Christmas Cocktails: The Flavours of the Season

You can usually smell Christmas before you taste it. Warm cinnamon, a curl of orange peel, cloves pushed into fruit, a little ginger heat at the back of the throat. Those are the flavours the season built its drinks around, and once you know them you start to recognise them in every glass. This is a guide to Christmas cocktails: what gives them that unmistakable festive character, the classics worth knowing, and how a good bar reworks them for a warm December night rather than a cold northern one.

At a glance. Christmas cocktails lean on warm baking spices and bright winter fruit: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, orange and cranberry. The classics run from warming and boozy, like mulled wine and a hot toddy, to fresh and sparkling, like a cranberry spritz. In a tropical city the same flavours work beautifully over ice, and a good bartender will happily give a festive drink a local twist. At The Myst Dong Khoi, ROOTY Bar pours Saigon-inspired festive drinks up on the rooftop through December.

What makes a cocktail taste like Christmas

Strip a festive drink back and the magic is really just a handful of spices. Cinnamon is the anchor, sweet and woody, the smell most people file under Christmas without thinking. Around it sit clove, sharp and almost medicinal in the best way, and nutmeg, which is softer and a little nutty. Ginger brings the warmth that catches at the back of your throat. Star anise and cardamom turn up too, lending that dark, mulled depth you find in a pot of wine left to steep on the stove.

Then there is the fruit, and it does the opposite job. Orange is everywhere, as peel, as juice, as a bittersweet twist, and it cuts through all that spice so the drink never turns heavy. Cranberry adds a tart red snap. A little pomegranate, a squeeze of lemon, a spoon of dark honey or maple, and the whole thing lifts.

That contrast between warm spice and bright fruit is the entire trick. Get the balance right and a glass tastes like the season in one sip. If you are newer to this world and want the groundwork first, our guide to easy cocktails for beginners is a gentle place to start.

The warming classics

These are the drinks built for cold hands and long evenings, and they are the ones most people picture when they hear the words festive cocktails. Even in a warm climate they are worth knowing, because the flavours are the point, and a good bar will find a way to serve them that suits the weather.

• Mulled wine. Red wine warmed slow with orange, cinnamon, clove and star anise, sometimes with a splash of brandy to give it backbone. It is the smell of a Christmas market in a glass, spiced and gently sweet.
• Hot toddy. The simplest of the lot and the most comforting. Whisky, honey, lemon and hot water, often with a cinnamon stick and a clove-studded slice of lemon resting on top. Warming without being heavy.
• Eggnog. Rich and creamy, built on egg, sugar, milk and a good hit of nutmeg, usually spiked with rum, brandy or bourbon. A dessert as much as a drink, and not for the faint of heart.
• Spiced old fashioned or festive negroni. Two classics given a seasonal turn, with a cinnamon syrup or a clove-and-orange note stirred through. The bones of the cocktail stay the same; the spice just tilts it toward December.
• Spiked hot chocolate. Proper dark chocolate melted into hot milk, laced with a measure of dark rum, whisky or an orange liqueur. Pure comfort, and a favourite with anyone who finds the boozier drinks a bit much.

The brighter, fresher festive drinks

Not every Christmas drink is meant to warm you up. A whole other family of festive cocktails is cold, sparkling and refreshing, and honestly these are the ones that make the most sense once you step outside into a warm evening. They carry the same seasonal flavours, just poured over ice and lifted with bubbles.

• Cranberry spritz. Tart cranberry, a dry sparkling wine or soda, a twist of orange and maybe a sprig of rosemary for the tree-in-a-glass look. Festive, low on effort, easy to drink.
• Pomegranate or cranberry fizz. Gin or vodka shaken with cranberry and citrus, topped with something sparkling. Deep red, bright and clean, the sort of drink that looks like Christmas the second it lands on the table.
• Spiced gin and tonic. A regular G and T pushed toward the season with a cinnamon stick, a slice of orange and a couple of cloves. Familiar, but wearing a little tinsel.
• Winter margarita. Tequila with cranberry or pomegranate in place of the usual lime-forward mix, sometimes rimmed with a spiced sugar. Sharp, cold and surprisingly at home in the tropics.

A tropical twist for a Saigon December

Here is the thing about Christmas in Ho Chi Minh City. December evenings are mild and easy, the sort of warm where you want to be outside rather than huddled indoors. So a bartender here does not just copy a cold-climate recipe. They take those familiar spices and let the tropics answer back.

That might mean lemongrass leaning in beside the cinnamon, or a knob of fresh Vietnamese ginger sharpening a hot toddy. It might be calamansi or kumquat standing in for the usual orange, passion fruit brightening a cranberry fizz, or a little coconut smoothing out a spiced drink so it drinks cool rather than heavy. Local honey, tamarind, a whisper of pandan. The season stays legible in every sip, but the drink belongs to Saigon. A festive cocktail on a rooftop, condensation beading on the glass and the city lit up below, is its own particular kind of Christmas, and one worth trying at least once.

Festive drinks at ROOTY

ROOTY Bar is the rooftop bar at The Myst Dong Khoi, up above District 1 with an infinity pool, the city on one side and the Saigon River on the other. It is a fitting place to meet the season, the sky going pink over the rooftops as the first drinks are poured. The bar leans into Saigon-inspired cocktails and keeps a considered list of premium wines, and come December the team works those festive flavours into the menu in their own way.

Rather than pin down an exact recipe here, we would just say this: tell the bartender what you are in the mood for, warming or fresh, boozy or gentle, and let them point you to something that tastes of the season. Half the pleasure is in the asking. For the fuller picture of the rooftop, our guide to the rooftop bar in Saigon sets the scene, and if you are planning your visit around the holidays, our note on the rooftop bar at Christmas in Saigon is the one to read next. As ever, enjoy the season, and drink responsibly.

Frequently asked questions

Try a festive drink at ROOTY

ROOTY Bar sits on the rooftop of The Myst Đồng Khởi, a boutique heritage hotel in the heart of District 1, with the city and the Saigon River spread out below and an infinity pool at its edge. Come December, the team is glad to talk you through the season and pour you something that tastes of it.

→ Discover dining and drinks at The Myst Dong Khoi

→ Stay with us and toast the season above the city

Crafted by Silverland Hotels.