Jam Cocktails

While enjoying your refreshingly delicious jam cocktail, you may be doing your fridge a great favour!

Those mostly empty jars of jam can be finally scraped clean, enjoyed and the jar stored for your next batch of preserves. I’ll raise my glass to that.

I will indeed add to this blog as my jars of jam allow me, as with the contents of my top shelf, but for now, my mixology creations are somewhat limited.

The reason for using jam over a simple syrup, is simple. Jam is merely a fruitier version of a syrup, it already contains sugar for sweetness and is readily available in most fridges nationwide.

You will see a format here in the recipes below – jam, juice of half a lemon, spirit and a juice of some kind. This makes up most of the structure!

No cocktail shaker? No problem. Put all ingredients (minus ice and the garnish) in a container with a lid and shake vigorously.

No strainer? No problem. A simple mesh kitchen strainer works perfectly well.

You may wish to pour your creation over ice, or add ice to your shaker then strain (so it is ice cold but otherwise quite strong), or add ice to a blender so it is more of a margarita slushy. It’s completely your preference…it will still taste delicious.

Which Jams with which Spirits?

Some say softer flavoured jams such as strawberry, peach and rhubarb jams and preserves match really well with whisky based drinks; raspberry or mixed berry jams work well with vodka; apricot or marmalades pair deliciously with gin.

Experiment! That’s what I say. You may come up with a delicious combination no one has experienced yet.

Does Jam swap out the need for Sugar?

You may naturally think so. However as every jam is made differently (both with natural sweetness of your chosen fruit and the amount of sugar used when jam-making) and as many fruits are acid based, you may wish to add a dash of sugar to make your cocktail more pleasant to consume!

Can you simply stir in the Jam?

No, best not. Traditionally fruity cocktails are shaken vigorously to disperse the sweetness, then strained through a fine mesh strainer to remove lumps and pips. You want every sip to be deliciously consistent. Therefore ‘shake it, stain it’ should be your first thought.

Here are my creations, fully taste-tested for your assurance (oh, someone had to do it)!

Jam Cocktails

Banana Colada

Makes: 2 large