Christmas Special No. 1

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (30 ratings)
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    Christmas Special No. 1

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Christmas Special No. 1 image

Serve in an Old-fashioned glass

Ingredients:
2 oz Rémy Martin V.S.O.P. cognac
1⁄2 oz Lustau San Emilio Pedro Ximénez Sherry
1⁄2 oz Mandarine Napoleon liqueur
1⁄4 oz Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill an Old-fashioned glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of walnut half.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. STRAIN into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice).
  5. Garnish with half walnut balanced on rim or rest on the ice.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 7/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 5/10
More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

A great after-dinner cocktail any time of year but particularly appropriate over the festive period due to its ingredients – Pedro Ximénez sherry tastes like Christmas pudding, mandarins are not just for Christmas and walnuts are best cracked whilst watching a Christmas special.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Christmas Special No. 2

History:

Created in December 2013 by yours truly and Paloma Alos at the Cabinet Room, London, England.

More cocktails by Simon Difford

Nutrition:

One serving of Christmas Special No. 1 contains 219 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.9 standard drinks
  • 27.98% alc./vol. (27.98° proof)
  • 27.3 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 8 comments for Christmas Special No. 1.
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Jeffrey Moore’s Avatar Jeffrey Moore
24th December 2024 at 17:37
Lovely, elegant cocktail.
1
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Matt’s Avatar Matt
25th October 2024 at 01:55
A great seasonal cocktail - the Nux really takes this firmly into fall/winter territory. Nux is the first taste, but is immediately joined by the fruity cognac and PX sherry, and the Mandarin adding some fruit (plus I think it adds a bit of bitterness that I thought detracted a bit). As suggested by previous reviewers, I added a drop of chocolate bitters - IDK what difference it made, but the overall cocktail was very good and a great idea for the fall/winter season.
1
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Sally Morgan’s Avatar Sally Morgan
27th December 2023 at 21:13
I loved the old version which was christmas in a glass. Can we not have both versions as separate cocktails?
1
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Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
24th January 2024 at 11:56
Hi Sally. It's a bit late for Christmas 2023, but with a view to later this year, I have created pages for both versions of our Christmas Special cocktail with links between the two. Many thanks for your continued support and feedback.
1
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Piers Tynan’s Avatar Piers Tynan
11th December 2023 at 08:24
Is it just me or was Nocello in this cocktail? I came to revisit it and I see it has Orancio aromatised wine instead..
1
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Jennifer McNabb’s Avatar Jennifer McNabb
16th December 2023 at 10:18
Thanks for this comment I was confused too!
1
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Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
11th December 2023 at 09:48
Hi Piers. Yes, you're right. Ten years on, I tried it and sought to improve it. I've added my previous recipe above.
1
reply
Sally Morgan’s Avatar Sally Morgan
24th December 2022 at 19:37
Oh my! Christmas in a glass!!
1
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Doris Magnus’ Avatar Doris Magnus
24th December 2022 at 02:29
A mouthful of flavors, boozy but smooth. A defanite repeat!
1
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John Hinojos’ Avatar John Hinojos
26th December 2021 at 22:02
This is a perfect after dinner or after any meal cocktail. The flavours all blend together so well and the aftertaste of walnut is great. Had with a piece of Cherry Cake after luncheon and it was exactly what was needed.
2
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Mark Shah’s Avatar Mark Shah
6th December 2020 at 15:53
Very nice - rich and sweet just like Christmas drinks should be! I didn't have any walnut liqueur but hazelnut worked well as an alternative. I also put a drop of chocolate bitters in which doesn't go amiss.
3
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Jason Dworkin’s Avatar Jason Dworkin
23rd November 2022 at 00:06
Good advice, I had the walnut (but had to sub dry Curaçao so the orange balance wasn’t quite right). The drop of bitters underscores the sherry.
2
reply
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