Spread some cheer with cocktails designed to impress party guests, celebrate the season and help you survive a visit from your in-laws.
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Mom's Hot Buttered Rum
If I can’t be home for Christmas, all I want is a steamy cup of Mom’s Hot Buttered Rum ($12). The concoction by Cosmopolitan mixologist Mariena Mercer is served at the resort’s Ice Rink and has a special touch from executive chef Jeff Walter: The recipe for the butter mix came from his mom on a hand-written note.
Ingredients:
4 oz. hot milk
2 tbsp. butter mix (see below)
1½ oz. Monte Cristo 12-year spiced rum
Butter mix ingredients:
½ g. vanilla ice cream
½ lb. butter
½ lb. brown sugar
½ lb. powdered sugar
1 tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. cinnamon
Method: For butter mix, melt the butter and stir in sugars and spices until it has the consistency of a caramel. Put softened ice cream in blender, drizzle the hot caramel and blend until evenly mixed. Refreeze. For the cocktail, add Monte Cristo, butter mix and hot milk in a glass and stir.
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STMP (Surviving the Mayan premonition)
Chateau mixologist Gerald Pacheco’s STMP ($25) is a go-to seasonal cocktail that you’ll want to sip on even if the world doesn’t end on December 21.
Ingredients:
4 oz. Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut
¾ oz. TyKu Soju
¾ oz. TyKu
Citrus Liqueur
¾ oz. St. Germain liqueur
raspberry and lemon
twist (Garnish)
Method: Pre-mix the three liquors together and store the mix in a glass bottle in the refrigerator. Add 1½ oz. of chilled mix into a champagne flute then fill up with Perrier-Jouët. Stir gently and serve. Garnish with whole raspberry and twisted peel of lemon.
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Snowflake
“Mele Kalikimaka” means “Merry Christmas to you” in Hawaii, and it’s the inspiration behind Jose Zepeda’s Snowflake ($18). Served at the Bellagio’s Hyde, the cocktail has fruit flavors complemented by drops of liquid nitrogen and a coconut rim that makes this snowflake a pure holiday delight.
Ingredients:
¾ oz. Cîroc Coconut
¾ oz. Malibu
¾ oz. white
cranberry juice
½ oz. simple syrup
½ oz. lemon juice
coconut flakes (rim)
3 drops of liquid nitrogen
Method:Rim cocktail glass with coconut flakes. Add all ingredients except liquid nitrogen to a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into martini glass. Add 3 drops of liquid nitrogen and serve.
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Poinsettia
La Cave General Manager Jennifer Holley keeps the restaurant’s specialty cocktail list flavored with a little competitive spirit. For the winter staff cocktail competition, bartender Trevor Roseman created the Poinsettia ($15), which represents the flavors of the holidays while keeping it fresh and simple. Sip solo or quadruple the recipe to serve guests a colorful, fruit-packed holiday punch.
Ingredients:
1½ oz. Nolet Gin
1 oz. cranberry juice
¾ oz. PAMA pomegranate liqueur
½ oz. fresh squeezed
lemon juice
½ oz. agave nectar
pomegranate seeds (garnish)
Method: Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with three pomegranate seeds.
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