On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two Turtle Doves
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Okay, so day 2 is looking a bit trickier. Nothing containing or featuring turtles or doves immediately springs to mind. A quick internet search though brings up a cocktail called a Turtle Dove;
2oz vanilla vodka
2 oz Frangelico
1 oz Amaretto
1 1/2 oz full fat milk
Shaken over ice and strained into a Martini glass.

Apart from the fact that it sounds like an alcoholic milkshake (one of my least favourite drinks - milkshakes that is, not alcohol!) it’s also not very imaginative.

Back to the drawing board then, or in this case google, to see what else I can find. 

Now doves are generally considered a symbol of love, so maybe that gives us something more promising to work with? Turns out it does.  The Phonecian goddess of love, Astarte, is said to have hatched from an egg, warmed by two turtledoves, on the banks of the Euphrates river. The source of the Euphrates is in Turkey (appropriately Christmassy I thought) where the national drink is the anise-flavoured Raki. 

Day 2 then in our Christmas countdown, Raki! Similar in style to Greek Ouzo or French Pastis, Raki is generally drunk diluted with cold water, turning it a milky white colour which the Turks call lion’s milk.  I’m not much of a Raki connoisseur I must confess so if anyone has any recommendations please share them.

According to my advent calendar (yes, I still get one, my Mum buys me one every year!) there are 12 days to go til Christmas, which made me think of the song 12 Days of Christmas. You know the one, ‘On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a partridge in a pear tree, etc etc’.

I also recently read a very funny wee book by John Julius Norwich about the 12 Days of Christmas giving an amusing insight into what the recipient really thinks of the 12 imaginative gifts her true love sends her, accompanied by illustrations by Quentin Blake. I’ve always liked Quentin Blake, ever since reading all the Roald Dahl books as a kid. 

Anyway, back to drinks which is the whole point of this post - I thought it would be fun to do a wee Christmas countdown, finding drinks that tie in with each of the 12 days of Christmas. A quick google search showed that I was by no means the first to think of this little ploy so I’m going to try to go for slightly more tenuous connections* rather than the obvious.

So, Day 1 - A Partridge in a Pear Tree…

Well, the pear bit is easy, you could have Kopparberg Pear Cider, or Babycham for that retro vibe (as a bonus it has a Christmassy deer/reindeer type thing on the label) or even a Poire Williams for a little bit more class. But what about the Partridge? At first, I thought, a partridge is a game bird, so is a Grouse… some kind of Grouse and pear concoction maybe? That seemed a bit of a cop out though so after a bit of digging I discovered that the Partridge in a Pear Tree was originally intended as a gift of fertility - partridges being the reproductive equivalent of rabbits in ye olde days, and fruit trees often used in fertility rites, such as wassailing.

Wassailing apparently involved pouring a mixture of cider, honey, spices and pulp from a burst apple around the base of the fruit tree. Hmm, sounds a lot like mulled cider to me so day one is going to be mulled cider, whether you choose to drink it while dancing around a pear tree is entirely up to you!

My absolute favourite bit of whisky themed Christmas recycling/upcycling of recent years though has got to be the Jack Daniels barrel Christmas tree. (Have you seen the advert?) I want one! Sadly we don’t have a big enough garden or I would be round at Springbank trying to scrounge enough empty casks to build one for myself! … Maybe a tad excessive but hey, it’s Christmas!

To celebrate the launch of the new website, and cause it is nearly Christmas I am offering free worldwide postage on all orders until the end of the year. Merry Christmas!