Make sure to drink your veggies this winter!
Cocktails made with winter-grown produce offer a creative way to keep your cocktail ingredients fresh year round, while embracing the unique flavors of the colder months. While winter vegetables might seem like an unconventional choice for cocktails, they provide an opportunity to use fresh, in-season ingredients and allow for more elevated and nuanced flavor profiles in your whiskey cocktails, beyond the traditional sweetness and tartness.
Winter Vegetables To Use In Cocktails
During the colder months, many hearty vegetables come into season, bringing robust flavors that can complement whiskey’s deep, smoky profile. Here are a few winter vegetables to keep an eye out for your next cocktail:
Kale: This leafy green can be harvested year round and is surprisingly versatile in cocktails, providing subtle bitter and earthy notes that balance sweeter notes in whiskey-based drinks.
Carrots: Sweet, earthy, and full of flavor, carrots can be roasted or juiced, offering a natural sweetness and vibrant color to cocktails.
Parsnips: A cousin of the carrot, parsnips are a bit nuttier and spicier, making them a great addition to drinks that call for a little extra depth.
Horseradish: Known for its sharp, peppery heat, horseradish is an unexpected but exciting addition to winter cocktails, especially those that love a little spice and bite.
Beets: Their earthy flavor and deep color make beets a popular vegetable to infuse into cocktails, offering both a rich beautiful color and a robust, slightly sweet flavor.
Butternut Squash: Butternut or acorn squash can be roasted and pureed into a syrup or muddled into cocktails, offering a creamy, sweet addition to your cold weather cocktail.
Sweet Potatoes: Naturally sweet and full of antioxidants, when roasted, sweet potatoes provide a smooth, caramel-like flavor to whiskey-based cocktails.
Winter Vegetable Cocktail Recipes
Deep Beet
- .25 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp simple syrup
- 1 oz Beetroot Juice
- 1.5 oz Fox & Oden Double-Oaked Bourbon Whiskey
- Tonic water, to top
- Lemon slice, garnish
Muddle paprika, simple syrup, and beet juice in a shaker and shake vigorously without ice for a few seconds. Add whiskey and ice and shake again until well mixed. Strain into an old fashioned glass with ice. Top with tonic water and garnish with lemon.
Butternut Squash and Sage Shrub Cocktail
For the Butternut Squash Shrub
- 1 small butternut squash
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 12 oz apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp shredded sage
For the Butternut Squash and Sage Shrub Cocktail
- 2 oz Fox & Oden Rye Whiskey
- 2.5 oz Butternut Squash Shrub
- Ginger ale, to top
- Maple syrup, garnish
- Brown sugar, garnish
- Sage sprig, garnish
Bake the squash as you normally would (cut in half, face down in a pan with a little water, 350 degrees for about 45 minutes). When it has cooked and cooled, scoop the inside out of the skin. Scoop 2 cups into a large glass jar (or another container that has a tight lid), then set aside the remaining squash for other uses. The squash doesn’t have to be pureed or smooth as it will break down with the sugar and vinegar.
Then add the cup of sugar. Stir it until it is well incorporated. Place the lid on the jar or container and store in the fridge overnight (for at least 12 hours).
Next, add in the vinegar and the sage. Place the lid back on and give it a few good shakes. Refrigerate for another 3-5 hours.
Finally, strain the mixture through a fine sieve into an airtight container. Store in the fridge until you’re ready to mix up the cocktails.
To make the cocktail, dip the rim of a glass into maple syrup then sugar. Add a couple of ice cubes, 2 oz of Fox & Oden Rye Whiskey and 2.5 oz of shrub mixture. Stir, then top off with ginger-ale. Garnish with fresh sage. Serve immediately.
See the full recipe from Honest Cooking and instructions here.
Aunt Vernie’s Sweet Potato Sour
- 1.75 oz Fox & Oden Double-Oaked Bourbon Whiskey
- .5 oz spiced rum
- .75 oz sweet potato syrup from canned candied yams
- .75 oz lemon juice
- Torched marshmallows, garnish
- Crushed graham crackers, garnish
Add syrup, lemon juice, bourbon, and spiced rum to a shaking tin and fill with ice. Shake for 10-12 seconds or until the shaker is so cold it’s hard to hold. Strain into a chilled coupe glass and top with marshmallows. Torch the marshmallows and sprinkle crushed graham crackers on top.
See the full recipe from Cocktail Contessa and instructions here.
Kale-Kissed Whiskey Algonquin
- 1.5 oz Fox & Oden Rye Whiskey
- .75 oz fresh pineapple juice
- .5 oz fresh lemon juice
- .5 oz ginger syrup
- .25 oz fresh kale juice
- Maraschino cherries, garnish
- Lemon curls, garnish
Mix all of the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker or mason jar filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a few ice cubes to the glass. Garnish with lemon curls and maraschino cherries.
See the full recipe from Culinary Adventures with Cam and instructions here.
Carrot Bourbon Cocktail
- 3 oz carrot juice
- 2 oz freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1.5 oz Fox & Oden Double-Oaked Bourbon Whiskey
- Long peel of carrot, garnish
- Fresh thyme, garnish
Combine carrot juice, orange juice, and Fox & Oden Double-Oaked Bourbon Whiskey in a cocktail shaker or lidded jar. Shake well and serve straight or over ice. Garnish with carrot ribbon and fresh thyme. To make carrot ribbons, peel a long carrot. Using a vegetable peeler, slice a very thin slab of the carrot all the way down the length of the carrot. Put the slices in water for at least 10 minutes. They should be soft enough then to carefully thread onto a cocktail pick.
See the full recipe from My Nana Jana and instructions here.
What whiskey drink are you sipping this winter? Find our spirits at our tasting rooms or a retailer near you, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on the latest from Fox & Oden.
