Marking the days until Christmas with a good cocktail is really not a bad idea. It can be done by visiting a different bar every night, and it’s really fun, but expensive, and then the cold?, the parking?, the babysitter? Or you can buy (or get as a gift) the advent calendar from Nio cocktails, a leading company in high quality ready-to-drink cocktails.
The package includes twelve drawers numbered from 1 to 12 for your countdown which should mark the days from 12 to 23 December (but then everyone does as they see fit, God forbid); each drawer includes two identical cocktails, for an assortment of twelve” titles. There are great classics such as the Cosmopolitan (Ketel One vodka, blueberry syrup, Cointreau, lime), the Negroni (Tanqueray gin, the bitter notes of Campari Bitter and Cocchi Storico vermouth, angostura), the Espresso Martini (Ketel One vodka and Fair coffee liqueur), the Old Fashioned (Bulleit bourbon whiskey and Angostura bitters), and then the Gin Proved (gin Tanqueray, Bois Parfait Amour liqueur, citric acid and liquid sugar), the Revolver (Bulleit bourbon, Bols Crème de cacao brown, coffee liqueur and angostura), variations on classics such as the Cuban Negroni with the Ron Santiago de Cuba Extra Anejo 11 anos instead of gin, the Snow Daiquiri, the Disaronno Sour, the Winter Sidecar, the Margarita Next and the Christmas Margarita. There is no precise order, everyone can drink what they want when they want according to their mood and company. The Nio advent calendar is on sale on the nio-cocktails.com website at the price of 133 euros.
For the holidays, Nio also offers three “Christmas” cocktails which were created by Patrick Pistolesi, the bar manager of the best cocktail bar in Italy, the Drink Kong in Rome, which I told you about recently, in 33rd place in the rankings of World’s Fifty Best Bars. The first is the Clementea, a sweet and spicy cocktail, fresh and citrusy in the mouth thanks to the mandarin, with the warm and velvety notes of the cognac and the sophisticated touch guaranteed by the tea, a reinterpretation of a classic Vodka Sour. The second is the Coco Noel, a refined and at the same time popular and inviting cocktail, in a remarkable balance between sweetness and intensity where the opulent taste of Baileys Irish Cream is embellished with strong notes of caramel, coconut and cocoa. The texture is creamy and also makes the tactile experience really interesting. The third is the Amaretti Sour, with warm and sweet notes, a velvety accent and inspired by Christmas flavours. The almond notes of Disaronno and the hazelnut tones of Frangelico blend to create a creamy and enveloping base onto which the typical citrus component of a “sour” is grafted, which gives freshness and lightness to the drink. These drinks, together with all the others on the rich Nio menu, which includes 43 cocktails sorted by taste or alcohol base, can be purchased in boxes of three (20 euros), six (38 euros) and nine drinks (54 euros) which can be composed as desired. You can also order pre-packaged boxes with different themes. Drinking a Nio cocktail is extremely simple, just shake the package well, which has the format of a CD, cut a corner of the package with scissors and pour into the most suitable glass, with ice where required and adding a garnish if desired.
Nio cocktails (the name is the acronym of “needs ice only”, it only serves ice) was founded in 2017 by Luca Quagliano and Alessandro Palmarino with the collaboration of Pistolesi, initially to supply specialized retailers such as restaurants, bars, hotels, airlines and then opened up to the consumer market, which rewarded the
startups especially during the pandemic. It is a company entirely made in Italy, which uses premium spirits and high quality ingredients, without preservatives or additives and which boasts totally sustainable packaging.