Shake up festive holiday drinks by adding some specialty preserves to the mix. The flavor possibilities are endless with these easy jam cocktails. Makes 2 cocktails – can be scaled.
The perfect holiday cocktail
When Quince & Apple sent me an assortment of their specialty preserves, I knew I wanted to make something out of the ordinary. I mean, thumbprint cookies and cheese pairings are great, but I really wanted to find a more surprising way to use them. Enter, jam cocktails.
The thought popped into my head one day, and I immediately did some Pinterest searching and internet browsing to validate my idea. This is how almost all of my recipes come to life. Ideas followed by research, testing and eating – or drinking in this case.
More awesome cocktail recipes: Wisconsin brandy old fashioned / pamplemousse fizz / ginger saketinis
After that, it was just a matter of taste testing, and experimenting with flavors. It was a lot of fun to see how the preserves paired with different types of alcohol. I had originally intended to only do two cocktail recipes – one for myself and one for Marc – but curiosity got the best of me and we ended up with the most intriguing of the three recipes – the apple cranberry amaretto margarita.
These specialty jam cocktails would be great to serve during the holidays. They’re festive, and if you want, you can customize each drink for your guests. You could even substitute preserves in place simple syrup in most recipes. It’s a great replacement because it adds depth of flavor and sweetness at the same time.
How to make jam cocktails
If you want to play around with flavors, here’s my basic formula for a jam cocktail. Keep in mind that each variation will need to be tweaked to balance the flavors, but if you follow this formula, you’ll have a pretty good start to your own unique cocktail.
- 2 shots liquor
- 1 shot liqueur
- 1 shot lemon or lime juice
- 1 – 2 tablespoons preserves
Jam Cocktails – 3 Ways
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 cocktail 1x
- Category: Cocktails
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: American
Description
Shake up festive holiday drinks by adding some specialty preserves to the mix. The flavor possibilities are endless with these easy jam cocktails. #cocktails
Ingredients
Raspberry Rose Vodka Jam Cocktail
- 2 shots vodka
- 1 shot elderflower liquor
- 1 shot lemon juice
- 1 – 2 tablespoons Quince & Apple raspberry rose preserves
Fig & Black Tea Bourbon Jam Cocktail
- 2 shots bourbon
- 1 shot triple sec
- 1 shot lemon juice
- 1 – 2 tablespoons Quince & Apple fig and black tea preserves
Apple Cranberry Amaretto Jam Margarita
- 1 1/2 shots silver tequila
- 1 1/2 shots amaretto
- 1 shot lime juice
- 1 – 2 tablespoons Quince & Apple apple and cranberry preserves
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker, vigorously shake ingredients with ice until very cold.
- Strain into a cocktail glass filled with ice. Serve immediately.
Keywords: cocktail, beverages, jam, easy
Last Updated on December 6, 2019 by Melissa Belanger
I’ve never heard of a jam cocktail, but think they’re a brilliant idea. Kudos to you for coming up with something original!
Loving this idea! So unique and festive!
Thanks for including the basic formula with a few examples too. I tried this with what I had on hand (bourbon, triple sec, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, elderberry jam, and ice) and it came out great!
★★★★★
Thanks for including the basic formula with a few examples too. I tried this with what I had on hand (bourbon, triple sec, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, elderberry jam, and ice) and it came out great!
★★★★★