For a little over a year and counting, we’ve been asking some of our favorite hotels, resorts, and restaurants from all around the world to give us the secrets to their best signature cocktails. Some of them are fascinatingly elaborate and have led to our test kitchen becoming absolute messes. Others are so simple it’s mind-boggling, and we’ve had a little too much fun with these recipes. Most importantly, though, they’ve reminded us of why we miss our favorite properties and why we cannot wait to return.
Now, with the holiday season nearing an end, we figured there’s still a chance to wow your friends and families with some special fall and winter cocktails, so we have collected this massive list of delicious treats and simple gems that might just become your new go-to drinks in 2022.
The Bora Mary
The Place: St. Regis Bora Bora
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz premium vodka
- 1.5 oz Bloody Mary Mix
- 1 oz lime juice
- 1.5 oz watermelon juice (substitute strawberry juice from frozen strawberries if watermelon juice isn’t available)
- Watermelon cube or whole strawberry for garnish.
How to Make It:
Blend all ingredients with ice until frothy. Pour into a 6 oz champagne flute. Garnish with the watermelon cube or strawberry.
Al-Bee-Dam
The Place: Coconut Cove at the Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas
Ingredients:
- 2 oz cinnamon and raisin-infused rum
- 2 oz Orange Juice
- 2 oz Coco Lopez
- 2 oz Pineapple Juice
- Cinnamon for garnish (optional)
- Pineapple slice for garnish (optional)
How to Make it:
Shake all ingredients and serve on a fresh bed of ice. Add a dash of cinnamon on top with pineapple garnish.
To Abuela’s House We Go
The Place: Fairmont Grand Del Mar, San Diego, CA
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Avion Reposado Tequila
- 0.5 oz Licor 43 liqueur
- Abuelita Mexican hot chocolate and milk
- Whipped cream
- Cinnamon
How to Make It:
In an Irish coffee mug add Avion reposado tequila, Licor 43 liqeuer and fill the remaining of the glass with Abuelita’s Mexican hot chocolate (this recipe can be found on the package. Melt 1 tablet and 4 cups of milk in a saucepan and whisk until combined and hot.) Stir and top with whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon.
Pumpkin Spice Martini
The Place: Bungalows Key Largo
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz vanilla odka
- 0.5 oz simple syrup
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon sugar
- 1.5 tsp pumpkin puree
- Cinnamon sugar rim
- Cinnamon stick, for garnish
- Sprinkle touch of nutmeg on top and Serve
How to Make It:
Combine all ingredients in mixing lass and shake vigorously. Strain and serve in old fashioned glass with cinnamon sugar rim.
Harvest Martini
The Place: TPC Boston
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Tito’s Handmade Vodka
- 1 oz Goslings Dark Rum
- 0.5 oz half and half
- Homemade pumpkin pie simple syrup (1 Cup Pumpkin, 3 tbsp Nutmeg, 3 tbsp cinnamon, 0.5 cup sugar, 0.5 cup water)
- Caramel and crushed graham crackers, for garnish
- 1 cinnamon stick, for garnish
How to Make the Syrup:
Over heat, add equal parts water and sugar. Once sugar dissolves, this is your decision on how much pumpkin flavor to add. Add pumpkin puree, nutmeg, cinnamon and continue stirring while over medium heat. Once fully mixed, taste your mixture. Once again, upon your discretion, add more pumpkin puree if you would like more pumpkin for the cocktail. Continue to stir until perfect flavor is found. Let cool to room temperature.
How to Make the Cocktail:
Fill your martini shaker halfway with ice, then add vodka, rum, half and half and homemade pumpkin pie simple syrup. Shake mixer until the exterior of the shaker has a frost. Take your chilled martini glass, dip the rim in the caramel, make certain the rim is covered and then dip in crushed graham crackers. Strain the mixer into the martini glass and lastly add cinnamon stick to the rim for a garnish.
