Delightfully Chocolate and Peppermint

Serves 1

The start of a new year is always invigorating – and the cocktail you sip on New Year’s Eve should be also. This minty chocolate drink is a refreshingly decadent way to welcome the start of 2009 (you can start that New Year’s diet resolution on New Year’s Day!). Recipe adapted from Three Olives Vodka.

Ingredients:
1 ounce chocolate syrup
1 ounce Three Olives Chocolate Vodka
1/2 ounce peppermint schnapps
3 ounces vanilla ice cream
Whipped cream
Small candy cane (Here are even more creative uses for leftover candy canes.)

Directions:
Swirl chocolate syrup in a hurricane glass. Blend vodka, schnapps and ice cream in a blender and pour into glass. Top with whipped cream and garnish with the candy cane.

Wild Hibiscus Flower Sparkler

Serves 1

As beautiful as it is delish, this unique sparkling wine cocktail is sure to a be a popular choice at your New Year’s Eve gala. Paired with a superlative sparkling wine or Champagne, Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup make for a drink with eye appeal that is also quite pleasing to the palate.

Ingredients:
4 ounces chilled sparkling wine or Champagne
1 Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup
1 teaspoon Hibiscus Syrup

Directions:
Pour sparkling wine or Champagne into champagne flute and add flower petals-side up. Drizzle in syrup and serve.

Beer Nog Shooter

A tasty twist on the usual – brown ale and egg nog layered in shot glass makes for an unusual drink. Recipe courtesy of Newcastle Brown Ale and Sam the Cooking Guy. Be sure to use a clear shot glass for best effect.

Ingredients:
Newcastle Brown Ale
Egg nog (Click for homemade egg nog recipes or use store-bought)

Directions:
Fill a clear shot glass about halfway with Newcastle. Then, and this is important, slowly pour egg nog over the back of a spoon on top of the Newcastle – this will help keep the two from mixing. And shoot.

Karma Citrus Celebration

Serves 1 to 2

KARMA is a new brut-style effervescent wine from California that comes in single-serve bottles. This bubbly drink can be sipped as is or transformed into a festive cocktail.

Ingredients:
1 bottle of KARMA
1 ounce orange liqueur
1 ounce Cointreau
1 sugar cube

Directions:
Sip down a couple of ounces of KARMA from the bottle. Add orange liqueur, Cointreau and sugar cube. Continue to sip. 

Rose’s Peartini

Serves 1

Get the party started with this pear-y delicious martini. Rose’s Cocktail Infusions Pear mix makes pear flavored martini’s a simple yet impressive endeavor.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 ounces Rose’s Cocktail Infusions Pear mix
1-1/2 premium pear vodka
1 mint sprig
Slices of pear

Directions:
Pour Rose’s and vodka into a shaker with 1 cup crushed ice or small ice cubes. Shake vigorously for five seconds. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with mint sprig and pear slices.

Need more New Year’s Eve cocktail ideas? Try these:

Colorful cocktails for the holidays
Japanese Shochu cocktails
Gin cocktails
Caffeine cocktails
Trendy cocktails with bitters
Cognac cocktails