Six drinks that work for a Friendsgiving table, with measurements. Four of them scale to a crowd.
Two things removed from the earlier version of this page. It described one of these as keeping a crowd hydrated, which is wrong: alcohol is a diuretic and does the opposite. And it framed the punch as a grown-up version of a college drink, which is not a framing an alcohol retailer should use. Put water on the table alongside all of this.
Spiced cider punch
Per serving, which is how to scale it:
- 1.5 oz vodka
- 3 oz apple cider
- 2 oz cranberry juice
- 1 oz ginger ale, added at serving
- Sliced apple, orange, cranberries
Combine everything except the ginger ale in a pitcher or bowl with the fruit. Add the ginger ale as you serve, or it goes flat. About one standard drink per serving.
Multiply by the number of guests rather than filling the bowl. Punch is the format people most often misjudge, because nobody can see how much spirit went in. Full recipe.
Apple cider margarita
- 2 oz blanco tequila
- 2 oz apple cider
- 0.75 oz fresh lime juice
- 0.5 oz Calvados
- 0.5 oz hot honey
Shake with ice, strain into a glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar or chilli salt. Two spirits, so around 1.7 standard drinks. Full recipe.
Pumpkin pie martini
- 1.5 oz vanilla vodka
- 1 oz Irish cream or coffee liqueur
- 1 oz pumpkin purée
- 1 oz half-and-half
- Pinch of pumpkin pie spice
Shake hard with ice until frothy, strain into a martini glass, dust with spice. Around 1.4 standard drinks. Full recipe.
Cranberry apple sangria
Makes about 8 servings:
- 1 bottle (750ml) white wine
- 2 cups apple cider
- 1 cup cranberry juice
- 4 oz brandy
- Sliced apples, oranges, cranberries
Combine and chill at least two hours. Serve over ice. Roughly 1.2 standard drinks per serving, and worth knowing that sangria drinks like juice and counts like wine. Full recipe.
Warm apple bourbon
Per serving:
- 1.5 oz bourbon
- 3 oz apple cider
- Cinnamon and brown sugar to taste
- Whipped cream, optional
Warm the cider with cinnamon and sugar, then stir in the bourbon off the heat. Serve in a small mug rather than a shot glass. One standard drink, and it goes down faster warm than cold, which is the reason to sip it. Full recipe.
Aperol spritz
- 3 parts prosecco
- 2 parts Aperol
- 1 part soda water
- Orange or apple slice
Build over ice in a wine glass. The order matters: prosecco first, then Aperol, then soda, so it mixes without stirring the bubbles flat.
A correction: an earlier version of this page gave the ratio as 3:2:1 listing Aperol first, which reverses it. The prosecco is the 3. Around one standard drink, the lightest thing on this list.
The fine print
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