3 Thanksgiving cocktails sure to please the entire family

Looking for a unique way to shake things up while raising a glass with friends and family this Thanksgiving long weekend? Look no further.

These inspired drinks — from classic and contemporary, to spirited and even alcohol-free — will suit the tastes of even your most fickle family members. Try them out this weekend and don’t be surprised if you find your guests giving you thanks.

1. “L’Habitant”

This classic Eastern Canadian cocktail not only makes for a delicious post-turkey treat while the pumpkin pie is being sliced up, but — with its infusion of Canadian maple syrup — also ties into one of the early origins of Canadian Thanksgiving, when French settlers who accompanied Samuel de Champlain to the New World in the early 17th Century would host feasts to celebrate their successful harvests (pictured above).

Ingredients

• 2 oz Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve Whisky
• 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 0.75 oz 100% pure Canadian maple syrup
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Method

• Add all ingredients to a Boston shaker
• Add ice and shake cocktail for 20 seconds
• Fine strain to a pre-chilled cocktail glass

Garnish

• Lemon peel

2. The “Mary Smith”

This non-alcoholic cocktail (named after Vancouver’s own Mary Ellen Smith, who was the first woman elected to the B.C. Legislature and helped introduce prohibition to Canada) will make your teetotaler aunt (come on, every family’s got one!) a very happy lady. This flavourful combination of cucumber, apple and citrus will also let the kids at the fold-out card table in the other room responsibly raise a glass to take part in a Thanksgiving toast with the older folks.

Ingredients

• 1 oz Chasers cucumber juice
• 1 oz Chasers apple juice
• 0.5 oz honey water (1 part water, 1 part honey)
• 0.5 oz lime juice • 3.0 oz Tealeaves Floral Jasmine Green Tea

Method

• Add ice to glass
• Build ingredients over ice
• Stir to incorporate

Garnish

• Cucumber slices

3. The “Blood Alley”

Forget about your vegan cousin’s pleas to carve up a “Tofurkey” this year — you can’t have a proper Thanksgiving without ‘The Bird’. This cocktail offers a sly nod to the eponymous street in Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood which earned its name because it was home to butchers offering fresh cuts of meat and poultry.

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz Los Siete Misterios Doba Yej Mazcal
• 0.5 oz St. Germain Elderflower
• 0.5 oz lime juice
• 0.5 oz honey water (1 part water, 1 part honey)
• 0.25 oz balsamic vinegar
• 3 whole strawberries
• 10 black peppercorns
• Dash of house bubbly

Method

• Pre-chill a coupe glass
• Add all ingredients to shaker
• Add ice and shake for 15 seconds
• Double strain to coupe glass

Garnish

• Peppered strawberry