Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai | A Delicious Holiday Tiki Cocktail

Name: Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai
Prep time: 3 min
Ingredients: 1 oz white rum; ½ oz dark rum ((I used spiced rum)); ½ oz orange curaçao or orange liqueur; 1 oz cranberry juice; ½ oz lime juice, fresh; ½ oz orgeat; ½ oz cinnamon simple syrup*

by corrie.pennington / December 17, 2020

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This Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai is a delightful combination of tiki flavors and holiday vibes. If you’ve been looking for the perfect holiday tiki cocktail to keep you feeling warm on the inside this season, look no further!

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Like many other cocktail bloggers, I’m constantly scrolling through my Instagram feed looking for inspiration from my #drinkstagram fam. Some of my favorites, like the Mezcal in Maui and the Summer Sipper, are recipes made by my friends that I’ve tweaked just a tad. I’ve got drink recipe after drink recipe saved on my IG but I don’t think I could ever get through all of them at this point!

Every now and then I see a drink recipe that not only stands out but that I also happen to have all the ingredients for. I didn’t waste much time before making this one. I hope you won’t either.

Sarah over at theboozyginger.com shared this Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai recipe on her Instagram a few days ago. I knew immediately that I had to recreate it. Tropical flavors with a hint of holiday flair? Sign. Me. Up. Sarah’s recipe originally called for dark rum but I used spiced rum to give it a little extra warmth.

I love the holiday and Christmas seasons. But I’m a warm-weather girl to the core. Don’t mishear me, though– I do want it to be cold on Christmas Day. And maybe New Years. But after that, I’m done with the cold. Bring back the sun. Blessedly, I live in Texas so I don’t have to put up with low temperatures for too long. But for those days when I wanna embrace the holiday season while dreaming of warmer weather, I’ll be drinking this holiday tiki cocktail.

If you’ve never had a traditional, classic Mai Tai, you should definitely make one. The original recipe is worlds different than most of the Mai Tais you’ll ever find at a restaurant. The only difference in ingredients between a classic Mai Tai and this Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai is the cranberry juice (go figure) and the cinnamon syrup. And pleeasse don’t be intimidated by the cinnamon syrup– you can make your own with just 3 ingredients: cinnamon sticks, sugar, and water. Yup. This post walks you through the easy steps.

If you make this Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai, be sure to comment below and tag me on Instagram. Seeing y’all reshake these recipes makes me so happy!

Ingredients for a Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai

1 oz white rum
1/2 oz dark rum (I used spiced rum for extra warmth)
1/2 oz orange curaçao or orange liqueur
1/2 oz lime juice
1 oz cranberry juice
1/2 oz orgeat (if you want to make your own, here’s a recipe)
1/2 oz cinnamon syrup (find the easy recipe here)

How to Make a Spiced Cranberry Mai Tai

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into a glass* filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and fresh cranberries if you have them.

*I used a lowball because I really wanted to show off my vintage Christmas glass but I had an ounce or so of the cocktail left in the shaker. You may want to use a highball or Collins glass instead.