Day 3: Ebenezer Scrooge

What character in literature personifies the lack of Christmas spirit more than Ebenezer Scrooge? Seriously, the spirit world ultimately had to send four (FOUR!) ghosts to get him to see the error of his ways and to turn him into a decent human being. Yet for most of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer looks down on the less fortunate, abuses his poor assistant, Bob Cratchett and mutters “Bah, humbug” whenever another character so much as cracks a smile. For that, Mr. Scrooge, you get a well deserved chair at the NAUGHTY table.

After the ghosts do their work and Scrooge has an epiphany regarding his behaviour, he runs off to find his much beleaguered assistant. After wishing Bob a merry Christmas, Scrooge promises him that they’ll sit down and discuss Bob's financial affairs over a bowl of smoking bishop, a type of mulled wine punch. Given this literary provenance, how could we not make our Ebenezer Scrooge a variation of the Smoking Bishop?

Ebenezer Scrooge Cocktail Recipe:

5 unpeeled oranges
1 unpeeled grapefruit
5 unpeeled honey mandarins or kumquats
30 whole cloves
approximately 3 inches of ginger root
1 bottle red wine
½ cup sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup brandy
1 cup water
Fee Brothers’ Gin Barrel-Aged Orange Bitters

Stud the oranges and grapefruit with 6 cloves each. Cut the ginger into approximately ½ inch chunks. Place all of the fruit and the ginger on a foil lined baking sheet. Roast the fruit in a low oven (approximately 325F degrees) for 70 minutes until lightly browned, turning once halfway through the roasting time. Place the fruit and ginger into a large ceramic bowl or pot. Pour the bottle of wine over the fruit and steep overnight.

The next day, slice the fruit in half and juice it into the wine. Add the sugar, brandy, water and cinnamon sticks. Heat the wine gently (but do not boil) for an hour, stirring occasionally. Strain the wine through a cheesecloth and fine sieve. Ladle into heat-tolerant glasses and add a dash of orange bitters to each glass. Garnish glass with a honey mandarin, kumquat or cinnamon stick, if desired.

Cocktail Notes:
After steeping, the wine has a distinct grapefruit bitter finish. Even after mulling with the cinnamon, brandy and sugar, that flavor was still present. It might be more authentic to have that slightly bitter taste, but some may not find it particularly pleasing. The orange bitters help to mellow the finish and remove some of that bitterness. If we were to do this again, we would probably leave the grapefruit out of the overnight steeping but still add the juice the next day.

We specifically used Fee Brothers’ Gin Barrel-Aged Orange bitters. They are are readily available but a little more pricey than some bitters. Choose your favourite.

The spices listed complements the wine we used nicely without giving an overly spice forward taste. Additional spices could be added depending on preference.

The Sweet Red Roo from Yellow Tail was a good choice for this. It is primarily Shiraz which has a nice big fruit profile; it is also a little on the sweet side which makes for a good mulled wine base.

We recommend tasting the wine throughout the process to better gauge the amount of water and sugar to add. The cup of water we added yielded a drink that was sufficiently boozy enough to enjoy but not so strong as to inhibit functionality after a couple of sips. The half cup of sugar we used balanced the flavors well without making the wine overly sweet.

We started with this version of the Smoking Bishop, but also referenced some other recipes that called for brandy instead of port. There were also several variations of the spice combos. We like ginger and cinnamon but not allspice, so we improvised a bit here.

Inspiration:
Michael Caine is one of our favourite Scrooge's. Plus, a kicky song by Bob "Gonzo" Cratchit about how terrible Scrooge is. Awesome.