Tenuous Links to 12 Days of Christmas Drinks

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!

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Here’s a recipe for Mulled Cyder using King’s Ginger Liqueur that I found in Hot Rum Cow magazine;
50ml The King’s Ginger
150ml Aspall Suffolk Cyder
150ml Aspall Apple juice
Serve in a handled glass, hot or over ice, garnished with lemon, cinnamon stick and fresh blackberries if you have them. 

* Disclaimer: My choice of drink is not a recommendation or an endorsement of said product, it is solely to do with how well I think it ties in with the Day of Christmas in question. If it happens to be palatable, or even very tasty, then so much the better but no guarantees!