Cranberry Ginger Prosecco Punch

For my family's Christmas party this year, I wanted to make a festive cocktail in my grandmother's beautiful vintage punchbowl. Knowing my family, I decided that a punch with actual liquor in it wouldn't go over as well as one with what has become a holiday tradition for the Mancini family – champagne.

At one (fateful) Christmas party a few years ago, my aunt and uncle served champagne along with the usual drinks of choice. Up until that point, we had only ever had wine and beer at these parties.

I'm not sure if this was a conscious decision or if we just fell into a new tradition, but since that day, there's been champagne at each big family get-together. Don't get me wrong – I am NOT complaining. But I thought it would be fun to have a champagne cocktail this year as well! And since we're Italian, I though prosecco would be more appropriate.

To keep it festive, I wanted to go with wintry flavors, and cranberry and ginger are natural partners. I found a good base recipe on Pinterest to get some general proportions, and then made some small changes to fit what I thought our family's tastes would be.

I might be biased, but I thought it was the perfect cocktail – easy to make in large quantities, and not overly boozy, so you could easily sip on it throughout an afternoon without feeling more than a happy little buzz. If you're looking for something a little stronger, I'd get a second bottle of prosecco and add a little more at a time to suit your taste, or you could simply add less of the juice. Similar to my process for this recipe, you can just use what I've laid out below to give yourself a general idea, and change proportions as you see fit. And maybe enjoy the leftovers the next morning – after all, this is basically just a holiday mimosa!

---

CRANBERRY GINGER PROSECCO PUNCH

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

2 parts prosecco (750ml bottle)

2 parts cranberry juice (3 cups)

2 parts ginger ale (3 cups)

1 part ruby red grapefruit juice (1.5 cup)

Optional but recommended:

1 cup fresh cranberries

½ grapefruit, sliced

extra cranberry juice and grapefruit juice

Directions

In a large punchbowl, combine the above ingredients. The amounts in the parentheses allow you to make this based on the contents of one bottle of prosecco, and will fill one standard punchbowl. You can garnish with slices of grapefruit and cranberries, both of which will float.

If you'd like to make an ice ring to keep the punch cool, I recommend freezing extra juice so that you don't water down the punch as the ice melts. If you have a small bundt that you can freeze them in, that will look the prettiest in the punchbowl!

---

Happy Drinking,

Natalie

#cranberry #ginger #punch #prosecco #champagne #cocktail #party #ice #ring