'Stocktails' Are A Thing; Would You Drink One?

For some, the thought of pairing beef broth with booze sounds seriously suspicious — are you shaking your head and making a face yet? But in reality, broth cocktails are just another arm of the beverage and craft-cocktail industry... and they're pretty good, too.

Christy Pope, Milk and Honey alum and owner of Cuffs & Buttons Cocktail Catering & Consulting, worked with Swanson Broth to create broth-centric craft cocktails you can make at home this holiday season, like a Beef Bloody Mary and a Sweet & Sour Chicken Toddy Stocktail.

Although this may sound like some hokey trend that will be in and out with the season or just another annoying thing industry people come up with to be different, think again: Broth-based cocktails have been around — and enjoyed — for decades.

"Broth cocktails were very en vogue in the '50s and '60s, but what is old is often new again," Pope says. "The new vogue of the broth cocktails most likely has to do with pushing the boundaries of savory notes in cocktails. The popularity of the craft cocktail movement has brought with it a culinary approach to drinks, and working with broths in cocktails is a perfect example."

Take her Chicken & Apple Wassail Stocktail, for example; it is a balanced concoction shaking lemon juice, Swanson Organic Free-Range Chicken Stock, apple cider, and Laird's Apple Jack Whiskey together. It foams beautifully at the top and with its light garnish of grated nutmeg, it's elegantly polished with a holiday flair. These types of cocktails are very food-friendly, too, Pope says. However, she prefers them as an amuse-bouche, noting, "One of the lovely things about broth cocktails is that they can be designed to be lighter in alcohol and have more substance, so that they will not overwhelm an appetite before a meal and you can easily have more than one."

Piggy-backing on the bone-broth health trend, these alcoholic mixes would potentially even be good for you, right? So when at your next checkup and the physician asks how much alcohol you consume weekly, you don't have to lie (we've all been there). Instead, you can just say, "I drink a lot, but it's OK because I drink my cocktails with a side of broth."

And as far as stocktails sticking around, Pope calls them "great traditions" and assures us they will be around as long as people want hand-crafted cocktails.