More Cocktail Garnishes for Thanksgiving Entertaining

We would have to agree with BuzzFeed - when it comes to Thanksgiving, it is much easier to pre-batch cocktails that can be served to all of your guests. Although we are strong believers in Big-Batching in order to decrease preparation and kitchen chaos, we still think when it comes to garnishing, you can still impress your guests with your attention to detail- which will add to your Thanksgiving decoration, festive holiday experience, and of course, elevate your cocktails!

Here are some of our favorite Thanksgiving cocktails and how to garnish them:

Apple Brandy Hot Toddies: We cannot get enough of hot toddies or apples! We recommend garnishing these with one apple slice, one orange twist and one cinnamon stick each. Serve in a clear mug so that the warm autumn orange flavor can add to your tablescape.

Food and Wine Magazine introduced us to a Punch Parker - punch made with gin, champagne and strawberry liqueur. Garnished with lemons, raspberries, oranges and pineapple. Also topped with one large ice cube. This punch is easy to serve in a Punch bowl with a ladle into small rocks glasses. You can purchase a reasonable punch bowl from Bed, Bath and Beyond here.

Cooking Channel TV recommends using cranberry and ginger in your Thanksgiving cocktails as they will perfectly complement the flavors in your Thanksgiving meal. Their Ginger Cranberry cocktail can be made with their gin or vodka, depending on your preference. Cooking Channel provides instructions on how to make your own Ginger syrup and recommends garnishing the cocktail with frozen cranberries and shavings of fresh ginger.

The Hot Toddy and How to Garnish It

What is Hot Toddy? A Hot Toddy can be brandy, whiskey or rum with honey, lemon, hot water and sometimes even a tea bag. Several creative versions and recipes for Hot Toddies are available and in the winter these become especially popular and sought-after.

Here are some of our favorite Hot Toddy recipes to keep you warm through the cold winter season! We have of course, included how to garnish these cocktails to elevate the flavor and make for interesting adaptions of the original "Hot Toddy" cocktail.

The Classic Hot Toddy is often made with bourbon or a rye whiskey, some honey, lemon juice and served in a mug with a lemon wedge and cinnamon stick for garnish. At Imbibe.com they get fancy with a star anise for an additional garnish.

SeriousEats.com goes even further and elevates their Scotch Hot Toddy with additional garnishes of allspice berries, and the coin of an orange peel studded with whole cloves. The orange oils add a warming spice to the Scotch-based drink.

TheKitchn.com suggests changing up the recipe and making it a Hot Apple-Ginger Toddy and garnishing with cinnamon stick stirrer, lemon slice, apple slice, and ginger slice. The ginger, cinnamon, lemon and apple flavors are also featured in the base of the cocktail.

Cranberry Cocktail Garnishes for Your Holiday Entertaining!

As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, Holiday party planning goes into overdrive and things get hectic! Don't forget the smallest details will make your party the most successful. Your guests will be sure to remember all of your finishing touches and all the hard work you put into planning the perfect Thanksgiving celebration. When planning your Thanksgiving cocktails, we recommend considering cranberries for festive tasty cocktail garnishes!

Here are some ways you can use cranberries to garnish your cocktails this Holiday season.

One of our favorite cranberry cocktails with cranberry garnish is the Cranberry Mojito recipe developed by WeAreNotMartha.com

Simply garnish the cocktail with mint leaves and several fresh cranberries. The mint and fresh cranberries enhance the flavors found in the cocktail (the muddled mint and cranberry syrup).

Another favorite way to garnish with cranberries is to put them on a string so the garnish is even more ornamental and decorative!

BaysideBride.com also suggests using a toothpick to "string" the cranberries if a short piece of string isn't available.

We also like the idea of keeping it simple and hassle-free! For an easy drink, serve a Crantini in a martini glass and garnish the side with a few fresh cranberries. This is an elegant and easy option that will still WOW your guests!

Warm Things Up with Cinnamon!

As the air gets crisper, cocktails tend to heat up. In the late fall and winter months an Irish coffee, hot toddy or spiked cider tends to sound more appealing than a frozen daiquiri or martini on the rocks. Cinnamon is perhaps the best garnish to have on hand when aiming to dress up a warm beverage.

Flavor-wise cinnamon blends seamlessly with all the flavors we associate with the season whether it be apple or eggnog. Another thing that we love about cold-weather cocktails is that the absence of ice gives you more room to play with garnish.

Powdered cinnamon can dress up the whipped cream on an Irish coffee or a hot chocolate and whiskey. (See more Irish Coffee recipes from Bailey's here!)

Cinnamon sticks can be used as stirrers in any hot toddy or warm rum punch. (Click here for Warm Rum punch recipe instructions). 

