Christmas Comes but Once A Year

This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, when my family moved to Kelowna we started cutting our own Christmas tree. We would go to this cute little Christmas tree farm run by an old German couple and their sons, we would pick out the tree early in the season and go back to cut it down a few weeks before Christmas. After trudging through the snow to our tree and playing snowball fetch with their giant white dog we would sit around the giant bonfire where we would be given hot chocolate and shortbread to eat while my dad tied the tree on top of our car. I would usually end up with their dog sitting beside me on the bench by the fire patiently waiting for me to pat her! When we get the tree home my dad sets it up then takes a nap on the couch in front of the fire while my mum, brother, and I decorate.

Ingredients

10z Forager Whisky from Forty Creek

1/2oz Vanilla Liqueur from Arbutus

1/4oz Lemon Juice

1 Egg White

1 Barspoon Smoked Honey from The Country Bee

5 Drops Forgotten Trails Bitters from Apothecary (or any smoked wood bitters)

Method

For this cocktail I tried a new method for getting extra thick foam, I shook the egg white and lemon juice alone in the shaker tin until frothy while the honey dissolved in the whisky and vanilla liqueur. I then add everything else into the shaker and dry shook it for 30 seconds as per usual, then added ice and shook again for another 30 seconds. Strain into your glass of choice rimmed with coarse granulated sugar and garnish with a sprig of cedar or pine.