​It's time to make... drinks for Christmas

There are two main periods of the year associated with delicious and exotic drinks. The first is the high point of summer when we tend to enjoy delicious cordials, cocktails and wine over the barbecue and alfresco dining on hot evenings. The second is during the forthcoming holiday period, where the urge to enjoy delicious drinks of all kinds hits once again - perfectly timed to coincide with the festive season and the darkest time of year.

Making drinks at home is tremendous fun and it's very easy to make your own with just a few supplies and an enjoyable afternoon with your ingredients, a podcast and some peace! So if you have ever fancied trying your hand at flavoured vodka, flavoured gin and other seasonal specials, follow our guide to get started!

Begin with your supplies

You'll need glass bottles with corks or glass bottles with screw caps to store and gift your beautiful drinks, so stock up at Wares of Knutsford where you'll find a wonderful selection bought in for the busy home-crafting season ahead. We have a wide range of glass bottles with corks including 100ml, 200ml and 500 ml sizes (the 500ml Esmeralda is always popular!) The 200ml Nocturn is another top-seller and the 50ml Gladstone is also perfect if you're gifting flavoured spirits as little stocking fillers.

When you've lined up your glass bottles, sterilise them using your method of choice (boiling or using a sterilising tablet are good approaches.) Then let the fun begin!

How to make flavoured vodka

The important thing here is to think about your flavours in advance and to buy decent quality vodka. It's not actually complicated to mix fruits, flowers and herbs. Good ingredients for fruit include berries, damsons, citrus fruits and coconuts. Great herbs include lavender, mint, rosemary, basil and elderflower. Excellent spices include cloves, vanilla, nutmeg, ginger and cardamon - and you can even experiment with chilli, celery and garlic if you're feeling brave.

Vodka is the most neutral of the alcohols so it copes well with stronger flavours. Find inspiration from classic cocktails, such as coconut and chocolate for White Russians and celery and chilli for a bloody mary.

Take around a quarter bottle measure of your spirit and add it to a pan with a lid or a Kilner jar. Add your infusion spirits of choice according to their strength. Really strong flavours such as citrus, cardamon, vanilla and chilli only need a day. Stronger fruit and berries may need up to four weeks and mild flavours such as melon, apples and florals will need around a month. The good news is that the finished results simply need to be sealed and kept in a cool place where they will easily last for a year.

Making flavoured gin

The same kind of technique works for infusing gin too. Again, choose a high-quality gin for the best flavour, but pick a brand that is simple and clean-tasting - a dry-style London gin will take on other flavours well. Great flavour inspirations to try include elderflowers and berries which you can find from the bushes, and raspberries work wonderfully too, especially if you have some frozen from a summer kitchen garden glut. Other ingredients to try include lavender, mint, elderflower, all berries, and even chilli, celery and rhubarb. Use up to 400g of fruit for each litre of gin, remembering that the more fruit, herbs and spices you use, the stronger the flavour will be.

To infuse your gin, add it to a Kilner jar or glass bottle that has been sterilised. Add your infusing ingredient and leave it according to the rough guidelines above. Remember, cardamon, citrus, vanilla and chilli need up to a day. Strongly flavoured vegetables and hardy spices need up to a week and fruits need up to a month. If you can still find some sloes on the bushes on your country walk, sloe gin is also an absolute classic to make and the resulting drink is flavoursome and beautifully coloured too. Use 500g of sloes, 250g of caster sugar and a litre of gin as a rough guide to measures. This drink only improves over time so consider making a batch now to give away next year!

Stock up now at Wares

Check out our latest product additions to find all of the drink-making equipment and supplies you could need, with a huge range of glass bottles with snap and screw lids. Our team are on hand to answer any questions that you might have and we fulfil all orders as quickly as possible from our warehouse, which has recently been expanded to accommodate new bulk sizes and to offer our customers an even better choice for the lowest prices. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media too for all the latest news, product offers and competitions.