Spiced Sparkling Cider Cocktail

This Spiced Sparkling Cider Cocktail is autumnal sugar and spice in a glass. Easily adapt it to be non-alcoholic and raise a glass of this apple tipple to celebrate the season.

With all of my astrological big three in fire signs, I rarely have the patience to make things beautiful. It's not that I don't appreciate beauty or have a strong personal aesthetic. It's just that I don't want to wait around to put in the effort required to create something that looks nice, especially when it's just going to go in my mouth moments later.

So I love it when something is naturally beautiful without much effort. When the natural colors of foods or materials just happen to be beautiful, that's a total win. When nature creates the most perfect color palette, seeimly by chance, it makes my heart sing. Will I be elaborately decorating cakes? Never. Will I revel in the beauty of a golden cocktail? Every single time.

What makes this Spiced Sparkling Cider Cocktail so awesome?

This Spiced Sparkling Cider Cocktail is super simple. It does require you to make a spiced syrup, but that takes practically no time, and you have plenty of syrup for lots of cocktails or other drinks. Beyond that, it's a simple blend of vodka and sparkling apple cider. I did feel inspired to make this a bit more beautiful with a demerara sugar rim to add to the golden sparkle. A cinnamon stick to stir is a nice touch, but not necessary.

I think this cocktail would make an excellent beginning to any autumn party, but even if you wanted to sip one in the evening and feel fancy, you totally deserve that. I think this drink could even be taken into the holidays to make the festive season sweetly spiced. And if you don't want alcohol, just leave the vodka out. You could add a dash of bitters to replace the sting of the vodka or just keep it sweet.

Magical Properties of Nutmeg

Nutmeg is is an excellent spice for bringing in positive energy. Use it to call in prosperity, good fortune, love, and happiness. You can also incorporate nutmeg into spells to improve your psychic abilities. Use ground or whole nutmeg, as well as essential oil in your spellwork.

For more on the magical properties of the ingredients in this recipe, check the Kitchen Magick page.

Ingredients

Here's everything you'll need to make this drink. The full details are in the recipe card below.

• sugar - any type of white sugar will do
• orange juice
• ground cinnamon
• ground nutmeg
• ground clove
• vodka
• sparkling apple cider - In the UK, I use Appletiser.
• Demerara sugar - optional, for the rim

Tips for making a Spiced Sparkling Cider Cocktail

The first thing you'll want to do is make your spiced syrup. Add the sugar and orange juice, along with the spices, to a small saucepan and heat over medium low heat for about five minutes to dissolve the sugar completely. Let this cool and store in a sealed container in the fridge. You can make this ahead of time.

Then when you're ready to make your drink, just make sure all your ingredients are well chilled. I like to stash my vodka in the freezer. Mix all your ingredients right in the glass or stir them with ice and then strain them into your glass.

Obviously, if you want a sugar rim, you'll need to do that first. I just run a wet finger around the rim of the glass, then press the rim into a small pile of sugar on a plate or other flat surface.

Some of the ground spices will settle to the bottom of the glass, so don't worry if there's a bit of silt at the bottom. Just leave it.

I think you should throw a party just to make this beautiful Spiced Sparkling Cider Cocktail. It's gonna be awesome.

Looking for more awesome apple cocktail recipes? Try this Apple Brandy Granita or an Apple Margarita.

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