Winter drinks recipes

Winter is upon us and Decanter has teamed up with Great British Chefs to bring you five of their most seasonal and festive drink recipes, all sourced from the world's top mixologists and chefs. Stay warm.

Winter Drinks and Cocktails

Mulled wine is one of the first tipples that springs to mind when looking for a beverage that would be perfect to offset the cold outside. Fiona Beckett gave Decanter.com her top recipe tips here last year here: Mulled wine recipe. This year, Great British Chefs have taken this one step further creating winter wine based drinks and cocktails which are sure to give inspiration for the party season and keep you warm outside. Here are Decanter’s top five:

Mulled wine Bellini

by Marcus Wareing at Great British Chefs

Ingredients

For the mulled wine reduction

• 3 cinnamon sticks

• 1 handful of cloves

• 15 black peppercorns

• 20 star anise

• 1 pinch of mace

• nutmeg, grated

• 1 orange, juiced and peeled in strips

• 2l red wine (4 1/4 pints)

• 500g of caster sugar (1 1/8 lb)

To build the cocktail

• 100ml of sparkling wine, preferably Nyetimber Classic Cuvée (3 1/2 floz)

• lemon juice to taste, 5-10ml

1. To prepare the mulled wine reduction, add all of the ingredients to a saucepan, apart from the sugar. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer

• 3 cinnamon sticks

• 15 black peppercorns

• 20 star anise

• 1 pinch of mace

• nutmeg

• 1 orange, juiced and peeled in strips

• 2l red wine

• 1 handful of cloves

2. Add the sugar, stir to combine and continue to simmer until the liquid has reduced by half. Set aside and allow to cool

• 500g of caster sugar

3. Strain and allow the mixture to cool before transferring to a clean, sterilised bottle. This reduction will keep for up to 1 month

4. To assemble the cocktail, add the sparkling wine to a Champagne flute. Pour in 25ml of the mulled wine reduction, then stir in the lemon juice to taste and serve

Victory lemonade

by Vivek Singh at Great British Chefs

Ingredients

Victorian lemonade

• 60ml of Taylor’s 10 Port (2 floz)

• 20ml of lemon juice (2/3 floz)

• 20ml of orange juice (2/3 floz)

• 15g of sugar (1/2 oz)

• 5ml of Fernet Branca (1/4 floz)

• ginger beer, to top up

• crushed ice

Garnish

• cherries

• fresh mint leaves

• orange zest

• icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Add enough crushed ice to come 2/3 of the way up the glass. Pour in the Port, fruit juices, sugar and Fernet. Use a bar spoon to swizzle the ingredients in the glass for 30 seconds

• crushed ice

• 60ml of Taylor’s 10 Port

• 20ml of lemon juice

• 20ml of orange juice

• 15g of sugar

• 5ml of FernetBranca

2. Top up with ginger beer and more crushed ice. Garnish with the cherries, mint leaves, orange zest and a dusting of icing sugar. Serve immediately with a straw

• ginger beer, to top up

• cherries

• fresh mint leaves

• orange zest

• icing sugar for dusting

Soiree Amaretto Prosecco sour

By Monica Shaw at Great British Chefs

Ingredients

• 45ml of Amaretto, Soiree (1 1/2 floz)

• 15ml of lemon juice, fresh (1/2 floz)

• 15ml of lime juice, fresh (1/2 floz)

• 1 tsp stock syrup

• Prosecco

• cherries, preferably Maraschino

Instructions

1. Pour the Soiree Amaretto, lemon juice, lime juice and stock syrup into a Champagne glass. Top up with Prosecco and serve garnished with Maraschino cherries

Death in Venice

by Bruno Loubet at Great British Chefs

Ingredients

• 15ml of Campari (1/2 floz)

• 4 drops of grapefruit bitters

• Prosecco

Instructions

1. Add the Campari and grapefruit bitters to a Champagne flute. Top up with Prosecco, stir lightly to combine and serve immediately

Christmas gin fizz

by Adam Gray at Great British Chefs

Ingredients

Christmas gin fizz

• 50ml of Tanqueray gin (1 2/3 floz)

• 1/2 lemon, juiced

• 1 egg white

• grenadine syrup

• caster sugar

• naturally light tonic or Prosecco

• ice cubes

Infused gomme syrup

• 500ml of gomme syrup (1 1/16 pints)

• 4 cloves

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 2 star anise

• 3 cardamom pods

Garnish

• glacé cherries

Instructions

1. To infuse the gomme, add the syrup to a pan with the spices. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and allow to cool

• 1 1/16 pint of gomme syrup

• 4 cloves

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 2 star anise

• 3 cardamom pods

2. Prepare the glasses in advance by freezing, adding a dash of grenadine and swirling to coat. Sprinkle with caster sugar and place back in the freezer until required. Alternatively, dip the rim of the glass in grenadine followed by the caster sugar to coat the rim

• grenadine syrup

• caster sugar

3. Fill a shaker to halfway with ice cubes. Add the gin, 1/2 floz of infused gomme syrup, lemon juice and egg white. Seal with a lid or Boston glass and shake hard for 30 seconds

• ice cubes

• 1 2/3 floz of Tanqueray gin

• 1/2 lemon, juiced

• 1 egg white

4. Use a Hawthorne strainer to hold back the ice and pour through a fine strainer into the prepared Champagne flute. Top up with the the tonic and garnish with glacé cherries and serve

• glacé cherries

• naturally light tonic

Translated by Leo / 孔祥鑫