Cheers! Two New Cocktails for New Year’s Eve

While classic cocktails are timeless for a reason (they’re good!), a fresh year inspires a fresh approach, and newly-paired flavors on the tongue. Here are two festive New Year’s Eve cocktails to welcome a new year—as well as every challenge, promise, and heartache that it may bring. Tasting the season in a glass is a way to pause and to cherish (or mourn?) the old year, while looking forward to what we will learn in the year ahead. These cocktails (one with and one without alcohol) feature citrus and Calvados—the warming apple brandy from Normandy that is so suited to cold Northern climes; and sour sumac with bayleaf-infused Earl Grey tea and fresh apple cider. Both New Year’s Eve cocktails share a fir-and-citrus-fragrant sugar rim (so keep your holiday tree!).

Photography by Marie Viljoen.

Sugar Rim with Fir and Citrus

While the fragrant sugar for the cocktail glass rims can be used at once, it can also be made a day or more in advance: Spread it out on a plate or on baking parchment to dry at room temperature. It will harden as the moisture from the zest evaporates. To store, or to use, crumble it finely between your fingers. Either keep in an airtight jar or spread it out on a saucer for dipping your glasses’ rims. (You will have some left over; it is delicious sprinkled onto cookies and cakes, across broiled salmon or roasted root vegetables, or stirred with lemon juice into hot tea.)

• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• Zest from 1 yuzu,  Meyer lemon, bergamot, clementine or mandarin
• Needles from one fresh fir twig, 4 inches long
• 2 Tablespoons juice from yuzu, Meyer lemon, clementine or mandarin

Microplane or finely grate the citrus zest. Mix it with the sugar in a small bowl. It will feel moist. In a spice grinder, spin the fir needles until they are fine. Scrape them out and mix into the sugar (wipe the spice grinder at once). Mix well and spread out on a saucer.

Pour the citrus juice into a second saucer. Dip the rims of each glass first in the juice, and then gently into the sugar, not pressing too hard. Allow the sugar rim to set for at least 10 minutes before pouring the cocktails.

Bergamots are sold in season by Flavors by Bhumi: $99 for 5 lbs (split with friends!)

Calvados Cocktail: Cold Snap

Citrus season peaks just in time for New Year’s Eve cocktails. The high-octane warmth of Calvados, which is a French brandy distilled from apple and pear cider, makes it a smooth partner for a hint of marmalade made from less acidic citrus fruits with very fragrant peels, like yuzu, bergamot, and Meyer lemon (oranges and mandarins work well, too). While you can make your own yuzu syrups and marmalades,  they can be bought quite easily, online. The bergamot peel in Earl Grey tea, as well as the tea’s antioxidant tannins, balance the heat and the sweet.

Cold Snap Cocktail Recipe

Makes 2 cocktails

• 5 fl oz Calvados
• 2 fl oz Earl Grey tea, cooled
• 1 oz/2 Tablespoons yuzu marmalade

Combine the Calvados, Earl Grey tea and the marmalade in a shaker. Stir very well to combine. Now add ice, and shake. Strain, and pour into the prepared glasses.

A 10-ounce jar of Yakami Orchard Yuzu Marmalade is $13.96 on Amazon.

For a Crowd

10 Cocktails

To sugar 10 glasses, double the amount of the recipe above.

• 25 fl oz/739 ml Calvados (almost a whole 750 ml bottle)
• 10 fl oz/295 ml Earl Grey tea
• 5 fl oz/10 Tablespoons yuzu marmalade

Combine in a pitcher and stir very well. Add ice, stir again, strain, and pour into prepared glasses.

Sumac Mocktail: A New Leaf

This alcohol-free cocktail can be enjoyed cold, or steaming-hot, as a toddy.

Sumac is not just a spice for food, but a souring agent for liquids. It is not as cutting a tartness as lemon, and pink-hued sumac water is very pretty in a glass. Its acerbic nature balances the sweetness of fresh apple cider, while fresh bayleaf-infused Earl Grey offers a gently tannic and very fragrant backbone for this alcohol-free drink.

New Leaf Cocktail Recipe

Makes 2 drinks

Sumac Water

When sumac is in season and fresh I immerse whole, ripe heads in water overnight. But store-bought or homemade sumac spice is just as effective.

• 1 Tablespoon ground sumac
• 250ml water

Stir well and allow to sit for a minimum of 20 minutes. Strain through a clean tea towel or several layers of cheesecloth, and reserve.

Earl Grey

Brew 1 cup of Earl Grey tea (1 bag + 250 ml water). Steep 2 fresh bay leaves in the hot tea for 10 minutes.

Cocktail

• 2 fl oz sumac water
• 1 fl oz bayleaf-infused Earl Grey tea
• 1 fl oz apple cider
• 1/4 teaspoon maple syrup

Mix together in a cocktail shaker or jug, and pour into a prepared glass. Add an ice cube. Alternatively, warm in a small pot, and serve hot, garnished with a fresh bayleaf.

For a Crowd:

10 cocktails

• 8 fl oz/236 ml sumac water
• 10 fl oz/295 ml bay-leaf infused Earl Grey (steep 10 fresh bayleaves in the tea)
• 10 fl oz/295 ml apple cider
• 2 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup

For cold cocktails, mix in pitcher and serve each drink with ice cubes. Or heat as a hot toddy and serve with the bay leaves in each heatproof glass.

For other New Year’s Eve Cocktails see:

• 5 Irresistible Cranberry Cocktails
• Apple Cocktails for the Holidays