Autumn Delight
The Place: Marriott Harbor Beach, Ft. Lauderdale
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Stoli Vanilla Vodka
- 1 oz pumpkin spice puree
- 1 oz white crème de cacao
- 1 oz Baileys Irish Cream
- Splash of cream
- Chocolate shavings, for garnish
How to Make It:
First combine the Stoli Vanilla Vodka, Pumpkin Spice Puree, White Crème de Cacao, Baileys Irish Cream and Splash of Cream in a shaker to chill. Once chilled pour mixture in a martini glass and sprinkle top with chocolate shavings.
Autumn Lovers Dream
The Place: El Puesto Taqueria y Cantina, Laredo, TX
Ingredients:
- 1 oz of Vanilla Vodka
- 0.5 oz Frangelico
- 0.5 oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
- 1 oz Pumpkin spice froth, topping (made from pumpkin spice creamer)
- Cinnamon, for garnish
- Pumpkin spice, for garnish
How to Make It:
Place vanilla vodka, Frangelico and Godiva Chocolate Liqueur in a cocktail shaker and mix for 15 seconds; strain over ice into a chilled glass of your choice. Add pumpkin spice creamer to a frother and mix to desired consistency. Top off glass with pumpkin spice froth and garnish with a mix of cinnamon and pumpkin spice.
Fall Equinox
The Place: Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort, Aruba
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Red Rhubarb Liquor
- 1 oz Tito’s Vodka
- 1 oz orange juice
- 1 drop grenadine
- Orange wedges, cut in half for garnish
- 3 blueberries, for garnish
- Rosemary stem, for garnish
How to Make It:
Start with adding ice and grenadine syrup into a stemless wine glass. In a shaker combine ice, red Rhubarb liquor, Tito’s Vodka, and orange juice. Shake before straining into wine glass. Garnish with blueberries, orange wedges, and rosemary stem.
Turnberry Preserve
The Place: Trump Turnberry, A Luxury Collection Resort
Ingredients:
- 40 ml vodka
- 25 ml lemon juice
- Sugar syrup
- 3 blackberries
- 3 blueberries
- 3 raspberries
How to Make It:
Crush berries and shake together well with vodka and lemon juice. Serve over ice and garnish with mint and blackberries.
Sour Apple Martini
The Place: Margaritaville Beach Resort Nassau
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz vodka
- 0.5 oz Sour Apple Pucker
- 0.5 oz simple syrup
- Sliced granny smith apple
- Lemon juice
How to Make It:
Combine vodka, sour apple pucker, lemon juice and simple syrup. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a delicious Granny Smith apple slice. Serve immediately.
Spice of Paradise
The Place: Timbers Kaua’i
Ingredients:
- 1 barspoon pumpkin spice mix
- 1.5 oz Koloa Gold Rum
- 0.75 oz lime juice
- 0.75 Cointreau
- 0.5 oz simple syrup
- 1 pasteurized egg white
How to Make It:
To create the “Spice of Paradise,” combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Once chilled, pour over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Sip and enjoy!
Handle “Rum” Cocktail
The Place: Handle, Park City, UT
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Plantation 3 Stars Rum
- 0.25 oz Licor 43
- 0.75 oz pandan syrup
- 1 oz coconut water
- 0.75 oz lime
- Edible flower for garnish
How to Make It:
Place all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Strain the mix into an ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with an edible flower.
Pie Tai
The Place: The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas
Drink Ingredients:
- 2.5 oz Plantation 5 Year
- 0.75 oz pumpkin pie syrup
- 0.75 oz lime juice
- 0.25 oz orgeat
Pumpkin Pie Syrup Ingredients:
- 1 cup water
- 2 cinnamon sticks (4-inch)
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 whole nutmeg
- 1 butternut squash (seeds and flesh)
- 2 cups sugar
How to Make the Syrup:
Bring water to boil with all ingredients except sugar. Once boiling, add sugar and whisk until syrup is clear.
How to Make the Cocktail:
Shake all ingredients together with ice. Pour all contents, including ice (do not strain), into pilsner glass. Garner with a mint sprig and an upside-down orange magnolia flower (to resemble a pumpkin).
