Its Friday afternoon and I have started Happy Hour without my better half – experimenting with a cocktail in anticipation of the soon to be asked question: What drink could I serve during the holidays? With champagne and vodka being my two go-to drinks, I thought why not combine those and infuse some Christmas flavor into to – and the Apple Moonshine Mulled Champagne Cocktail was born. Prickly fresh, oomph and coziness – all combined in one cocktail!

Apple Champagne Cocktail:

Ingredients (for 1 cocktail)

• 1 shot glass Apple Moonshine or Stoli Apple Vodka
• 2 bags of mulling spices
• Champagne
• Cinnamon Stick
• Sugar
• Water
• Cinnamon
• Honey/Agave Syrup

Directions:

• First make the mulled Simple Syrup by combining one cup of sugar with one cup of water and then simmer it on low to medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Take the mixture off the heat and steep 2 bags of mulling spices for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes squeeze all the liquid out off the spice bags. Cool the simple Syrup.
• Mix 1/2 a cup of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to make cinnamon sugar. Place the sugar on a small plate. Place some honey, agave syrup or something other sticky on a second plate. Dip the rim of your cocktail glass first into the sticky stuff and then into the cinnamon sugar rim.
• Fill a shaker with ice and pour one shot glass of Stoli apple vodka or apple moonshine into the shaker and combine with 1 tablespoon of mulled simple syrup. Shake and strain into your cocktail glass. Then fill up the cocktail glass with cold champagne and toss in a cinnamon stick!
• If you want to prepare this drink for a larger group, just mix the Vodka and simple syrup ahead of time and keep it cool (in the freezer), prepare all the sugar rims, drop in the cinnamon sticks and line up the glasses. Now you just have to pour a little bit over a shotglass of your vodka/syrup mixture into the glass and top it with champagne. This way you don’t have to constantly measure and shake and can make 10 of those drinks in no time! Also you don’t have to use the cinnamon stick in the glass its just decoration, a dried or fresh apple slice would also be really nice.

Enjoy!