Christmas – A True Love of Mine

So, Christmas is creeping closer and so does the pressure of finding at least a passable gift – particularly for co-workers and neighbours. I find these people so difficult to buy for because I want to find something nice but not too pricey. If it’s cute too then that is a massive bonus. Ive learnt that with the flurry of work that happens at the end of Term 4, baking gifts for my teaching colleagues is definitely way too hard so that’s one stand-by option off the table. Then I hit on this. Individual cocktail gifts. Something all teachers definitely need at the end of the year! Perhaps even to keep in your desk in case of emergencies?

so here we have an individual Gin and Tonic!

Huzzah!

It started because I knew that one of my colleagues loves a good gin and tonic and, really, everyone needs a stiff drink by the end of the year. But I thought that giving everyone the same gift was 1. boring and 2. not great because not everyone is a G+T fan (poor souls). I put my thinking cap on and realised that the possibilities really were endless due to the range of tiny bottles of alcohol on sale and small cans of mixers. So I ended up with individual:

G+Ts
Jack and Gingers
Frangelico and Limes

The key to making a nicely wrapped gift out of this is the coaster on the bottom. This gives you some nice crisp edges and ensures that everything stays where you put it. I bought a bunch of them for $4 at KMart! Booyah!

Here they are, all wrapped up and ready to go

Easy peasy!

And fairly cheap too if you’re making a few. The most expensive part of this present is the individual bottles of booze.

All up, depending on where you buy the glasses, this gift will set you back about $10 each.

How are all you lovelies going with your present buying?

Individual Cocktail Gifts – Ingredients

1 glass (doesn’t need to be fancy, just big enough to hold the can of mixer)

1 can of mixer of your choice (tonic, soda water, lime and soda, cola, ginger beer, lemonade)

1 lime – because lime makes every cocktail better

1 bottle of alcohol that matches your mixer

1 coaster

1 quantity of cellophane and ribbon

Method

Seriously?

Now that its December I can start to properly get into the spirit of the festive season. And that means carols, christmas decorations and cocktails. And gift buying. Or… gift making! My well-documented love of spiced rum meant that earlier in the year I figured i’d just try to make my own rather than fork out $40 every time I wanted a new bottle. Although this recipe probably doesn’t save that much money (on account of the fairly high price of good golden rum) the main attraction is that you can tweak the flavours to suit your tastes. They also make fabulous gifts as they keep well and look so cute and personalised while actually being very easy to make.

This is all you need

Give or take some spices that you might like to add to suit your taste

And how is this for an easy peasy recipe…

Chuck everything in a bottle.

Thats it!

After a week of storage in a dark cupboard, the rum goes an even lovelier dark caramel colour and its smells delicious!

With at least a few more weeks until christmas, you could definitely whip these up for some gifts.

Easy Peasy!

KB Spiced Rum – Ingredients

1 500ml jar (you need one with a wide neck so that you can fish out the spices)

450 ml golden rum

2 cinnamon sticks

1 vanilla bean

6 cloves

2 star anise

6 little gratings of fresh nutmeg

Method

1. Pour rum into jar

2. Split open the vanilla bean and place, along with all other spices, into the jar

3. Seal tightly

4. Store in a dark place for 1 week (you can take a peek occasionally and give the bottle a good shake)

5. After 1 week, fish the spices out of the jar (you might need to decant the mixture and sieve it back in. If you are doing this, use a funnel or risk losing precious rum)

6. Store for as long as you like. Although you will want to drink this baby pretty soon.

Note: You can mess around with the quantities of the spices. I made a vanilla rum with just more vanilla beans. If you make it in a small batch you can always up the quantities when you find a mix that you like. Have fun!

Category: Christmas

‘Tis the Season: Individual Cocktail Gifts

‘Tis The Season: KB Spiced Rum