Bring On the Spirits!

Christmas spirits, that is! As in alcoholic spirits!

Friday night, we hosted our fourth Christmas Cocktail Contest. The competition was fierce, and I was sweating my decision to go basic with a spiked hot cocoa with a toasted marshmallow fluff topping. Happily, basic was the way to go because I actually managed to place this year!

This year, Queen B, Miss Mia, Queen B's college bestie Chelsi, our Katie Girl, Katie's sister, and Shanti joined me in the competition.

We changed things up a bit this year by having all of the competitors in the kitchen simultaneously to prepare their drinks rather than going one at a time. This made things move along quite a bit faster, and we all enjoyed sharing the kitchen.

We each prepared one drink for the presentation judging and enough small samples for the judges. This year's judges were the Man-Cub, Mom, Katie's husband, her sister's boyfriend, Chelsi's husband, and Mia's husband (Hugh is in Delaware, officiating at a wrestling tournament; he has some serious FOMO about missing the contest). We presented our drinks one at a time while Queen B recorded us for the official video. 

So, I didn't get pictures from the evening, but I did grab stills from the video.

The judges took their time deliberating, but in the end, Chelsi took third place (not bad for her first time competing!) with her Aperol spritz, aptly named Moosing Around the Christmas Tree (one of the judging criteria was the creativity of the drink's name).

I took second place with the spiked cocoa that I mentioned earlier. I used peppermint schnapps for the spike and toasted the marshmallow fluff topping with a kitchen torch, which really enhanced the flavor of the drink. I'll probably drink my cocoa with toasted marshmallows from now on.

Shanti took top honors again this year, with a coffee-flavored cocktail that the judges likened to a coffee milkshake with a kick. She received the official Cocktail Cup, which is the trophy we came up with this year. She and Queen B share honors on the cup, but I am determined to get my name on it next year!

This contest has become such a favorite tradition and I look forward to seeing it grow and evolve. If you're looking for a fun tradition to start with your adult children, you can't go wrong with a cocktail competition!