The “Hanukah Miracle” and 6 Other Holiday Vodka Cocktails

I post a lot of different cocktail recipes for the holidays. And I can honestly say this is the first time I’m posting one specifically for Hanukah. And with “eight crazy nights” of drinking opportunities, that’s a gross dereliction of duties. So to all my Jewish friends out there: I apologize, Happy Hanukah and welcome to the party.

The following recipes come courtesy of Purity Vodka, and were created by cocktailian John Pomeroy. Far from the everyday, Pomeroy offers up the Hanukah Miracle, Purity Meringue, Purity Cotton Candy, Purity Champagne Cocktail, Purity Egg Nog, Sweden’s Southside and Purity Holiday H2O cocktails. Cotton candy in a cocktail? I’m in.

A quick background on Purity: it’s from Sweden, and is made from a secret family recipe using only natural ingredients, including estate-grown wheat and barley as well as artesian water from Ellinge Castle’s own spring. The ingredients are placed in a proprietary pot still, made of copper and gold, in very small batches. During the distillation, they dispose of 90 percent of the spirit. Only the Perfect Cut – or the remaining 10 percent of the spirit – is selected as the heart of Purity Vodka. The final spirit is so pure that no filtration is necessary. (Hence the name.)

Try the recipes below for your next holiday party, whether you’re lighting candles in the menorah, or lighting twinkling lights on the tree.

Hanukkah Miracle
2 oz Purity
5 muddled kumquats
1/2 oz Maple Syrup
4 dashes Angostura Bitters

Add all the ingredients to a shaker except for the bitters. Add ice, shake, and double strain over fresh ice. Top with bitters. Garnish with half of a kumquat, hollowed out and filled with overproof rum and skewered on top of a swizzle.

Purity Holiday Meringue
2 oz Purity
1 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz honey syrup (3:1 ratio honey/water)
1 small egg white
3 drops Angostura bitters

Add all ingredients to shaker and shake hard without ice. Add ice, shake again, and strain into a coupe or cocktail glass. Let egg white settle. Drop bitters, pull a toothpick through the drops to make hearts, and top with a meringue cookie.

Purity Cotton Candy
4 oz Purity vodka
1 oz Cotton candy

Add Purity to a mixing glass with ice and stir until cold. Strain into chilled cocktail glass, and lower in cotton candy into glass, watching it dissolve. Save a small piece to stick to the rim of the glass and serve.

Purity Champagne Cocktail
2 oz Purity vodka
4 oz Champagne
1 sugar cube
4 dashes of Fee Brother’s Old-fashioned Bitters

Place bitters-soaked sugar cube in the bottom of a Champagne glass, add Purity, and top with Champagne.

Purity Egg Nog
1 Egg
3/4 oz superfine sugar
1 1/2 oz Purity
1 oz dark rum
1 oz milk
1/2 oz heavy cream
pinch grated nutmeg

Separate the egg, beating whites until peaking, then beat the yolk strenuously, slowly adding sugar. Continue until all sugar is dissolved. Pour in vodka, stirring continuously. Add the rum, milk, and cream. Fold the egg whites into the mixture, then stir in the nutmeg. Serve hot or cold, grating fresh nutmeg on top before serving, and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Sweden’s Southside
2 oz Purity
1 oz lime juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
3 slices cucumber
4-5 mint leaves

Muddle cucumber (or infuse it in the vodka with the mint) add remaining ingredients and shake. Garnish with cucumber slice skewered with mint sprigs.

Purity Holiday H20
2 oz Purity
2 oz Holiday water*

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (for cold drink) or a glass mug (if hot.) Garnish with clove and allspice-laden cinnamon stick with holly-shaped lime zest.

*Open one large bottle of distilled water and drop into it a handful of cracked cranberries, the zest from one lime, 1 tbsp whole cloves, 2 rolls of cinnamon bark, a 1/2 a nut of nutmeg, a pinch of all-spice, and 3-4 stars of anise. Agitate regularly over the course of twelve hours prior to serving. Strain out solids and use to make ice cubes, as well as to mix with Purity. Alternatively, make a tea out of all ingredients (save the Purity) and sweeten to taste with honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, and any other sugar syrup you desire (date sugar, demerara, molasses, etc.)