Zuccachata
The Place: Westgate Vacation Villas Resort, Orlando, FL
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Rumchata
- 1 oz Fireball cinnamon whiskey
- A splash of cream
- 0.75 oz Pumpkin Spice Syrup
- Brown sugar cinnamon
- 1 Pirouette wafer
How to Make It:
Combine Rumchata, Fireball, cream and pumpkin spice syrup and mix well. Coat the rim of your glass with brown sugar cinnamon. Pour mixture into your glass over ice and garnish with a Pirouette wafer.
Hocus Pocus
The Place: Lighthouse Pointe at The Grand Lucayan, Nassau, Bahamas
Ingredients:
- 1 oz spiced rum
- 3 oz Irish cream
- 1 oz Mount Gay
- 1 oz Kahlua
- 2 tsp caramel sauce
- 0.33 oz fresh cream
- Cinnamon, for garnish
How to Make It:
Shake liquors and cream in a mixer with ice. Drizzle caramel into a glass and add ice, then strain mixture into glass. Top with fresh cream, cinnamon and an extra drizzle of caramel.
Spiked Apple Hot Chai
The Place: North Carolina’s Crystal Coast
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz spiced rum
- 0.5 oz apple cider
- 0.5 oz chai tea
- 0.5 oz cinnamon syrup
- Almond foam (or whipped cream)
How to Make It:
For cold, pour spiced rum, apple cider, chai tea and cinnamon syrup into a shaker tin. Add ice and shake. Pour into rocks glass then top with foam or whipped cream. For hot, heat the apple cider and chai tea on a stove top. Remove then add spiced rum and cinnamon syrup. Pour into a mug and top with foam or whipped cream.
Pumpkin Spiked Shake
The Place: Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa, Orlando, FL
Ingredients:
- 1.25 oz spiced rum
- 2 tbsp pumpkin purée
- Vanilla ice cream
- Crushed up graham cracker pieces
- Splash of milk or cream
How to Make It:
Combine spiced rum, pumpkin purée, vanilla ice cream and mix well. Add a splash of milk or cream to the mixture, then blend well. Coat the rim of your glass with caramel sauce and garnish with whipped cream, graham cracker dust and cinnamon.
Autumn Sour
The Place: Streamsong Resort, Bowling Green, FL
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Streamsong Select (Maker’s Mark 2019 Bourbon)
- 1 oz fresh lemon juice
- 1 oz. Demerara sugar syrup
- 1 bar spoon Fernet Branca
- Angostura bitters
How to Make It:
Combine bourbon, lemon juice, demerara sugar and fernet branca in a boston shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Double strain into a coupe glass and garnish with Angostura mist and anise.
Applewood Smoked Fall Old Fashioned
The Place: Mansion on Forsyth Park, Savannah, GA
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Basil Hayden’s Bourbon
- 0.5 oz fall spice infused cane syrup (cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg)
- 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
- 2 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters
How to Make It:
Stir and strain all ingredients into a rocks glass. Smoke with Apple Woodchips and garnish with dehydrated orange slice, cinnamon stick, and Luxardo cherry.
Mountain Brook Cold Brew
The Place: Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook, Alabama
Ingredients:
- 1.25 oz Basil Hayden Bourbon
- 2 oz cold brewed coffee
- 0.25 oz Bailey’s
- 0.25 oz Frangelico
- 0.75 oz heavy cream
How to Make It:
Start out by preparing the cold brew, then pour all ingredients into a coupe and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Vanilla Chai Old Fashioned
The Place: Timbers Kiawah, South Carolina
Drink Ingredients:
- 2.5 oz Four Roses Bourbon
- 0.5 oz Luxardo
- 1 oz Vanilla Chai Simple Syrup
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- 2 dashes black walnut bitters
- 1 orange
- Star anise and cinnamon stick, for garnish
- Vanilla Chia Simple Syrup Ingredients:
- 4 oz water
- 4 chai tea bags
- 2.5 oz maple syrup
- 1 vanilla bean (split)
How to Make the Vanilla Chia Simple Syrup:
Add all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring ingredients to a simmer until combined. Steep for 15 minutes, strain mixture and chill.
