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Cocktail History
The Holiday Gin Mule is a Sips From Scripts original cocktail that we created for a sampling event at a local grocery store during the holidays. This recipe was specifically made to use with La Crosse Distilling Company’s Christmas Gin, a limited edition spirit flavored with blackcurrant and released at Christmastime. The bitterness of the spirit is then tempered with the sweetness of our homemade apple cinnamon syrup, lime juice, and ginger beer.
Cocktail Ingredients
To make this cocktail, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Blackcurrant Gin: This is the base spirit. It adds noticeable blackcurrant flavor. We used La Crosse Distilling Company Christmas Gin, but if you can’t find this specific gin, you could substitute another blackcurrant or cranberry-flavored gin. For a mocktail version of this drink, try Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Dry London Spirit and blackcurrant syrup in place of the gin.
Apple Cinnamon Syrup: This is a sweetener made with apple cider, cinnamon sticks, and white sugar. We made ours at home using Alex’s sous vide recipe.
Lime Juice: This adds sour citrus flavors for balance. We prefer to use fresh citrus juice because it’s less bitter than the bottled stuff and tastes much better.
Ginger Beer: This adds ginger beer flavor, stretches out the drink, and makes it lighter and more refreshing. We recommend using Q Mixers Ginger Beer to most closely replicate this recipe’s taste, but other ginger beers may work if you can’t find that brand.
Rosemary: This is one of the garnishes. It adds fragrant herbal aromas as you sip.
Cranberries: These are the other garnish.
Tasting Notes
The Holiday Gin Mule features savory aromas of the herb garnish, has a slightly spicy taste that features apple and cinnamon immediately then botanical gin soon after while held in the mouth, and finishes with a distinct blackcurrant flavor from the gin on the swallow.
Our Opinion of This Cocktail Recipe: We both loved this cocktail, but Kendall especially did and has already requested it again several times over the last few weeks. This also led to us likely being one of the reasons the Christmas Gin sold out here in the Chippewa Valley so quickly; we’ve made sure to pick up a bottle every time we’ve seen one. Thankfully, it’s a little too bitter and sharp on the palate for any of our friends who don’t live and breathe gin like we do, but that does make it hard to recreate the magic of this recipe yourself. If you come across blackcurrant gin in your neck of the woods, pick up a bottle and give our mule a try.
Which of our palates is yours most like?
Find out if your palate is most similar to Alex’s or Kendall’s by answering five questions.
Which of our palates is yours most like?
Find out if your palate is most similar to Alex’s or Kendall’s by answering five questions.
Alex’s Take: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“For this recipe, I wanted to use the Christmas Gin, which has a pretty intensely bitter flavor thanks to the blackcurrant. In ‘field tests’ we did with friends, they all found it too bitter in Gimlets and other recipes, even though I find it fascinatingly delicious as a gin lover. Kendall and I finally settled on this mule format since those are beloved by so many, and the result did not disappoint. It features the sweetness and spice of the apple, cinnamon, and ginger balanced nicely with the botanical and bitter blackcurrant notes from the gin. While it still has a fairly aggressive bitterness on the finish, it’s very palatable even to the sweeter palates, and it was definitely a huge hit among the folks sampling it that day.”—
Kendall’s Take: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This is it! This is my favorite Christmas cocktail of 2021. I have never been a big fan of mules… Why? No idea, but this one is absolutely incredible thanks to La Crosse Distilling Company’s fabulous blackcurrant gin and Alex’s homemade apple cinnamon syrup. The flavors pair beautifully and aren’t too bitter even though the gin certainly is on the bitter side. I could talk about this cocktail all day, but I’ll leave it at you definitely need to try the Holiday Gin Mule right away.”
Recipe
Add gin, apple cinnamon syrup, lime juice, and cubed ice to a shaker.
Shake for 10-20 seconds.
Strain into a lowball glass over fresh crushed ice.
Top with ginger beer.
Garnish with rosemary sprig and cranberries.
Ingredients
Directions
Add gin, apple cinnamon syrup, lime juice, and cubed ice to a shaker.
Shake for 10-20 seconds.
Strain into a lowball glass over fresh crushed ice.
Top with ginger beer.
Garnish with rosemary sprig and cranberries.
Make It a Mocktail: Use Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Dry London Spirit and blackcurrant syrup in place of the gin to try a booze-free version of this drink.
Tools & Glassware We Recommend
More Christmas Cocktails
If you like this Christmas cocktail recipe, here are a few others we’ve tried that you may enjoy:
Chocolate-Covered Cherry: A brandy cocktail made with dark crème de cacao, cherry liqueur, and a cherry
Kohler Mint Cocoa: A chocolate mint brandy cocktail made with milk, white peppermint schnapps, dark crème de cacao, cocoa powder, whipped cream, and grated chocolate
Candy Cane Martini: A vodka cocktail made with white crème de cacao, white crème de menthe, simple syrup, and crushed candy cane
Grand Galliano: A low-proof cocktail made with Liquore Galliano L’Autentico, Grand Marnier, heavy cream, an orange twist, and grated nutmeg
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