Cocktails for Rosh HaShanah

The Dvash 72
(picture by Jessica Kronemer)

With Rosh HaShanah coming at the end of the week, you may be interested in various cocktails to celebrate and bring in the new Jewish year. Having been curious about options, here are some cocktails I found around:

The Dvash 72
Ingredients:
2 tsp. honey syrup (see note below)
½ tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup London Dry gin
Brut sparkling wine
Lemon peel twist as garnish

Directions:
Into a cocktail shaker add the gin, lemon juice and honey syrup, with plenty of ice. Stir with a barspoon or other long thin spoon until well chilled (do not shake, as too much of the ice will melt, over-diluting the drink) then use the shaker’s top to strain into a chilled champagne flute. Fill the balance of the flute with sparkling wine. Stir gently, and garnish with a lemon peel twist.

Source:
Gamliel Kronemer

Shofar’s End
(Picture by Dovid Statman)

Shofar’s End
Ingredients:
1 oz Compass Box Peat Monster Tenth Anniversary Edition
1 oz Busnel Calvados Pays d’Auge VSOP
1/2 oz Bénédictine DOM liqueur
2 dashes House of Angostura aromatic bitters

Directions:
Stir with ice, strain into rocks glass over clear ice (or into a chilled coupe glass per the original recipe).

Source:
Dovid Statman

Pomegranate G&T
Ingredients:

Pomegranate G&T
(Picture by Jay Rosen)

1.5 oz dry gin
0.5 oz sweet vermouth or sherry
0.5 oz pomegranate juice
tonic water
ice

Directions:
Pour the gin in a lowball or highball glass.
Add the vermouth or sherry and juice, and carefully swirl the glass.
Fill with ice, top with tonic water and serve.

Source:
Jay Rosen

Honey Cake Cocktail
Ingredients:
3 ounces Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye Whisky or whiskey of your choice
½ teaspoon crushed fall spices, such as cinnamon, star anise, clove, allspice, etc. (You can also buy a package of mulling spices and use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to crush them.)
2 ounces freshly-squeezed orange juice
¾ ounce honey
1 teaspoon water
Ice
Orange peel

Directions:
Stir the spices into the whisky and allow it to sit for several hours or overnight to infuse. Strain the whisky through a strainer with a coffee filter to remove the spices. Add the water to the honey and stir to dissolve it into a slightly thinner syrup. Add the spiced whisky, juice and honey to a cocktail shaker with several pieces of ice. Shake for 10 to 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled martini glass or rocks glass. Garnish with an orange peel, twisting before you toss it into the drink to release oils in the peel.

Source:
Emily Landsman

Unnamed Rosh HaShanah Cocktail
Ingredients:
2 ounces of Jameson Irish Whiskey
1/2 ounce of Berentzen Apple Liqueur
1/2 ounce of honey syrup (1/4 ounce of water and 1/4 ounce of honey stirred together)
a dash of Angostura aromatic bitters

Directions:
Mix ingredients in a glass with ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and enjoy!

Source:
Drew Kaplan

Classic Sangria with Apples and Citrus
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cup liquor such as brandy or triple-sec (though any wine, fruit or grain-based alcohol will do)
1 apple, sliced
1 orange, sliced with peel
1 lemon, sliced with peel
club soda

Directions:
In a punch bowl or large pitcher, add the sugar to the wine and mix until dissolved.
Add the rest of the ingredients, mix and refrigerate for 2-24 hours.
When serving, mix 1/2 cup sangria with 1/2 cup club soda and garnish with a slice of sangria fruit if desired.

Source:
Jay Rosen

The Honeyed Rose
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Calvados
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsp. honey-pomegranate syrup (1 cup of pomegranate juice (bottled juices, such as POM Wonderful, work well in this recipe), 1/3 cup of wildflower honey (clover would also work well, but stay away from stronger-flavored honeys such as buckwheat and heather), 1 tbsp. vodka. Combine the honey and juice in a small saucepan over low heat and stir constantly until the honey is fully dissolved, and the syrup is about to simmer. Take off the flame and allow to cool to room temperature. Add the vodka as a preservative. Store in the refrigerator and consume within three weeks.)
Apple slice as garnish (optional)

Directions:
Combine all the liquid ingredients into a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake well, and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with an apple slice.

Source:
Gamliel Kronemer

Apples & Honey Whisky
Ingredients:
1.5 oz honey whisky
sparkling cider, preferably dry

Directions:
In a champagne flute, add the honey whisky and top with cider.

Source:
Jay Rosen

The Paladin’s Orchard
Ingredients:
1.5 oz. – Applejack
1.5 oz. – Mead
0.75 oz. – Honey Syrup
0.5 oz. – Lemon Juice
0.25 – 0.5 oz. – Grenadine

Directions:
Put everything but the grenadine into a shaker with ice and shake it up. Pour over a large ice cube in a rocks glass. Garnish with mint and fanned out apple slices, speared with a pick to hold it all together. Pour a line or two of grenadine over the mint and apples and let it ooze into the drink. Optional: place a honey dipper dipped in grenadine into the drink.

Source:
Dan Green

Brick Wall
Ingredients:
1.5oz apple cider syrup (Bring 0.25 cup sugar, 5 cracked allspice berries, 4 whole cloves and 0.75 inches of ginger root (peeled and sliced very thin) up to a simmer. Simmer 10 minutes. Kill heat and let steep for 90 minutes. Let cool and strain. The recipe here claims to make enough for 10 drinks, but that’s wrong. By my calculation, it makes enough for about 5.5 drinks.)
1.5oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon Whiskey bourbon
Ginger ale
Lime wedge
1 slice green apple (if you’re into garnishes)

Directions:
Combine equal parts syrup and bourbon in an ice-filled glass. Top off glass with a bit of ginger ale. Squeeze in lime. Optional: garnish with apple slice.

Source:
Tom Fischer

Northwood #2
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons gold rum
2 tablespoons brandy
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B)
3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Ice cubes
2 thin apple slices

Directions:
Combine first 5 ingredients in cocktail shaker; fill with ice.
Cover and shake vigorously until cold.
Strain into 2 coupe glasses.
Cut slit in each apple slice and attach to rim of each glass.

Source:
David Moo

A few cocktails from a Facebook discussion on Rosh HaShanah cocktails
(1)
Ingredients:
8oz hard cider
1.5 oz cinnamon schnapps

Directions:
Mix over ice and stir.

Source:
Adam Eggers

(2)
Ingredients:
DeKuyper Red Apple schnapps
Barenjager (had hechsher in Israel last time I was there)

Directions:
Mix in a shot glass

Source:
Ronn Blitzer

(3)
Ingredients:
Hot apple cider
a little bourbon
a splash of fresh lemon juice

Directions:
Mix and serve

Source:
Tamara Shapiro Breitowitz

Do you have or know of others? Feel free to send them to Drew@JewishDrinking.com

One thought on “Cocktails for Rosh HaShanah

  1. This is a great list with great cocktails.

    I like to add a shooter version of a Brasilian drink called ” rabo de galo”

    It is basicly vermut and cachaça on a glass. for a shooter version recommended :

    -2/3 of kosher wine or kosher sweet vermut
    -1/3 kosher cachaça
    -spray citrus on all cups for lechaim
    Serve in shot cups

    *tradicionally served in a rock’s glass with a tahiti lime Wedge on ice.
    **pair well with angustura drops

    be batched first

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