It’s getting deep into the holiday season; what do you serve your guests? I would suggest a drink that reminds people of Christmas and leaves them satisfied (and hammered). Without further ado, we are proud to give you our Candy Cane Cocktail recipe.
This drink is not the same as the Candy Cane Martini, which is just vanilla vodka with a little peppermint schnapps. Maybe we’ll do that one for our YouTube channel eventually. I like this drink a little more, because there’s a little more substance to it.
Candy Cane Cocktail
- 2 oz vanilla vodka
- ½ oz creme de cacao
- ½ oz peppermint schnapps
- 1 oz creme de menthe
- 3 oz half and half
- ½ oz grenadine
- Crushed candy canes
Rim a martini glass with crushed candy canes by dipping rim in corn syrup or grenadine and dipping. Drizzle grenadine over sides and bottom of glass. This probably works best with a cold glass.
Pour all other liquid ingredients into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice. Shake and strain into your decorated glass. Serve and enjoy!
If you don’t have your candy canes crushed yet, give yourself about four minutes to prep and finish this cocktail. This is another creamy, yet delicious drink to make during the winter months. The Candy Can Cocktail lives up to it’s name as it tastes just like it sounds. The peppermint isn’t too overpowering in this drink; the other ingredients mellow it out just enough to have guests asking for more.
A Brief History of the Candy Cane
The first historical mention of candy canes is in 1670 at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. It seems that the choirmaster handed out plain white sticks of candy to the children to keep them from being impatient during the long and tedious Christmas pageant. The legend states that he had the sticks of candy bent to resemble shepherds crooks in a sort of symbolic metaphor. Eventually, the tradition of handing these sugar candy sticks during living Nativity ceremonies spread across Europe. Fast forward to 1847 in Wooster, Ohio, where a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard used these plain white candy canes as a decoration for his Christmas tree. The candy cane began to gain popularity in the United States, and by the turn of the century, had begun being flavored with peppermint and spearmint.
Sometime after 1900, the red stripes began to appear on candy canes. Exactly who first came up with the idea is knowledge that has been lost to the sands of time, but many people have since found religious symbolism in the stripes, saying the smaller three stripes on a traditional cane represent the scourging of Christ, and the larger stripe the blood he shed on the cross. The white is said to represent the purity of God, and the shape of candy cane is supposed to a “J” for Jesus. Allegedly, these types of candy canes were created as a witnessing tool by an Indiana clergyman in the nineteenth century, but several sources state that the timeline for this is all wrong. In any case, the candy cane as we know it today is now an ubiquitous symbol of Christmas time.
Production of candy canes in America really began in earnest when candymaker Bob McCormack started making the confection in 1920 for his burgeoning candy company. The popularity of the candy grew, and it was becoming hard for McCormack to keep up with demand, due to issues with packing and shipping caused by high humidity in the Georgia plant where they were based. Luckily for McCormack, his brother-in-law Gregory Keller invented a machine that would help mass produce the candy more efficiently. The rest of Bob’s family got involved in helping think of ways to improve the shipping process, and Bob’s Candies became the world’s leading manufacturer of candy canes until the company was sold to Farley’s and Sathers Candy Company in 2005.
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Tags: christmas drinks, creme de cacao, creme de menthe, half and half, holiday drinks, martinis, peppermint schnapps, thanksgiving drinks
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