We are approaching the end of our wee Christmas countdown and Day 11 brings us Eleven Pipers Piping. Whisky springs immediately to mind as you’ve got that old classic 100 Pipers blend, or, the most widely sold whisky in the world, Bagpiper (which despite the name is actually made and consumed in India! And despite being branded as a whisky is actually made from molasses so technically more rum than whisky)

My inspiration for Day 11’s tenuous link drink though comes from one of the biggest piping events, the World Pipe Band Championships, held every year on Glasgow Green. 223 bands competed in the 2014 event, which attracted some 30,000 spectators. The winners, for the 4th year running were the Field Marshall Montgomery band, from Lisburn in Northern Ireland. Lisburn is also home to the Hilden Brewing Company, so my choice of tenuous link drink for Day 11 is a pint of Hilden Ale. Cheers!

Day 6 and we are still on the bird theme, this time geese. The obvious choice for today would be Grey Goose vodka, produced in the Cognac region of France. Bit too obvious though, isn't it. I really feel I need to make you work a bit harder for your tenuous links drink.

As well as being a very tasty addition to a traditional Christmas dinner, geese were also honoured for their protective services. (Have you ever been stuck in a field with a load of geese when they all start running towards you? Scary. And noisy. I can see why they were effective protectors)

So, on the subject of protective geese - Dumbarton distillery, near Glasgow, was once renowned for having a gaggle of ‘guard geese’ as its site security. There were actually three different types of whisky produced on the one site; Dumbarton grain, Lomond and Inverleven single malt (The Lomond still is now at Bruichladdich). The distillery closed in 2003, but you can still find bottles by the likes of William Cadenhead*, Scotland’s Oldest Independent Bottler.

Day 6 then, get yourself a dram of Dumbarton. Might take a bit a tracking down but hopefully worth the effort.

*Yes, this is a shameless plug for my husband’s employer. Other indy bottlings are of course available too!

On the Third Day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves 
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Hmm, so what to have on day 3 of our Christmas Drinks countdown? As soon as I saw this one I thought of some kind of flip, made with a whole egg, to tie in nicely with the hen part of the equation. Flips are basically made from any fortified wine or liquor, shaken with a whole egg and sweetened with sugar. Given that there are some cracking French spirits around out there, this seemed like the perfect solution!

Diffords Guide (always a good source of cocktail inspiration) has a good generic recipe that can be used with your base spirit of choice;
2 shots Brandy/Whisk(e)y/Rum/etc
1 shot Sugar Syrup
1 fresh egg (yolk and white)
1/2 shot Unsweetened Single Cream

Shake all ingredients over ice and fine strain into a martini glass.

Alternatively, serve hot in a toddy glass - just heat the ingredients in a microwave or in a pan over the stove. Although this appeals to me less, this is maybe the more ‘authentic’ version as the original flips, way back in the late 1600s, consisted of a tankard of ale to which a mixture of sugar, eggs and spices was added before being heated with a red-hot iron poker from the fire. I wouldn't recommend trying that one at home.

The subject being 3 French Hens, I would suggest trying cognac, armagnac or maybe calvados as the base spirit. Or why not all 3 to see which works best? It is Christmas after all!

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!