Thanksgiving Cocktail: (Wild) Turkey with Cranberry

Turkey with cranberry is the quintessential centerpiece of a good Thanksgiving meal. With this cocktail you get to enjoy it before dinner too.

Not turkey in the poultry sense, but Wild Turkey rye whiskey, which I've mixed with a combination of flavors that evoke cranberry sauce: ginger liqueur, Aperol (which is made with bitter orange) and cranberry bitters. In additional to being a beautiful color, it's tasty too. And potent! This will get your Thanksgiving off to a festive start for sure.

If getting your guests too intoxicated before dinner is a concern, you could cut the whiskey and Aperol amounts in half and serve the drink on the rocks topped with club soda.

(Wild) Turkey with Cranberry

1 1/2 oz. Wild Turkey rye whiskey
1 oz. Aperol
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur (such as Domaine de Canton)
3 dashes Fee Brothers cranberry bitters
Flamed orange peel*

Combine the whiskey, Aperol, ginger liqueur and cranberry bitters in a cocktail mixing glass filled halfway with ice. Stir until very cold, about 15 to 20 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Flame the orange peel, rub it around the rim of the glass and drop it in the drink.

*To flame an orange peel, cut a round piece of peel off of a fresh orange (it's okay to include some pith). Strike a match. Hold the orange peel by its edges skin-side down above the drink. Put the lit match between the orange peel and the drink. Flex the orange peel quickly, releasing its oils, which ignite from the match as they drop into the drink.