December 6, 2018

Chai-Cranberry Bourbon Smash

Name: Chai-Cranberry Bourbon Smash
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/4 cup whole cranberries1 ounce brown sugar-chai tea simple syrup2 rosemary sprigs, divided1/2 lime, cut into wedges2 ounces bourbonIceSplash of ginger ale

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Disclosure: The bourbon for this chai-cranberry bourbon smash was provided by Redwood Empire American Whiskey at no charge for my review. All opinions are my own.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stop falalalala’ing with the holidays here, so what better way to get into the spirit than with another festive cocktail? As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many holiday cocktails in your arsenal. With all the fun gatherings, there’s always an excuse to whip up a good drink, and I promise this chai-cranberry bourbon smash will quickly become a new favorite holiday cocktail.

A chai-cranberry bourbon smash in front of a bottle of bourbon with Christmas string, cranberries and rosemary around it.

We entertain a lot during the holidays, so I’m always trying to come up with new recipes. Sure, I have my favorite go-to recipes that I always like to make each year, but I don’t want to be a one-trick pony. Creating something new keeps me inspired and I had so much fun dreaming up this chai-cranberry bourbon smash.

As we all know by now, I love bourbon. A little bourbon here. A little bourbon there. Clearly, bourbon is my jam, so I knew I needed a holiday bourbon cocktail in my life. Serendipitously, I also made this brown sugar-chai tea simple syrup for a sangria but didn’t use it because the sangria was perfectly sweet without it. So, hey, those two sound perfect together, right?

From there, I added a couple other seasonal ingredients, and just like that, I had the perfect holiday bourbon smash. If that doesn’t put you in the holiday spirit, I don’t know what will.

Two chai-cranberry bourbon smashes on burlap with a candle to the side.

A close-up of a cranberry bourbon smash on burlap with a rosemary garnish.

How to Make

Now let’s get to mixing. To start, you’ll need the brown sugar-chai tea simple syrup, which you can find here. Grab your cocktail shaker and add the cooled simple syrup with fresh cranberries and rosemary and muddle.

Once the cranberries break down, we add some lime wedges and muddle those as well. I like to add the lime wedges separately because if the cocktail shaker is too full, it makes it hard to effectively muddle the cranberries.

An aerial view of two chai bourbon smashes with Christmas string and rosemary around them.

After we muddle, it’s time to add the most important ingredient of all: bourbon. For this chai-cranberry bourbon smash, I used Redwood Empire, which is a blend of 60 percent rye and 40 percent bourbon from Graton Distilling Co., located just west of Sonoma County, California. Graton Distilling ages the blend in port, wine and American oak barrels, making for a bourbon with a slightly spicy character. After the initial spice hits, the bourbon finishes with smooth vanilla and caramel notes. With that delicious flavor profile, I knew Redwood Empire would be perfect for this chai-cranberry bourbon smash.

A bottle of Redwood Empire bourbon with Christmas decor around it.

Now we shake everything together, strain into ice-filled glasses and top with ginger ale for a fizzy kick. I like garnishing with a sprig of rosemary. Not only is this a nod to the drink’s ingredients but rosemary also looks like small Christmas tree branches. And that’s just fun.

Perfect Pairing

With it being the holidays, we need a festive meal to go along with this chai-cranberry bourbon smash, and a roasted duck is perfect. Duck is such a rich meat that it holds up to the bourbon well, and it pairs beautifully with the warm spice.

I hope you get into the holiday spirit and try this chai-cranberry bourbon smash. You will feel oh-so festive sipping on this delicious holiday cocktail. Please let me know how you enjoyed this chai-cranberry bourbon smash recipe in the comment section and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. You can also catch me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Cheers!

Two holiday bourbon smashes on burlap with festive decor around it.

Two winter bourbon smashes with rosemary and cranberries around them.

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