, but real-deal hipsters who just want to relax at their local watering hole.  The waitstaff is friendly but not-too-friendly.  Pleasant but detached is more like it.  Then there's the main event, the food and drinks.

The beer list is solid, with eighteen craft brews on draft and a solid bottle selection to back it up.   There's no pretense.  When Hopslam-mania overtook one of my other favorite spots, Little 5's The Porter, the hordes packed in hoping to get a taste of the godly nectar before it was tapped out.  At the same time, it was on tap at Bookhouse with little-to-no fanfare.  Not looking for suds?  Plenty of cocktails to choose from as well, like the seriously spicy Wow Bob Wow margarita or the yerba maté tea-infused Audrey Horne.

When it comes to food, Bookhouse has some serious street cred.  Former up-and-coming and now established Atlanta chef Julia LeRoy was the first to wear the apron at Bookhouse.  Though LeRoy's since moved on and is currently at the about-to-be-reopened Watershed, she set the bar high.  Fortunately, current chef William Silbernagel continues to crank out surprisingly sophisticated, high-quality food.  A trout dish (yeah, I ordered trout at a bar) I sampled recently was excellent, perfectly cooked, topped with a delicious mustard sauce and served on a bed of English peas and carrots.  It blew away my last seafood dinner, at VaHi's Goin' Coastal, yet was less than half the price.

It's easy to miss Bookhouse, sandwiched between a tattoo parlor and a big earthen retaining wall on Ponce, and even easier to underestimate it, but those who make a point of stopping in will leave happy.

Bookhouse Pub
736 Ponce De Leon Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30306
www.bookhousepub.com
 

Simple Summer Cocktails

With what could be the hottest 4th of July weekend on record looming for Atlanta, many will spend the weekend indoors celebrating Independence Day à la Will Smith.  For those brave enough to venture into the heat - or for those who prefer a stiff drink while those planet-destroying aliens are getting their butts kicked - a couple of recent articles might make the task of getting intoxicated (responsibly, of course) a bit easier.

The New York Times recently ran two pieces on summer cocktails made with just three ingredients.  The first batch came from professional chefs and so-called mixologists.  The second group came from readers.  Both articles provide plenty to choose from, and though I make a mean Pimm's Cup (about six ingredients, give or take), my favorite summer drink has just one ingredient: beer.

Signature wedding cocktail

As my wedding day rapidly approaches, I'm having to let go of some of the little details I wanted to attend to. Makeshift photo booths sound awesome, but far too hard to pull off given my distinct lack of craftiness; Polaroid guest books are cool, but I've opted for a slightly less work intensive guest book box. But the signature cocktail is an idea I can't quite let go of. We're not doing liquor, which means we have to be a bit more clever about it, basing it around some sort of wine.

The most delicious fall cocktail I've had in ages was at Holeman & Finch last year -

Piedmont Apple -
fresh pressed apple juice, Peychaud's bitters, sparkling sauvignon blanc + grated cinnamon

Sounds perfect and simple enough, but now just need to figure out the proportions. Anyone know? Or have other fall wine based cocktail ideas?