The Best Cocktails of 2023

Happy holidays to everyone! It's time for our yearly review of our favorite cocktails and there were some clear winners. We agreed that this year had some of our favorite drinks so far. In this post we'll review each of our top three picks, and maybe one we weren't a fan of. With everything from sweet delights to citrusy goodness this year had it all!

Who doesn't love a brownie?! We couldn't resist our first cocktail of 2023, the Salted Caramel Brownie. It was Susan's top pick and my second place pick. It was a wonderful mix of chocolate with notes of hazelnut from the Frangelico and a pinch of salt just to bring out the wonderful notes of sweetness. It really was a lesson in chemistry that paired with it's book.

Another favorite of the year was our second cocktail, Sea Glass. This was my top pick and Susan's second pick. It was bright and citrusy on the palate with a beautiful blue sea colored hue. We continued to bring the feel of the ocean by using a reverse shake technique to froth our egg whites and added salt to the rim. It was an amazing multi-sensory cocktail that made you feel you were on the ocean!

Continuing on with the blue theme was Susan's third pick, Mexican Blues Margarita. We both really enjoyed this as an easy and incredibly tasty version of a margarita that we kept making all year long! The blue curacao balances out the lime really well making this extremely smooth and easy to drink and the fresh lime juice definitely kept it from being overly sweet. Definitely a cocktail that we will keep making in years to come!

My third place pick was the Ikú Ashê. It was the only drink I've ever made for the blog that I would consider a "cheater". I really wanted to honor the book and have a purple cocktail that tasted good. So I experimented ahead of time and we were not disappointed. This cocktail was a perfect blend tarte, apple and sweet citrus! Another easy wonderful cocktail!

The year wouldn't be complete without also picking a least favorite. This year we had a clear winner in that department as well, Bittersweet Endings. It had everything to do with the Campari. This is a really strong ingredient that really can take over. It is well know for it's use in a negroni, but it did not work well in our cocktail and may be hard to pair in a lot of stuff. If you have any recommendations we would love to hear from you!

To recap Susan's favorite cocktails of the year were 1: Salted Caramel Brownie 2: Sea Glass 3: Mexican Blues Margarita. My favorites were 1: Sea Glass 2: Salted Caramel Brownie 3:Ikú Ashê

We look forward to another great season of cocktails and books in 2024. Until then have a drink, read a book and be happy!