Warming apple and cinnamon gin

Photography by Catherine Falls

A warming cocktail is perfect at this time of year! Serve this apple and cinnamon gin as guests arrive and come in out of the cold, or on a cold, clear night light a fire outside (responsibly, of course) and sit round the flames sipping on this to keep you cosy. If you have non-drinking guests the spiced apple juice is delicious by itself.

You need to infuse the gin a couple of weeks before you are going to make the cocktail. If you don’t have time for that then buy a fruity gin such as Eden Mill Forbidden Gin (with apple and quince) or make this with rum or calvados instead of the gin.

Serves 6

For the gin:
500ml gin (a basic supermarket own brand is fine for this as you are going to pimp it up)
50g sugar
2-3 cored and chopped apples, pink or red ones will give the gin a nice colour
1 cinnamon stick
one piece of orange zest (peel wide strips from an orange using a potato peeler, so you get the zest and not the pith)
2-3 cloves

For the spiced apple juice:
750ml good quality local apple juice (we use Long Meadow)
1 cinnamon stick
2 slices of ginger
2 cloves
2 pieces of orange zest (peel wide strips from an orange using a potato peeler, so you get the zest and not the pith)
10 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
210 ml apple and cinnamon gin (or use another fruity, spiced gin)*
Quarter slices of orange and dried apple rings to garnish

Start by infusing your gin. Put your sugar into a one-litre jar. Add the chopped apples (chopped into 1-2cm cubes), cinnamon sticks, orange zest and cloves. Top up with gin and close the lid. Store in a cool, dark-ish, place and shake every few days to dissolve the sugar. Taste after a couple of weeks and when you like the flavour strain out the flavouring ingredients. The apple flavoured gin can be stored indefinitely.

Put the apple juice in a pan with the cinnamon, ginger, clove and orange zest. Slowly bring to a simmer and then turn off the heat and allow to infuse for 30 minutes if you have time. If not use right away.

Put 35ml of gin in a teacup or small mug. Add a quarter slice of orange and top up with mulled apple juice. Serve garnished with a dried apple ring.

*This also works brilliantly with rum. We spice basic white rum with some cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, peppercorns and orange zest.

What’s your favourite festive cocktail? Let me know in the comments below.