Perfect Fall Cocktail: Mezcal Spiced Honey Cider Spritz
This is a perfect fall cocktail, smoky and spiced for that fall flavor, a little sweet and just the right color for a signature drink for a fall gathering. This mezcal spiced honey cider spritz is that cozy up on the porch in a sweater and enjoy the cool air kind of deliciousness.
Mezcal Spiced Honey Cider Spritz
Ingredients
- 1.5 Oz Mezcal (I prefer an extra smokey artisnal mezcal and there are many good ones! Try Madre de Todos Lost Muertos.)
- 1.5 Oz Tequila (We are using Teremana Reposado as our house Tequila)
- 1 Oz Homemade Spiced Honey Syrup *see recipe below (Super easy and delicious! Don’t skip this!)
- 2 Oz Apple Cider (I like honey crisp but any apple cider you like will be good.)
- 1 Oz Cointreau or Triple Sec for a little added depth and hint of orange
- 2 Oz Club Soda (You can skip this if you like it more boozy but it gives it the crisp bubble and mellows it out.)
- I like a little squeeze of fresh lime and orange in mine
Directions
- Choose your preferred cocktail glass. Rim glass with mixture of cinnamon and sugar by coating rim with a little sticky maple syrup or you can just use citrus or cider and dip rim into the cinnamon sugar until coated. Fill rimmed glass with ice.
- Mix all ingredients except the club soda in a drink shaker with ice and shake well.
- Strain into glass over ice. Add club soda and give a stir.
- Garnish with cinnamon stick, orange slice or dried orange slice would be prettiest, and a star anise adds a pretty touch without flavoring the drink if you happen to have on hand.
Plain Honey Syrup
We use honey syrup in a wide variety of cocktails at our house. Many tiki rum drinks call for it. I prefer to use in instead of simple syrup or agave now in my margaritas even. It adds a different flavor that I enjoy.
Honey syrup is equal parts rum and water, 1:1 ratio. We pour a whole bottle of honey in a pot and heat it until it thins. Fill the bottle with water and pour water into the honey stirring over heat until it is dissolved. Do not boil and cook the honey. Remove from heat. Cool. Pour back into bottle (you’ll need two now). Obviously you can measure honey in any amount you want and use equal water. It will store in a glass jar or honey bottle in fridge for a few weeks.
Spiced Honey Syrup
I found this spiced honey recipe from one of my favorite foodie blogs, Half Baked Harvest. Tieghan Gerard posts amazing recipes with beautiful photos. I aspire to photograph my food and drinks as beautifully as she does. My family enjoys many of her dinner recipes regularly and her recipes inspire my own often.
She uses this Spiced Honey Syrup in a version of an old fashioned, which is what I originally made it for. The drink is delicious, but I love an old school old fashioned so of course I would like the added flavor of the spiced honey. I played around with the extra syrup and decided to create a mezcal drink because I have been on that kick all summer… and apparently going into fall…
I will make this syrup again adapting it specifically for my mezcal drink by adding a few whole cloves and a little nutmeg in rather than the Rosemary…just to make it a little extra fall spiced.
I feel like this Mezcal Spiced Honey Cider Spritz with extra garnish would be a beautiful Thanksgiving celebration signature cocktail. I usually make a spiced fall sangria to serve for Thanksgiving that everyone loves.
Spiced Honey Syrup ingredients
- 1/2 Cup of Honey
- 2 Rosemary Sprigs
- 2 Cinnamon Sticks
- 1 Tablespoon Cardamom Pods
- 1 Inch Fresh Ginger Sliced
- Zest of One Orange
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Directions
- *I am adapting her instructions a tiny bit. Bring 1/2 Cup Water with the rosemary (or cloves and nutmeg), cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods and ginger to a boil. I would do a little over 1/2 cup of water (for evaporation loss) and let it boil for 2-3 minutes to seep flavor into water. Add the honey and stir over heat just until dissolved into water.
- Remove from heat and add the orange zest and vanilla extract.
- Cool and pour into a glass jar. *I leave the spices in the syrup so they continue adding flavor and then strain the honey syrup directly into the shaker when making my drink. You could also strain it into the jar to store it if you prefer to do it all at once. Store sealed in glass jar in fridge.
What are your favorite fall cocktails?
I will keep sharing mine so please follow along!
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Victoria
