10 Cocktail Recipes For New Year's Eve Drink Making

New Year's Eve is finally here and chances are that you will be imbibing to celebrate what is arguably known as the biggest drinking holiday of the year. While breaking out bottles of bubbly for your guests is great and all, we think that a strong, homemade cocktail – or three – is the perfect way to properly say goodbye to 2013. We've rounded up 10 of our favorite easy-to-make drink creations from expert Simon Ford – the author of our popular Drink Ford Tough columns – in hopes that you'll spice things up a little bit to welcome in 2014.

Usually egg nog is a heart attack in a glass, but this cheeky recipe that my good friend Dale DeGroff served me last week is slightly more manageable — as it contains very little cream.

Ingredients

2 ounces Caña Brava Rum

4 ounces apple cider

1 whole egg

2 bar spoons of fine sugar

2 dashes of DeGroffs Pimento Bitters

Directions

Shake ingredients vigorously with ice and strain into a wine goblet. Garnish with grated nutmeg.

This great recipe was invented by Michael Madrusan at Little Branch in New York. It is inspired by a drink called the Serendipity that was invented at the Hemingway Bar in Paris.

Ingredients

1 ounce Applejack

1/2 ounce lemon juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup

Small handful of mint

Champagne

Shake all ingredients (except champagne) with ice. Strain into a champagne flute and top with chilled champagne.

Here is a simple and easy recipe anyone can knock up in a few minutes.

Related: 10 Ways The Hot Toddy Is Upping Its Game Around The USA

Ingredients

1 ounce cognac, whisky or rum

2 bar spoons of honey

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

Combine ingredients into a mug and top with hot water or tea.

And if you prefer coffee to tea or hot water, I think that the cold weather always makes me want to drink an Irish Coffee.

Ingredients

1 ounce Jameson's Irish Whiskey

Top with French pressed coffee

Float lightly whipped cream

Garnish with 3 coffee beans (1 for health, 1 for happiness and 1 for prosperity as the tradition goes)

This is basically an old cocktail I invented called Mum's Apple Pie that I have turned into a punch for everyone to share at house parties.

Ingredients

16 ounces Caña Brava Rum

8 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice

4 ounces demerara sugar syrup

24 ounces Apple Cider

Orange peels, lemon peels, sugar

Muddle the peels of 5-6 lemons and oranges with 5 spoons of sugar into a punch bowl. Once the sugar has absorbed the oils from the peel remove them and add all other ingredients. Add ice to chill and garnish with cinnamon sticks, cloves and lemon & orange wheels.

My suggestion for a holiday digestive is the well known classic cocktail The Brandy Alexander.Ingredients

1 ounce Martell VSOP

1 ounce Crème de cacao

2 ounces heavy cream

The Sazerac is one of oldest and most celebrated cocktails of all-time and one of the many drinks that helped establish New Orleans as one of the most important cocktail cities of America.

Ingredients

2 ounces rye whiskey

1 white sugar cube

3 dashes of Peychaud's Bitters

Absinthe rinse

If you are celebrating somewhere warm, then please ignore my suggestions and move straight to the daiquiris and pina coladas, or if you are feeling a little bit adventurous, try this lost tiki classic.

Ingredients

1/2 ounce lemon juice

1 ounce pineapple juice

1/4 ounce simple syrup

1 teaspoon Coco Lopez

1/2 ounce Senor Curacao blue curacao

1 1/2 ounces Cana Brava rum

Shake with 3 ice cubes & strain into a wine glass over crushed ice. Garnish with a pineapple spear & a half orange wheel.

Nothing sparks images of sitting by a pool in the heat quite like a Piña Colada. It was declared Puerto Rico's national drink in 1978.

Ingredients

2 ounces Caña Brava Rum

2 ounces fresh pineapple juice

2 ounces cream of coconut

Mix in a bender with a half a cup of crushed ice. Pour into a hurricane glass. Garnish with a pineapple slice, a cocktail cherry and a tiny cocktail umbrella for good measure.

This was a pre-Prohibition cocktail that had probably been lost during Prohibition's dark ages, but one that you can now find on menus in classic cocktail bars all over the world.

Ingredients

1 ounce Old Forrester Bourbon

3/4 ounce Tripe Sec

7 dashes Angostura bitters

7 dashes Peychaud bitters

Champagne, to top

Orange zest

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a champagne flute. Top with chilled champagne and garnish with an orange zest.