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.