By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
It’s time to put away the rosé, switch up the sangria and lose the light beer. Just as produce changes with the season, so should your drinks.
“Cocktails are another part of the food menu, so you want to change them seasonally, just to keep them interesting,” explained Mikaela Milano, general manager at 26 West on the Navesink in Red Bank, where fall and winter flavors blanket the cocktail menu.
Milano said she knows some people like to pick restaurants based on the cocktails offered, “so they really need to be treated with the same regard as the food menu.”
Right now 26 West offers libations replete with apple, maple, coffee, ginger and cinnamon, all flavors to warm you on a cold winter’s night.
As Milano points out, “winter can be tricky” since the spring and summer fresh produce you might utilize to make a cocktail interesting “goes into hibernation.” All the usual savory and peppermint, scream winter, “but you don’t want to be run of the mill,” she said. “Peppermint is peppermint, no matter how you slice it.”
To design unique cocktails customers will seek out, Milano said she works with different vendors who offer interesting options.
“It’s a collaborative process where (vendors are) showing us what they like for the holiday season and then we tweak the cocktails, go back and forth, see what we do and don’t like.”
That process helps them create new drinks with imaginative combinations that really spark the palate, because, “when you’re doing it for years, you kind of get stuck on, ‘How do I make a different Christmas cocktail that hasn’t been done already?’” Milano said.
For upcoming events like a craft fair and Santa brunch, Milano said they designed cocktails reminiscent of childhood, featuring hot chocolate and lesser known liqueurs like Rumple Minze Peppermint Schnapps.
For the home mixologist, Milano suggests thinking about layering flavors: “It creates a different experience than just going out and getting peppermint Smirnoff and putting it in a glass.”
She recommends walking through the liquor store and seeing what catches your eye. “We’re seeing a lot more craft spirits come out with different plays on flavors,” she said, including ginger spice whiskies, salted caramel whiskies and more. “It makes it a lot easier to take those classic cocktails and winterize them with one simple step.”
“Some cocktail bars will kind of reinvent the wheel. They have these cocktails with 45 different things in them and you don’t know what half of them are,” she said. “There’s something to be said about just keeping it simple, but also putting a fun twist in there so that it’s new to the guest.”
And when making drinks, don’t treat the garnish as an afterthought, Milano warned. “The garnish should be looked at as another part of the cocktail. If it’s not adding to the drink, don’t put it there.”
Fun winter garnishes include spiced salts, cinnamon sugars and crushed gingerbread for the rims of glasses and sprigs of herbs for another layer of flavor in the drink.
“Do a spiked hot chocolate, but crush up candy canes and do that as the rim, so as you sip it you’re getting that peppermint flavor pulling through the cocktail,” Milano said.
Finally, she said not to get too hung up on pairing your cocktail with food. “It’s subjective. What I think goes with something, you might not like.” She recommends taking a few sips of a cocktail, appreciating the flavor profilers, then considering what you’d like to eat. “Something like the fall Sangria (offered at 26 West) has so many different flavors in it, that’s really going to be versatile.”
Milano provided two recipes for the at-home bartender to try. Each recipe makes one drink and both bring big winter flavors without too much effort.
Salted Caramel Old Fashioned
1⁄2 teaspoon brown sugar
1⁄2 teaspoon water
3 dashes chocolate bitters
2 ounces Crown Royal Salted Caramel flavored whiskey
Charred orange twist
Add brown sugar, water and bitters to a rocks (lowball) glass. Muddle or stir until sugar is dissolved. Add one large ice cube and Crown Royal Salted Caramel; stir for about 30 seconds. Lightly torch orange peel with a lighter, garnish and serve.
Smoked and Spiced
2 ounces mezcal
1 ounce St. George Spiced Pear liqueur
3⁄4 ounce lemon juice
2 dashes Fee Brothers Fee Foam cocktail foam (or 1 egg white)
2 dashes chocolate bitters Cinnamon sugar
Wet the rim of a martini glass with water or lemon juice and dip in cinnamon sugar. Add remaining ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into the glass.
The article originally appeared in the December 8 – 14, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
