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cranberry bourbon smash recipe

This cranberry bourbon smash recipe is an easy and flavorful cocktail to sip on all holiday season long!

This content was created in partnership with The Unknown Brewing Company. All opinions are my own.

pouring a can of ginger ale into two cocktail glasses filled with pink liquid against a blue background

Last Christmas, we started a new family tradition.

The inaugural Rotko Family Christmas Cocktail Competition.

I posted it about it last year on Instagram stories and got a lot of questions and feedback about Christmas cocktail creating as a family, so I wanted to break it down for you.

(PS: it was so much fun!)

Each family member did their own research and bought ingredients for a signature cocktail to enter into the competition on Christmas Day.

glass with gold designeds filled with pink colored cranberry bourbon smash with whole cranberries and rosemary on a marble background

We also did any prep we needed to do (making any special simple syrups etc) a few days before Christmas. 

Then, in the late afternoon/early evening on Christmas Day, we all got to cocktail creating in my sister-in-law’s kitchen! 

Because there were five of use participating, we had to make five tasting sizes of our signature drink (what is a tasting size you may ask? I’m not really sure…but we used small plastic cups).

Then we got to our favorite part…the tasting! We each sampled all the different cocktails and judged them in different categories including: appearance, flavor, creativity and overall taste. We each ranked them one to five on our secret scoring ballots, with number 1 getting 5 points and number 5 getting 1 point. We added up all the points, and got a winner!

The contestants last year were a Peanut Butter Vanilla Porter Cocktails, a Santa Panties shot, a Smoked Chai Old Fashioned (a seasonal, smoky spin on a Whiskey Old Fashioned) a Blackberry Mule (that was very similar to a Blackberry Basil Gin Fizz) and a Cranberry Orange Margarita.

The winner? My sister-in-law with the Blackberry Mules! While I was disappointed that my margaritas didn’t do better, I do have to admit, her drink was really delicious.

With everything going on this year, it is unlikely that we will get to hold the second annual Rotko Family Christmas Cocktail Competition, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have seasonal sippers to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at home!

cranberry bourbon smash with can of ginger ale on a marble background with whold cranberries

In sticking with the cranberry theme (seriously, cranberry sauce is one of my favorite things on a Thanksgiving table and I love to use the leftover cranberry sauce to make this Leftover Cranberry Sauce Cocktail),  this super easy, and dare I say really delicious, cranberry bourbon smash is the perfect cocktail no matter what your holiday celebrations will look like. 

In fact, it’s so good, when we have the cocktail competition next year, I might have to enter it!

What is a bourbon smash?

A smash is the perfect sipper for using what you have on hand and smashing the ingredients all together.

Get it?

two glasses with gold designeds filled with pink colored cranberry bourbon smash with whole cranberries and rosemary on a marble background

When it comes to smash making, there’s a few things that are consistent:

  • a spirit base
  • ice (crushed is 
  • a splash of water (or soda water or spritzer or ginger ale)
  • mint or other herb
  • sugar
  • seasonal fruit

What I love most about smash cocktails is that they are truly really open ended and seasonally flexible, which means they a great way to showcase seasonal fruits and flavors.

What are good mixers for bourbon?

There are a lot of different flavors that pair well with bourbon and whiskey (you can get the full list in my Basic Cocktail Recipes guide), but one of my absolute favorites is ginger. 

a can of ginger ale being held above two cocktail glasses filled with pink liquid against a blue background

Bourbon has a complex depth and flavor…it can be sweet, smoky, or even savory, and ginger is the perfect pairing to help bourbon’s flavors shine.

One of my favorite ginger ales to use in cocktail making is Unknown Brewing’s Craft Ginger Ale.  Unknown is a local Charlotte brewery who not only brews beer, but makes handcrafted ginger ale (with fresh ginger, sugar cane and lime juice) and has recently started a line of spirits as well. I love Unknown’s ginger ale because you can seriously taste how fresh and high quality their ingredients are even with your first sip.

cocktail glass with gold design with can of ginger ale in the background

How to make cranberry simple syrup

If you want to learn how to make better cocktails at home, I have a super detailed guide full of basic cocktail recipes, tips, tricks, flavor pairings and more that will definitely help you elevate your at home cocktail game.

