New Year’s Eve cocktail recipes to elevate your celebrations

Whether your countdown plans look like a cosy night in on the sofa or a festive bash with friends and family, New Year’s Eve is the perfect excuse to jazz up your drinks selection. 

We’ve concocted a list of fancy yet easy-to-make cocktails suitable for the occasion with a little help from our brands, starring their spirits and juices that give back. There’s gin funding clean water projects, vodka making the world greener and juices saving wonky fruit among the bunch. 

Set the tone for the year and start 2022 with one of these proper feel-good drinks in hand. Cheers! 

Gorilla Spirits

Gorilla Spirits are makers of small-batch, award-winning craft spirits helping protect their endangered namesake, the gorilla. Every bottle raises money for The Gorilla Organization, who oversee conservation projects aimed at addressing key threats facing gorillas today.  

Founder Andy Daniels has shared three recipes, which feature their smooth and creamy Blackback Mountain Strength Vodka; the rich Maraba Coffee Liqueur; and Karisimbi Spiced Rum, distilled with a Christmassy blend of spices – blood orange, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla. 

Espresso Martini 

“In my opinion it’s not a party if it doesn’t start with one of these!”

Ingredients

30ml Blackback Vodka      

30ml Maraba Coffee liqueur      

30ml Fresh Espresso      

5ml Sugar Syrup

1 dash chocolate bitters

East 8 Hold Up 

“A favourite among guests at our distillery and originally created at the bar Milk and Honey, named after an infamous encounter.”

Ingredients

45ml Blackback Vodka      

15ml Aperol      

20ml fresh Pineapple Juice      

15ml Lime Juice      

10ml Passion Fruit Syrup

Karisimbi Spiced Daiquiri 

“A spicy twist on the classic daiquiri.”

Ingredients

60ml Karisimbi Spiced Rum

22.5ml Lime juice

22.5ml Sugar syrup

Flawsome Festive Cocktails

If fruity cocktails float your boat, Flawsome Drinks has you covered. They craft cold-pressed juices from misshapen or imperfect fruit that was otherwise headed for landfill. These happen to make delicious mixers and bases for all kinds of wintry drinks, from warming hot chocolate to fizz cocktails ideal for toasting at midnight. 

Spiced Apple Warmer

Ingredients

750ml Flawsome! Sweet and Sour Apple Juice

3-4 Cinnamon Sticks

Pinch of Cloves

4 Slices of Orange

Optional: Ginger Slices

Optional: 120ml Brandy or Spiced Rum

Method

1. Place Flawsome! Sweet and Sour Apple Juice, spices and orange slices in a pan.
2. Optional: Add ginger for a warming zing.
3. Warm over a low heat for roughly 20 minutes, without boiling.
4. Optional: Add 15ml of brandy to a mug.
5. Strain warmed spiced juice into mug.

Vegan Orange Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

100ml of Flawsome! Orange Juice

100ml of almond milk

2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder

Orange zest

Optional: agave syrup

Optional: cinnamon

Optional: 25ml brandy

Method

1. Add Flawsome! Orange Juice, almond milk, cocoa powder, orange zest to a pan.
2. Optional: Add agave.
3. Gently heat, stirring frequently.
4. When warmed, pout into your favourite mug.
5. Optional: Sprinkle cinnamon over the top.
6. Optional: Add 25ml of brandy.

Mulled Gin

Ingredients

100ml gin

400ml Flawsome! Apple Juice 

½ lemon, sliced

1 bay leaf

4 cloves

2 cardamom pods, lightly crushed

1 small cinnamon stick

3 juniper berries, lightly crushed

½ tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp runny honey

For the garnish

4 bay leaves

2 lemon slices, halved

Method

1. Divide the gin between four small heatproof glasses or teacups.
2. Tip the apple juice into a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients. 
3. Heat gently until simmering, then strain into a jug. 
4. Pour the mulled apple juice into the glasses with the gin and stir gently to combine. 
5. Garnish each glass with a bay leaf and half a lemon slice and serve warm.

Strawberry Sparkler 

Ingredients

100ml Flawsome! Apple and Strawberry juice

30ml grapefruit juice

Sparkling water or champagne

Blackcurrants

Fresh rosemary for garnish

Method

1. Muddle blackcurrants.
2. Add a cocktail shaker with 100ml of Flawsome! Apple and Strawberry juice.
3. Add grapefruit juice and top up with ice cubes.
4. Shake well.
5. Strain into a glass.
6. Top up with sparkling water or champagne.
7. Garnish with fresh rosemary.

Buck’s Fizz

200ml champagne

100ml Flawsome! Orange Juice

Simply add the two together into a glass.

One Gin

Gin enthusiast? You’ll love One Gin, whose smooth and distinctive gins have won them awards and spots on the drinks list at renowned hotels and restaurants. Their hot gin cider recipe will give you all the warm fuzzy feels, as will their backstory. As part of the One Foundation, 10% of profits go to clean and sustainable water projects in some of the world’s poorest countries. 

Hot Gin Cider

Ingredients

750ml good quality dry cider
150ml One Gin
50ml honey
2 x mulling spice bags (available from supermarkets)
Peel of 1 orange & 1 lemon (discarding the pith)
1 orange & 1 lemon sliced

Method

Add mulling spice bags, orange and lemon peel slices and cider to a saucepan and warm gently. Once hot, stir in honey, add One Gin and ladle into mugs to serve.

Sapling Spirits

Raise a glass to the new year and to saving the planet with Sapling Spirits’ climate-positive vodka. As well as planting a tree for every bottle you buy, they keep their carbon footprint as low as can be by sourcing ingredients locally in London, where their drinks are all made. 

Savour their spin on a classic negroni, featuring the original Sapling Vodka. The spirit’s clean, crisp and naturally sweet taste perfectly complements the vermouth and Campari. 

The Sapling Negroni 

Ingredients 

25ml Sapling Vodka

25ml sweet vermouth

25ml Campari

 

Method

Stir in a rocks glass with a single large ice cube and serve with an orange zest twist. 

Sea Change

You can’t beat a classic mulled wine – unless it’s one that gives back. Using Sea Change’s wine makes it a winter warmer that also raises funds for marine conservation charities. Their mission to be kind to the planet also means packaging is completely plastic-free and even the corks are made from a renewable plant-based material. 

Full of dark fruit flavour, their Merlot is perfect for mulling with orange and spices. 

Ingredients

1 bottle of Sea Change Merlot

¼ cup of Cointreau or brandy

1 orange, sliced into rounds

8 cloves

2 star anise

4 tablespoons of caster sugar

Extra orange slices / cinnamon sticks / star anise to garnish

Method

1. Add all ingredients (except for the garnish) in a large saucepan, stir to combine.
2. Cook on medium-high heat until it almost reaches a simmer (don’t let it boil, as this will boil off the alcohol), then reduce the heat to low, cover and let it very gently simmer for 30 mins.
3. Serve warm with added garnishes.

Not found the perfect NYE tipple for you here? We’ve got plenty more social enterprise drinks to pick from – everything from zesty IPAs to rich red wines.