Next, combine all of the drink ingredients into a crystal mixing glass with ice and stir for 6-8 seconds. Place a large ice cube into a rocks glass. Using a peeler, carefully peel a 2” x 1” peel off an orange, avoiding the pith and use the peel to rim the glass and place on top of ice cube. Strain the ingredients into the rocks glass over the orange peel.
Ember Old Fashioned
The Place: Hotel Crescent Court, Dallas, TX
Drink Ingredients:
- 2 oz bourbon (Garrison Brothers Small Batch Bourbon is recommended)
- 0.33 oz orange spiced syrup, cooled
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- 1 bruleed orange wheel, for garnish
- 1 cinnamon stick, for garnish
- 1 star anise, for garnish
- Orange Spiced Syrup Ingredients:
- 4 oz Grade A pure maple syrup
- 0.25 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
- 3 sliced orange wheels
- 1 dash cloves
- 1 dash anise
- 1 dash cinnamon
- 1 tsp brown sugar
How to Make It:
For the syrup, add all ingredients into a pot and cook for 10 minutes until syrup begins to boil. Let cool for 5 minutes. Once the syrup is cooled, then fill shaker glass with ice and blend bourbon, orange spiced syrup and orange bitters, stir thoroughly. Fill old fashioned glass with a single large ice block, pour bourbon and spiced syrup blend over and garnish with cinnamon, orange wheel and star anise.
Apple Jaxx
The Place: Westgate Cocoa Beach Resort, Cocoa, FL
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Crown Royal Regal Apple
- 0.5 oz Torin caramel syrup
- 4 oz apple cider
- Cinnamon sugar
How to Make It:
Combine Crown Apple, caramel syrup, and apple cider and mix well. Coat the rim of your glass with cinnamon sugar and pour mixture into you glass over ice.
Above the Treeline
The Place: The Residences at Sebastian, Vail, CO
Drink Ingredients:
- 1 oz Del Maguey Vida Mezcal
- 0.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse
- 0.25 oz Spruce Tip Demerara
- Turmeric ginger herbal tea
- 2 oz heavy cream
- Star anise, grated nutmeg, lava salt, green spruce tips, for garnish
- Spruce Tip Demerara Ingredients:
- 6 oz demerara sugar
- 2 oz water
- Green spruce tips
How to Make it:
First make the spruce demerara by combining the demerara sugar, 2 oz water and spruce tips and bring to a boil. Once boiling remove from heat, steep for 10 min and strain. Next, steep turmeric ginger tea in 2 oz of water for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, dry shake heavy cream in shaker with 1-2 spruce tips. Remove tea bag and add spruce demerara, mezcal and chartreuse with 2 oz hot water. Stir. Float shaken spruce cream and garnish with star anise, lava salt, grated nutmeg and young green spruce tip needles.
The Autumn Jewel
The Place: Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Doonbeg, Ireland
Ingredients:
- Fresh blackberries
- 1 oz sugar syrup
- 1 oz JJ Corry’s Pigs Elbow Gin
- Chambord Liqueur Floater
How to Make It:
First crush the ice and leave to the side until it’s ready to be added to the cocktail. Muddle fresh blackberries to extract all the juices. Add one shot of sugar syrup and give it a little mix. Add a shot of JJ Corry’s Pigs Elbow Gin. Top it off with the crushed ice. Float the top of it with Chambord liqueur. Decorate with frosted blackberries.
Candy Cane Bushwacker Martini
The Brand: Bushwacker Spirits (the inspiration: St. Thomas, USVI)
Ingredients (serves two):
- 6 oz Bushwacker Spirits
- 2 oz Peppermint Schnapps
- Ice
- Candy canes/peppermints (optional)
- White chocolate chips (optional)
How to Make It:
If you choose to decorate your glass, place your candy canes or peppermints in a sealable bag and crush with a rolling pin. Next, melt the white chocolate in a microwave on a flat plate. Dip your martini glass upside down in the white chocolate, then in the crushed peppermint. Place in your fridge to set the chocolate.
Combine Bushwacker Spirits, Peppermint Schnapps, and ice in your shaker and… shake. Snatch those glasses from the fridge and pour your concoction in those beautiful glasses. If you have extra candy canes, hang them on the edge of the glass and enjoy!
