Christmas Drinks get an Asian Spin

Christmas Drinks go Asian with fruity additions and even tea from faraway lands. Infuse your punches or cocktails with a taste of the East.

Christmas Drinks With Eastern Flair

These four drink recipes are a superb addition to any party or gathering. They provide Asian flair to your libations. The Tea and Tropical Punches are lifted from Five Roses: A Guide to Good Cooking and the banana amd tranquility cocktails come by way of Food & Drink magazine (LCBO).

My other holiday treats include Festive Asian Appetizers, Holiday Salads and Christmas Pineapple Tarts.

To your health!

TEA PUNCH

• 9 cups strong tea
• 1, 6 ½ oz can frozen orange juice
• 1, 6 ½ oz can frozen grape juice
• 1, 6 ½ oz can frozen lemonade
• 4 ½ cups gingerale
• ice cubes
• thin slices of orange and lemon

Combine tea and fruit juices the night before and chill in the refrigerator. Before serving, add gingerale and ice cubes. Decorate with the orange and lemon.

Makes about 28, one-cup servings

NOTE: Some black teas you might use include Assam, Lapsang souchong, Darjeeling and Ceylon.

TROPICAL PUNCH

• 2, 48 oz. cans of unsweetened pineapple juice
• 2, 16 oz. can frozen unsweetened orange jucie
• 1, 6 oz. jar red maraschino cherries
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 sliced lemon
• 4 ½ cups of white or dark rum
• ice cubes

Mix 1 can pineapple juice, both cans of orange juice, the cherries with syrup and the lemon juice. Chill in refrigerator overnight. Before serving, add rum and the other can of pineapple juice. Add ice cubes and decorate with the sliced lemon.

Makes 40, one-cup servings.

BANANA BABY

Put into a blender: 1 cup ice, ½ oz. tequila, ½ oz banana liqueur, 1 oz strawberry liqueur and 3 oz. pineapple juice. Blend until slushy and strain into a Margarita glass. Garnish with a sliced strawberry if desired.

TRANQUILITY COCKTAIL

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add:

• 1 1/2 oz rum
• 2 oz passion fruit juice
• 1/2 oz lime cordial
• 2 oz pineapple juice

Shake and strain into a glass filed with ice. Garnish with a leaf or spear of pineapple.

Watch this space for more holiday recipes. By the way, the wonderful food writers of Suite 101 have many other festive offerings on view:

• Devy Stone's Holiday Drinks: hot and cold
• Mary Luz Meija's Drinkable Desserts
• Christmas Pineapple Tarts
• Celebratory Sweets
• Asian Holiday Salads

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