This year, we will be making these amazingly delicious, super easy and inexpensive Christmas Spritzes. Everyone keeps asking me, "how can I have all the festive flavours in a summery and fresh drink? It's too hot for red wine, too hot for sparkling shiraz even!" We completely agree, so I took to the tools a few weeks ago and experimented with techniques and flavours. In the end, the simplest ideas worked best and that is what I am sharing with you today.
The best part about the Christmas Spritz is that the base of the cocktail is non-alcoholic so it can be made as a no or low alcohol party drink and suitable for kids as well as adults.
The base is a sugar syrup which are bar staples and can be used for a myriad of recipes and cocktails. They are super quick and easy to make and last for ages; decant your syrup into an empty bottle and keep in the fridge to avoid flies!
The only ingredients you will require for the Christmas Spritz are the following:
1. Caster Sugar or whatever is in the cupboard
2. A punnet of cherries (or the old, bottom of the bowel cherries)
3. A cinnamon stick
4. Sparkling wine - something inexpensive and not too sweet, like Upstarts Sparkling NV $14, Soda Water or Lemonade.
To make your sugar syrup, follow the method below:
1. Add two cups of sugar to two cups of water in a saucepan. To make a larger batch, simply increase the quantities maintaining a 1:1 ratio.
2. Add the punnet of cherries and cinnamon stick to the saucepan and stir on a low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Allow the sugar syrup to come to the boil and then turn off the heat.
4. Once cool, decant the syrup off the cooked fruit and transfer it to a bottle or container
Lastly, add a shot of the cherry sugar syrup to your glass and top with the beverage of your choice. I used sparkling wine and garnished with some orange rind, but you could add ice and soda (or lemonade) and any citrus you fancy.
Et voila! A Christmas Spritz. Enjoy in the sunshine and feel festive and refreshed at the same time. You're welcome.