Holiday Drinks from Around the World

‘Tis the Season for amazing drinks. The cocktail blog Lark has generously agreed to share drink recipes specific to the regions I have visited over the holiday seasons. Keep reading to find out what they are and be sure to save the recipes- they are delicious. All the drinks @livinglark are made in gallon batches — perfect for holiday crowds!

*Please note that some links may be affiliate links, meaning that, at no cost to you, I may receive some compensation. Thank you!

The first place I asked for a recipe from was Spain. Many, many moons ago when my husband and I were about 24 years old and in graduate school, his family asked me to go with them to Spain over the holidays to pick up his middle sister who had been studying there for the semester. I hemmed and hawed and called my parents a million times because, I mean, SPAIN, but also I didn’t want to miss our traditional holidays together either. A few days later my parents called me and told me they and my brother had just purchased tickets to Spain and were coming too!!! As we look back on it, my husband and I are always amazed that our families traveled together halfway across the world before we were married or even engaged, but at the time, it seemed to make perfect sense.

Check out Lark’s Late Red Autumn Sangria (because what is more SPAIN to us than Sangria?) here 

And then we got married and apparently had no problem spending Christmas in an airport away from both of our families. Just kidding. We, of course, missed them, but with new work schedules, Christmas just seemed allow the extended time to travel. For our honeymoon (so, we really should get a free pass on that one), we traveled to St. Kitts. Later, but still pre-kiddos, we traveled to Aruba.

There are so many great Caribbean drinks to choose from, but Lark chose this one from a holiday she had in Puerto Rico, and it is fabulous!

Rum Punch

Serves 20 (in a 10 oz. rocks glass filled halfway with ice)

This is made with honey and ginger — a true tangent from the original Rum Punches but quite lovely! This one is reminiscent of our time in Puerto Rico watching major surf (too large for beginners like us!)

4 c water

2 c honey

8 inches fresh ginger (a lot!)

3 c lime juice (I prefer Nellie & Joe’s famous Key West)

2 c orange juice, pulp free

5 c white rum

2 limes, sliced

1 small jar Maraschino cherries, optional

Prep ingredients in a clean gallon jug.

Make a honey simple syrup: Whiz up one cup water, two cups honey, and the chopped ginger in a Vitamix or blender until ginger is minced (don’t put the setting on high because it will overflow). In a small saucepan, add blender mix to 3 cups water and bring to a boil. Simmer and stir a bit over low heat for 5 minutes until it just begins to rumble to a good boil. Strain the syrup with a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing ginger with the back of a spoon to obtain all the flavor possible. Transfer ginger mix into a gallon jug using a funnel.

Stir in 3 cups lime juice, 2 cups orange juice, & 5 cups rum. Refrigerate until serving. Toss lime wedges into serving pitcher, fill with the PUNCH and keep ice on the side for guests to add to individual rocks glasses.

Optional: drain cherries and add to pitcher just before serving. This won’t add much flavor but make the drink just like the tiki bars all over the Caribbean.

And then we had children and apparently had no problem leaving them at Christmastime either. Ha! I had major panic about leaving them. So much so that we booked a later flight so that we could be with them on Christmas Eve and in the morning for stockings. After all the tissue paper was cleaned up, my husband and I headed for India. Now, I feel like we had a pretty good excuse for this trip too since we were going to my youngest sister-in-law’s wedding reception and visiting my husband’s grandmother. One of our favorite times in India was “Chai Time.” Here’s the thing, though, every time you walked

through the door, it was Chai Time. Luckily, the Chai was delicious and so is the recipe (far from what we drank in India but with the same Chai flavors!) of Late Autumn Chai Sangria made with white wine.

To check out more Holiday Drinks like the French 75 en masse (today’s post on Lark) or Holly Brunch Cocktail, head over to Lark and get some ideas for New Year’s Day brunch — and discuss at brunch where you dream to travel next!