After Dinner Drinks For Christmas

We’d like to recommend the return of an after-dinner drink, or a digestif, to help round out your Christmas Day evening.

Traditionally, a digestif is full of herbs, spices and other ingredients to help aid in digestion, but after-dinner drinks have evolved into spirits with a smooth sip and high alcohol content. These pick's will fire up festive puds and holiday treats, crown the cheeseboard and light up a yummy Yule log.

Port Wine

Port wine is an after-dinner drink that’s meant to be savoured. It’s rich and complex, and can have layers of caramel, vanilla, butterscotch and fruit. Your glass of port can be sipped at room temperature, alone or alongside a complementary dark chocolate dessert or cheese.

Aged Rum

There’s something about a dark, aged rum that is perfect at the end of a long day. Look for a style of dark rum that appeals to your palate, whether that’s spice or notes of bananas and coconut.

Brandy

From fresh, floral brandy to a stronger aged variety like Cognac, this spirit is best served at room temperature. However, it can also be used as an ingredient in an after-dinner brandy cocktail, such as a sidecar or a brandy old-fashioned.

Single Malt Scotch

This spirit can be served neat, with a splash of water or over ice. To be “single malt” scotch, the spirits must be made in Scotland at a single distillery. The benefit of a single malt is that it’s usually higher-quality, as the grains aren’t blended, and offers a smoother sip.

Sherry

The sheer variety of sherries is dazzling, making it the perfect Christmas drink to match the occasion or the dish. Read our previous article which looks more in depth at the different sherries available and how to pair them with food over Christmas.

Kahlua

Coffee and dessert go together like bread and butter. This coffee-flavoured liqueur employs cinnamon, vanilla and caramel flavours for a bold sip. While a black Russian or another coffee cocktail may be top-of-mind, Kahlua is also good over ice or neat.

Grand Marnier

An orange liqueur made from a blend of cognac, bitter orange and sugar, Grand Marnier can be equal parts refreshing and relieving. The mixed beverage is still 40% and is best consumed on the rocks or neat.

Cream Liqueurs

When considering the cream liqueur category, it is often difficult to see past its most famous exponent, the brand that first invented, and then became, the entire category. But these days, despite Baileys' continued dominance, there is more choice available than ever before.

Sweet Dessert Wines

Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in this country, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. Well known sweet wines include Sautners from France and Vin Santo from Italy.