This Hot Spiced Cranberry Orange Cocktail is an easy family friendly drink to serve on special occasions. Easily tailored for adults or kids, this simple cocktail or mocktail recipe is full of spices like cinnamon, allspice and cloves, and makes a perfect fall cocktail. Garnished with a rim of orange sugar, and with an optional addition of gin, this hot cranberry drink is a perfect beverage to serve at family dinner parties.
In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the cranberry juice, orange juice, whole cinnamon stick, whole cloves, and slices of ginger.
Stir and allow to heat to desired temperature (serve a little cooler for children).
For Orange Cranberry Garnish:
With a vegetable peeler, peel off 15 strips of orange peel.
Using small wooden toothpicks, alternate dried cranberries and folded pieces of orange peel (you should have 3 dried cranberries and 2 strips of orange peel for each of the drinks) to create cute garnishes.
Orange Sugar:
Zest the remaining peel on the orange and mix with the 1/3 cup sugar in a medium bowl that is mostly flat on the bottom. You want to really mix and rub the orange zest into the sugar.
To serve:
Dip glasses upside down in a small dish of water - you want only the edge of the rim of the glass to get wet.
Then dip into the orange sugar to create a sugared rim.
Remove the cinnamon stick and whole spices from the saucepan with a slotted spoon.
For adults, add in a shot of gin to the bottom of each glass, being careful not to drip on the sugared rim.
Pour the hot spiced cranberry orange drink into the glasses carefully, and garnish with the toothpicks.
Enjoy!
Notes
This recipe makes enough for either 3 adult servings (in which case, you will need to add another 1 oz of gin to the ingredients), or enough for 2 adult + 3 children servings.