Brian Nagele
Celebrations often include cocktails – and for good reasons. Cocktails are fun and festive and can help you cheer on exciting news, wins, and events.
They also help to ring in the New Year in style! Cocktails are great any time of the year, but New Year’s Eve cocktails tend to be exceptionally bubbly, colorful, tasty, and delightful!
In this article, I’ll describe my favorite NYE cocktails, describe their standout flavors, share why I like them, and provide additional info so you can decide whether you’d like to try them out!
So without further ado, here are some of my favorite New Year’s Eve cocktails.
French 75 is a celebratory cocktail that incorporates gin, lemon juice, champagne, and a bit of sugar.
I love that this drink is refreshing and zesty, with the lemon juice adding a nice citrus touch and the champagne creating celebratory bubbles.
An Aperol Spritz is a wine-based cocktail that typically includes prosecco, club soda, some aromatic bitters, and, of course, Aperol.
Aperol is an Italian liqueur with bitter and sweet orange peels, rhubarb, and cinchona.
I love New Year's Eve Aperol Spritz because it calls for simple syrup for added sweetness and a fresh squeeze of lime for extra zest.
A cranberry lemon cocktail is a refreshing and festive drink perfect for ringing in the New Year.
The main ingredients include vodka, fresh cranberries (or cranberry syrup), lemon juice, and rosemary for holiday garnishing.
If you're feeling something fruity on New Year's Eve, you'll love a good cranberry lemon cocktail featuring the freshly tart taste of chopped cranberries.
Check out other cranberry cocktails we love during this season!
A Pink Platinum champagne cocktail is a legendary beverage that combines the tart flavors of cranberry and lemon, similar to the previous cocktail but adds the citrusy flavor of oranges to the mix!
I love this cocktail because the potent fruity flavors almost completely cover up any trace of vodka, making it great for mixing with more affordable vodka brands.
A Twinkle champagne cocktail is a fun and festive drink to ring in the New Year!
The recipe calls for just a few ingredients: vodka, Elderflower cordial, and champagne.
I usually follow this recipe and add a lemon twist as a garnish for extra flair.
This cocktail is ideal for parties since the simple, floral taste is agreeable to many people. Plus, it has a great midnight-associated name.
This New Year's Eve Rum Berry Cocktail is delightfully tasty and bold.
I appreciate how the mixed berries' sweet, tart, and slightly bitter flavors combine beautifully with the dry tanginess of spiced rum.
Adding fresh thyme at the end gives it an even more dynamic and deep flavor that true cocktail lovers will get a kick out of.
A Chambord Bellini is a straightforward yet highly sophisticated French cocktail that includes prosecco and Chambord liqueur, made with black and red raspberries, honey, vanilla, and Cognac.
I love how the Chambord adds a touch of sweetness and a beautiful deep color to this cocktail.
If you're looking for a more celebratory twist on a classic margarita, look no further than the champagne margarita!
This delicious cocktail combines all classic margarita flavors - tequila, triple sec, and lime juice - with champagne for added effervescence.
A Lychee Empress Sparkler cocktail is refreshing and perfect for ringing in the New Year.
It's made with Empress gin, lychee juice, and champagne or sparkling wine, which results in a uniquely sweet and bubbly glass.
I like to add edible glitter to the glasses, as it always makes them look evermore cheery and delightful to party guests!
This Raspberry Bourbon and Bubbles cocktail is perfect for people who love to enjoy the flavor of bourbon without the harshness of straight alcohol.
The bourbon is paired with muddled raspberries and sweetness from simple syrup, making it a well-rounded drink.
Blackberry Champagne Mules are similar to regular mules, incorporating vodka, club soda, and mint.
However, the blackberry adds a delicious sweetness to the drink, while the champagne gives it that celebratory touch.
I love making this cocktail because it's so easy to concoct but impressive to present at events. After all, it's not as common to serve.
A Mind Eraser has a cheeky, funny name and usually makes for a cheeky, funny night!
The main ingredients include coffee liqueur, vodka, and sparking water, so it's essentially a celebratory Black Russian.
I appreciate this cocktail on New Year's because the caffeine helps me stay up past midnight!
A Negroni is a classic Italian cocktail perfect for sipping on New Year's Eve.
I love the bitter, herbal flavor of this drink and find that it opens up my taste buds for a night of snacking and drinking.
Mimosas are a classic cocktail combining orange juice (or some other type of fruit juice) with champagne.
But if you're looking for something a bit out-of-the-box for New Year's Eve, why not try this vanilla cranberry version?
The vanilla flavor is unexpected but delightful, and the cranberries give it a festive touch.
The Lava Lamp is a fun, celebratory drink that gets its name from resembling a lava lamp.
The carbonated bubbles from the champagne, sparkling wine, or ginger ale help carry dried cranberries as they float around the glass.
It looks excellent; plus, it's super easy to make - just combine your bubbly of choice with dried cranberries, and that's it!
A Colletti Royale is a more complicated beverage, befitting a special occasion like New Year's Eve.
More specifically, I recommend making this for smaller events or pre-drinks because it's not ideal for large batches.
You'll need several ingredients, including Cointreau, tequila, St-Germain, and champagne. The result is a delectable, refreshing bubbly beverage you'll feel proud to clink with.
If you're hoping to prepare some extra sweet drinks to start the new year, check out this Rock Candy Champagne recipe.
It's one of the simplest New Year's Eve cocktails on this list, as you only need two things - champagne and rock candy!
The rock candy creates a subtle bright color (using blue rock candy is my favorite color-wise) and a touch of sweetness to the champagne.
A Chocolate Martini is creamy, dreamy, and decadent. It's made with chocolate liqueur, vodka, and Bailey's Irish Cream.
I recommend making this drink if you want to transition seamlessly from dessert to cocktails.
The rich chocolate flavor will satisfy your sweet tooth, while the vodka will give you a bit of a buzz.
Bellinis are a classic Italian cocktail made with sparkling wine and fruit purée.
This Black Cherry Bellini recipe gives the traditional drink a festive twist by using black cherry purée instead of the more common peach purée.
The result is a beautiful, deep red color ideal for saying "cheers" before the ball drops.
Cranberry and lime go swimmingly together because they balance each other out perfectly - the lime's sweetness offsets the cranberries' tartness.
This Sparkling Cranberry Lime Holiday Punch is incorporated gin or vodka, but you can only use 7UP if you want a great non-alcoholic alternative for New Year's Eve.
Either way, it has just enough fizz for a celebratory night!