Christmas cocktails in London
Dishoom, various venues
The staff at this Bombay-style café have been as busy as elves getting together a whole list dedicated to seasonal cocktails. We'd recommend one of the naughty chais (spiced teas), especially the eggnog, which messes with the traditional eggnog formula by muddling it with rum and chai spices, and giving it a light dusting of nutmeg and cinnamon.
Covent Garden; Shoreditch, dishoom.com
Archer Street, Soho
Santa Babies and Let it Sloes are the order of the day at this Soho cocktail parlour. Big kids will love the chilled Santa Baby: vodka, aperol and strawberry liqueur are stirred over ice with lemon and cranberry juice, topped with crushed ice and garnished with a sprig of mint, red currant and a candy cane.
3-4 Archer Street, W1D 7AP, archerstreet.co.uk
The Little Bar, Tooting
The Little Bar is just the kind of cosy, unpretentious bar you want to hole yourself up in over the Christmas season. For winter, they've created a new drink, the Sloe Royale: Plymouth sloe gin topped up with some lovely Prosecco bubbles.
145 Mitcham Road, SW17 9PE. @LittleBarSW17
Disco, Soho
If you're after a camp Christmas drink, Disco is the place to go. The latest venture from the boys behind Bunga Bunga, Maggie's and Mr Fogg's is all mirrored lights, roller skates on the wall and Pan Am air hostesses for waitresses. For Crimbo they're mixing up Magic Snowballs: a heady concoction of Mount Gay Rum, Cointreau, Velvet Falernum (a type of Caribbean rum infused with spices), fresh lime and Angostura bitters, then powdered with sugar for that white Christmas effect.
13 Kingly Court, W1B 5PW, disco-london.com
Modern Pantry, Clerkenwell
If you're not already organising a Christmas dinner at this Clerkenwell restaurant, the least you can do is stop by for one or two festive bevvies during advent. Go for the Christmas Pudding cocktail, made with Calvados, cinnamon-and-vanilla-pod-infused Grand Marnier, a dash of mulled wine syrup and garnished with a strip of orange peel.
47-48 St John's Square, EC1V 4JJ, themodernpantry.co.uk
One Leicester Street, Leicester Square
Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel... smells like Christmas, right? The chaps at One Leicester Street bar have teamed up with Matt Whiley (founder or Purl and Worship Street Whistling Shop) to put all this Christmassy goodness into a drink they've called Little Dorrit's Magical Mix. Gin and Kamm & Sons are blended with apple juice, and served in a lovely copper mug. Sigh.
1 Leicester Street, WC2H 7BL, oneleicesterstreet.com
