This Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail is perfect for the festive holiday season. It tastes floral, bubbly, light AND looks impressive for any type of holiday gathering. It's topped with sugared cranberries and a sugar rim to make it a stunning hit for celebrating the end of the year and the start of a new!
Making this Holiday Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail is easy! It has vodka, elderflower liquor, and is topped off with prosecco. Due to being predominantly prosecco, this cocktail does not taste strongly of alcohol. Instead, the elderflower enhances the lightness of the prosecco.
If you've never had elderflower liquor, I'd say it tastes light but floral, so there's a hint of that in the cocktail! Its festive look and taste make it a wonderful treat for holiday entertaining, a Christmas Eve dinner, or even for ringing in the New Year!
How to Garnish a Holiday Drink
My Holiday Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail is garnished with a simple sugar rim and sugared cranberries. It of course can be served straight up in a champagne flute, however, for the full dramatic and festive flare, be sure to garnish!
I find garnishing is the most important step - people eat and drink with their eyes first, and these garnishes remind everyone that it is for sure a classy, festive celebration!
How to Make Sugared Cranberries for drinks
To garnish this festive Holiday Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail, I added 3 sugared cranberries to each champagne flute. To do this, make a simple syrup of 1:1 water:sugar, and once cooled slightly, allow cranberries to soak in the sugar water for a few minutes. Remove from simple syrup and roll in a bowl of sugar and place on a plate.
I then carefully spike the sugared cranberries with a toothpick. If you remove some of the sugar in the process, simply hold the toothpick over the bowl of sugar and do another round of sugaring.
how to make a sugar rim for a cocktail
For this Holiday Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail, I added a simple sugar rim. This both makes the cocktail glass look all the more festive, but it also enhances the more floral flavor of the elderflower liquor. To do this, I dipped champagne flutes in water, then dipped directly into a bowl of sugar, removed and placed ready for the cocktail!
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📖 Recipe
Holiday Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 OZ Vodka
- 1 OZ Elderflower Liquor
- 5 OZ Prosecco
Sugar Rim
- ½ Cup Granulated Sugar
- Water
Sugared Cranberries
- ½ Cup Water
- ½ Cup Sugar
- 3 Fresh Cranberries
- *If not making a sugar rim you will need an additional separate ½ cup bowl of sugar.
Instructions
Sugar Rim
- Add about 2 TBSP of water onto a small plate. In a small bowl, pour the sugar. Place plate and bowl close and directly next to each other.
- Dip clean and dry champagne flute directly down into water, making sure it goes up about 1cm.
- Remove directly from water, moving the champagne flute up and dip over into the small bowl of sugar. Move straight up and down so as to make sure sugar is precisely along the rim.
- Pressing the flute into the sugar to make sure it sticks to the water, remove from the sugar and flip over to sit on the table or counter.
- Keep to the side until ready to pour the cocktail. (Keep leftover bowl of sugar for sugared cranberries)
Sugared Cranberries
- In a small pot on the stove, over medium heat, dissolve the sugar and water for the sugared cranberries. It should take about 5-minutes for the sugar to dissolve. (If you did not make sugar rim or are making at a separate time, pour ½ cup sugar into a small bowl to leave to the side)
- Remove from the heat and place to the side to cool slightly.
- Once allowed to cool for about 10-minutes, pour cranberries into the mixture and let sit 2-minutes.
- Take a few sugar-soaked cranberries and place them into the small sugar bowl. Carefully roll the cranberries around the sugar and sprinkle sugar over all sides evenly.
- Carefully remove from the sugar bowl and onto a plate to the side.
- To skewer on a toothpick, hold one sugared cranberry at a time and while holding on each end, skewer.
- If there's pieces of sugar that come off while skewering the sugared cranberries, hold the skewer over the bowl of sugar and pour sugar a second time.
- Leave toothpick to the side until the cocktail is ready.
Holiday Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail
- If garnishing with sugar rim, complete first. If not, skip to Step 2.
- Pour vodka and elderflower liquor in bottom of champagne flute.
- Fill the rest of your champagne flute with Prosecco (about 5 ounces).
- Place sugared cranberry garnish on top.