 Try rimming a martini glass in cinnamon or a cinnamon sugar mix like this gingerbread cosmopolitan

Sweet on Honey: In the Cocktail and As the Garnish.

Honey is a popular ingredient in many Autumn cocktails. It is a great substitute to simple syrup and can  round out the flavor in sweet or tart cocktails. Honey is popularly paired with lemon and ginger in cocktails and can be a great addition to a bourbon or scotch cocktail or even a gin or vodka cocktail. Aside from being a trendy cocktail ingredient, honeycombs have become a decorative and exciting way to garnish these honey-flavored cocktails.

Here are some ways to garnish your honey-based cocktails:

1. Honeycomb stirrer as garnish with mint leaves. Buy stirrer here. 

2. Wedge of Honeycomb on cocktail pick for garnish. Instructions provided by FoodonFifth. 

3. Place piece of honeycomb in cocktail for garnish with additional mint leaves. Autumn honey cocktail recipe by Drink of the Week!

Candy Corn Takes the Cake: Best Halloween Cocktail Garnish!

There are definitely several different ingredients you can use to create an awesome Halloween cocktail garnishes, but candy corn gets our vote for best cocktail garnish for the Halloween entertaining season. The bite size candies scream Halloween and can be used not only as garnishes, but also as the main ingredients for yummy cocktails that will WOW your guests.

Here are some of our favorite candy corn cocktail garnish ideas:

1. Keep it simple. Using a straw or a cocktail pick, poke a whole through the center of the candy corn and line the top of the cocktail. Alternate up and down every other candy corn. Guests can eat the candy while enjoying their cocktail.

Photo Credit: Sugar and Plumm: LINK to photo)

2.  Candy Corn Spider- using twizzlers and lemon slice and two candy corn, add a candy corn spider to garnish your martini of choice. More instructions from Omni Hotel on their Red Widow cocktail

3.  Pineapple Devil Head candy corn garnish- get a pineapple slice and insert one candy corn into each side with a small toothpick. More instructions here.

How To Make Cocktail Garnishes for Halloween

Halloween is a time to show your creativity and let your imagination go wild! After you have secured/made the perfect costume (for you and all your pets), acquired the necessary face paint and accessories, decorated your place so that you can hardly move, the next thing to consider is making your Halloween party a memorable one for you and your guests! 

Below we have listed our top 5 creepy and fun Halloween cocktail garnishes that will put your party over the top and keep your guests Insta-graming all night long! 

The Angry "Pumpkin" Cocktail Garnish- using a clementine or any smaller citrus fruit and a small sharp knife, carve the face of any angry pumpkin into the rind. Once completed, insert a wooden skewer into the center and place into cocktail of your choice. (More tricks and tips from Better Home and Gardens) 

The Peppery Devil- simply garnish the rim of the glass with red chili peppers on either side of the glass. This works well in spicy or sweet drinks and adds a little heat. 

Eyeballs in My Shots Please. - best garnish for lime jello shots. Stuff a marachino cherry into a lychee fruit and then cut a slice from the outside of the grape to place over the red part of the "eyeball". To put the eyeball in the kellow, pour half the jello into the shot glass, then place the eyeball in and let the jello set. Pour the rest of the jello over the eyeball and cover and let set again. (For Additional Ideas for Halloween Eyeball Jello Shots and Brownie Pops go to Good Cocktails)

Licorice Spider - get a long piece of black licorice and scissors. Wrap the licorice around your fingers and bundle to create the 8 dangling legs on each side. Tie onto straw and let hang halfway down the cocktail of your choice. (More details at Martha Stewart Living)

Bloody Martini Glasses- create "blood" rimmed martini glasses using red decorating icing writing gel. We recommend this icing writer from Wilton at Sur La Table.   

Move Over Cherries, It's Apple Garnish season.

October is National Apple Month and what better excuse to replace our same-old traditional cocktail garnishes with something a little more exciting and seasonal- the apple!

This Apple season in The Big Apple we see Fall menus with everything from Apple-Creme Fraiche cronuts, Roasted Apple Baked Alaska, and more. We see the Apple-trend not only in the kitchen, but also at the most popular cocktail bars. These Apple-inspired cocktails are garnished with of course, apples.

The Apple cocktails of today have moved far past the outdated Apple-tini fad and instead utilize the fruit's natural tart and sweet flavors to create delicious, intricate and complex cocktail flavors, complementing both the liquors and the modifiers in the beverage.

There are several ways one can use an apple as a cocktail garnish. Here are some of our favorites:

• Dry The Apple and Use an Apple Chip or Two for garnish! (Instructions here)
• One Apple Slice with Star Shape (How to create Star Shape)
• A Few Simple Apple Wedges for Garnish
• Thinly Sliced Apple Sticks for a Tiki-Inspired Cocktail