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The Gingerbread Martini is a creamy and spiced holiday drink! It’s the ideal festive Christmas cocktail for parties.

Gingerbread Martini
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Need a festive Christmas cocktail? Try this Gingerbread Martini! This creamy cocktail is absolutely irresistible: just sweet enough and packed with cozy cinnamon, allspice and ginger. It tastes like a gingerbread cake or cookie, but even better: with a little intrigue on the finish. It’s only 3 ingredients and the perfect festive cocktail for holiday entertaining. Here’s how to make it!

What’s in a Gingerbread Martini?

The Gingerbread Martini is an festive spin on the flavored vodka martini. It’s infused with big flavor from one homemade ingredient: Gingerbread Syrup! It’s an ideal Christmas cocktail or holiday drink anytime in December. You’ll need just three ingredients for this Gingerbread Martini recipe:

  • Vodka
  • Half and half (or heavy cream)
  • Gingerbread syrup

These three simple ingredients make magic in the glass: mostly because of the heavily spiced syrup! But it’s easy to make at home: here’s how!

Making homemade gingerbread syrup (and a substitute)

This Gingerbread Martini has the best cozy flavor because of the homemade gingerbread syrup! It’s a brown sugar syrup infused with fresh ginger, allspice berries, and cinnamon sticks. All you do is simmer the ingredients for 20 minutes. Give it a taste, and the flavor pops with an intensely spiced kick!

  • Homemade gingerbread syrup has the best flavor here! It takes just 20 minutes and we highly recommend it. Go to Gingerbread Syrup.
  • Purchased gingerbread syrup also works, but every brand has a different flavor and sweetness. Here’s a link to buy gingerbread syrup online.
Gingerbread Martini

Rimming the glass: a few options!

The most fun part of a signature martini? The glass rim! Aside from a festive look, they also add a hint of flavor and texture to the beginning of each sip. For this Gingerbread Martini we decided to rim the glass in festive sprinkles, which almost make it look like a wreath! Here are a few options for the glass rim:

  • Festive sprinkles: we used a mix of red and green Christmas sprinkles
  • Brown sugar: looks beautiful with a lovely golden brown color
  • Crushed graham crackers or gingerbread cookies: For these you’ll need a heavier bonder than water to get them to stick to the glass. Pour a bit of gingerbread syrup on a plate and dip the glass rim in that, then into a plate of finely crushed cookies.

Gingerbread martinis for a crowd

Are you making this Gingerbread Martini for a party? You’re in luck! You can make up to 4 martinis at once in a cocktail shaker. Simply prep all the glasses first, then shake up 4 drinks at a time. It works like a charm (no need to shake them each individually).

Gingerbread Syrup

Make it dairy free or vegan

Want to make this Gingerbread Martini dairy free? Substitute full-fat coconut milk for the heavy cream! The coconut fat stands in beautifully for the dairy fat. It does lend a coconut flavor, but it’s not overwhelming.

And that’s it! Let us know what you think of this Gingerbread Martini in the comments below.

More festive Christmas cocktails

This Gingerbread Martini is one of our favorite Christmas cocktails for the holiday season! Here are a few more that work well as signature holiday drinks:

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Gingerbread Martini

Gingerbread Martini
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5 from 4 reviews

The Gingerbread Martini is a creamy and spiced holiday drink! It’s the ideal festive Christmas cocktail for parties.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 1 drink 1x
  • Category: Drink
  • Method: Shaken
  • Cuisine: Cocktails
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 ounce* Gingerbread Syrup (homemade or purchased)
  • 1 ½ ounces vodka
  • 1 ounce half and half (or heavy cream or coconut milk, for vegan)
  • Sprinkles or brown sugar, for the rim (optional)**

Instructions

  1. Make the syrup: Make the Homemade Gingerbread Syrup in advance (or use purchased syrup).
  2. Prepare the rim: Place the sprinkles or sugar on a plate. Wet the rim of the glass, then roll the rim in the sprinkles or sugar until evenly coated.
  3. Shake the drink: Place the gingerbread syrup, vodka, and half and half in a cocktail shaker. Add a handful of ice and shake until cold. Strain the drink into the prepared martini glass.

Notes

*To convert to tablespoons, 1 ounce = 2 tablespoons. You can make up to 4 martinis at once in a cocktail shaker.

**Or, use crushed graham crackers or gingerbread cookies for the rim (dip the rim in a plate of gingerbread syrup to adhere them).

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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4 Comments

  1. Marieda says:

    I made these for my Christmas party!! I used equal parts of each ingredient. Everyone LOVED it!!! Made my own syrup from a Pinterest recipe bc I couldn’t find a store bought kind. Fabulous!!!






  2. Beth Knight says:

    Personally, I prefer it as equal parts of all three ingredients, but it’s really good!






  3. Sabrina says:

    ha, love this, haven’t seen it before, now I’ve seen just about every gingerbread flavor, and much better than another gingerbread cookie recipe, thank you!






  4. Sonja Overhiser says:

    Let us know if you have any questions!