One of the easiest ways you can make more delicious cocktails at home is by using fruits, herbs or spices to make a simple syrup to flavor your drinks.

Traditional simple syrup is made by combining one part water and one part sugar; just a one to one ratio.

Normally, white granulated sugar is used as the sweetener in a simple syrup, but you can also use brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, or other sweeteners.

You can also make a rich simple syrup, which is a two to one sugar to water ratio, which will give you a thicker, sweeter syrup.

To make simple syrup, measure one cup sugar with a dry measuring cup and one cup water with a liquid measuring cup. 

Pour the water into a small saucepan and heat. Once the water is warm, add the sugar and stir or whisk to dissolve. 

The water does not have to come to a boil, it just needs to be warm enough to dissolve the sugar. 

Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the saucepan from heat and let the syrup cool. Transfer the syrup to a glass bottle, mason jar or other container and store in the fridge up to 3 weeks.

Since I promised you cranberry simple syrup, there is only one extra thing you need to add to the traditional or basic simple syrup recipe.

Cranberries!

two glasses of cranberry bourbon smash cocktails surrounded by whole cranberries and rosemary

Heat the water and sugar, whisking together to make the sugar dissolve into the water. Then, add 1 cup to 1/2 cup whole cranberries. 

Bring the mixture to a quick boil (the cranberries will start to pop) and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the cranberry simple syrup to cool.

Once cooled, strain the fruit before storing the simple syrup in a mason jar or other container.

I love having a mason jar of cranberry simple syrup all holiday season long in our fridge to make drinks with! You can use it in this bourbon smash recipe, but also for cranberry mules or cranberry margaritas too!

Can I use cranberry juice instead of simple syrup?

Yes!

two glasses filled with pink cranberry bourbon smash cocktails against a blue background

If you do not want to go through the hassle of making simple syrup (but again, as the name says, simple syrup is simple!) you could use a few ounces of store bought cranberry juice to make this cranberry bourbon smash recipe rather than simple syrup.

A note when it comes to cranberry juice: not all cranberry juice is created equal. I would recommend using unsweetened cranberry juice as opposed to cranberry juice cocktail (which could make this drink too sweet).

Cranberries are naturally sweet and tart so you won’t lose too much sweetness using a cranberry juice rather than cranberry simple syrup.

two cocktail glasses with gold design filled with pink colored cocktails

two glasses with gold designeds filled with pink colored cranberry bourbon smash with whole cranberries and rosemary on a marble background

cranberry bourbon smash recipe

Yield: 1 cocktail
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • Ingredients for the cranberry simple syrup:
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup whole cranberries
  • Ingredients for the cranberry bourbon smash cocktail:
  • 2 ounces bourbon
  • 1-2 ounces cranberry simple syrup
  • 4 ounces ginger ale

Instructions

  1. Make the cranberry simple syrup. In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the water and sugar and stir to combine.
  2. Stir occasionally as the mixture heats up to dissolve the sugar into the water.
  3. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the cranberries.
  4. Bring the mixture to a brief boil and then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
  5. Remove from the heat and cover the saucepan to allow simple syrup to steep while cooling.
  6. Once cooled, using a mesh strainer or cheesecloth, strain simple syrup into an airtight jar and store in the refrigerator.
  7. Make the bourbon smash cocktail. In a rocks glass with 1 large ice cube or your preferred amount of cubed or crushed ice, add 2 ounces of your favorite bourbon, 1 to 2 ounces cranberry simple syrup (add more if you like sweeter drinks) and top with 4 ounces ginger ale (or enough ginger ale to fill the glass, whichever is less). Stir to combine and enjoy!

Notes

You can use unsweetened cranberry juice instead of cranberry simple syrup.

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2 Comments

    1. It is a bummer about hosting but my husband and I have been enjoying these just the two of us and are loving them. 🙂

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