I think we’ve discovered the perfect Christmas cocktail!

Last week we were invited down to one of my very favourite places, the gorgeous Copper House Bar in Berkhamsted, for a cocktail making class with Belvedere Vodka. If, like me, you don’t really think you like cocktails, you might have been surprised to hear our host, Belvedere Ambassador and cocktail expert, Mark Tracey, tell us all about how cocktails have evolved. Mark mentioned that mixed drinks are now much more nuanced than they used to be, with less sugar and better ingredients like Belvedere vodka, not the neutral spirit that we normally think of, but with a more complex flavour that stands up to being mixed. We had such a fun night - I felt like I learned a lot, and it’s definitely made me want to try cocktails again, plus we inadvertently discovered the perfect Christmas cocktail!

Christmassy Copper House Bar

Mark started off proceedings by telling us a little more about the history of vodka, and of Belvedere in particular, and making us a delicious winter spiced tea punch, with Belvedere vodka, steeped peppermint and green tea, apple and Italian fortified wine.

Winter spiced tea punch

We then went on to taste some of the different Belvedere vodkas, including the Belvedere single estate unfiltered ryes: Smogóry Forest, which is complex and surprisingly toasty and rich tasting; and Lake Bartężek, which is light, citrusy and almost floral.

Belvedere vodkas at Copper House Bar

We then went on to taste some cocktail ingredients, like Mr Black, an Australian cold brew coffee liqueur, which I thought I would hate, but is actually rich, not too sweet, smoky and almost chocolatey; and Cherry Heering, a delicious cherry brandy favoured by the Queen, apparently. Mark then went on to make us a ‘CC old fashioned’: a vodka-based coffee and cherry old fashioned, which was absolutely stunning, and definitely the perfect Christmas cocktail: rich, almost chocolatey (in fact, Mark said you can add chocolate bitters to make it a ‘CCC’), warming and delicious.

Making the CC old fashioneds

Mark’s coffee cherry old fashioned

50 ml Belvedere vodka
20 ml Mr Black coffee liqueur
12.5 ml Cherry Heering
5ml Yellow Chartreuse

Served over loads of ice with a dried orange slice, the result is a rich, decadent almost chocolatey cocktail perfect for sipping by the fire on a cold Christmas night. You heard it here first.

Thanks to Copper House Bar, and to Mark for generously sharing his cocktail recipe.