Gift-Worthy: Cocktails In A Jar
The perfect gift for the cocktail-lover on your list: Cocktails in a jar, made easily with a variety of dried fruits, spices, and other ingredients.
I LOVE making homemade gifts for the holidays – and my gift recipients love to receive them. If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the cocktail lover on your gift list, here’s a fun idea for you: Cocktails in a jar!
I keep seeing similar products in gift shops for $20-$25 a jar, and figured it would be an easy (and much cheaper!) to make them at home.
These cost less than $5 to make.
How To Make A Festive Old Fashioned In A Jar
I made a Festive Old Fashioned mix by including the following ingredients:
- Dehydrated orange slices
- Dehydrated raspberries (dehydrated cherries will also work)
- Dehydrated cranberries (just a few – they’re tart!)
- Cinnamon stick
- Sugar cubes
I also included a small jar of Jack Daniel’s so my recipients literally had all the ingredients they needed to make an Old Fashioned.
How To Make Other DIY Cocktails-In-A-Jar
The first thing you need to know about making your own cocktails in a jar is that there are SO MANY options for what to fill your jars with. A variety of fruits, spices, and seasonings will work (with the addition of sweeteners, in many cases).
You can play mixologist in include a variety of different ingredients:
- Dehydrated fruit (orange, lemon, grapefruit, pineapple, apples, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, pears, apricots, etc.)
- Spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg – don’t go overboard!)
- Other ingredients (rosemary, lemon thyme, lavender, rose petals, dehydrated ginger)
- Sugar cubes (look for turbinado/Sugar In The raw sugar cubes)
Other Cocktail Recipe Combinations
- Pear-ginger: Dehydrated pears, ginger, cinnamon + spiced rum + sweetened pear juice
- Margaritas: Dehydrated oranges, lemons, and strawberries + sugar cubes + white or gold tequila
- Sangria: Dehydrated apples, oranges, and lemon + sugar cubes + a bottle of red wine
- Mimosas: Dehydrated oranges + a bottle of champagne + fresh orange juice
- Fruit punch: Dehydrated oranges, pineapple, apples, pears (and other fruit) + a bottle of vodka + sweetener (simple syrup or sugar cubes)
- Cosmopolitan: Dehydrated lime and cranberries + a bottle of vodka + cranberry juice
- Spiced cider: Dehydrated oranges and apples + cinnamon and clove + a bottle of bourbon
Don’t forget the mixers! Adding tonic water, club soda, fruit juice, etc., with turn these mixers into cocktails!
Check out this Web Story on homemade cocktails in a jar.
Tips For Making Infused Cocktails In A Jar
- Organic ingredients: Look for organic ingredients since you are infusing them in alcohol. Everything you infuse – pesticides, chemicals, etc. – will end up in the final product.
- Alcohol: Model your cocktail-in-a-jar after your favorite drink, using the most appropriate/obvious alcohol associated with that cocktail. For the Old Fashioned, I used Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. For sangria, for example, use red wine paired with dehydrated fruits such as apples, oranges, and lemons.
- Infusion time: Infuse alcohol in the jar filled with ingredients for 3 or more days.
- Strain out ingredients: Make sure to strain out all of the dried fruit/spices/other ingredients before consuming.
- Dehydrate your own fruit: To save money, dehydrate your own fruit instead of buying it at the grocery store.
- Warning! Infused alcohol is really strong. These are basically pure alcohol with the flavors and essences of whatever you’re soaking. You can use these infused alcohol recipes as mixers.
Old Fashioned In A Jar
This recipe is enough to make 4 cocktails in pint jars. Pair mason jar with a 375 ml jar of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey or your favorite whiskey or bourbon.
Ingredients
- 4 navel oranges, cut into 1/2-inch slides
- 12 ounces fresh raspberries
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
- 2 cinnamon sticks, cut in half
- 12 turbinado sugar cubes
Instructions
- Use dehydrator to dehydrate oranges, raspberries, and cranberries. Time will vary depending on your dehydrator and thickness of fruit.
- Distributed dried fruit, cinnamon sticks, and sugar cubes evenly among 4 pint-sized mason jars.
- Pair mason jars with 375 ml bottles of Jack Daniels or your preferred bourbon or whiskey.
- Instructions to make cocktails. Pour bourbon/whiskey into mason jar and allow to infuse for 3 or more days. Before serving, remove fruit & spices and strain to ensure no solids remain. Serve on ice garnished with cocktail cherries.
How long will this store for?
Do you slice berries before dehydrating?
Hi Margo – This will store for a long time – several months. And no need to slice berries before dehydrating – unless you’re using a very large berry like a strawberry. But raspberries can be left whole.
Can the fruit be re- used for more drinks?
Yes. It won’t be as strong but it will still infuse some flavor into the alcohol.
Can you make a margarita mix?
Hi Lori – Great question. I think you could certainly infuse tequila in dehydrated limes and lemons. So if I were to try this, I would put 4 slices of both dehydrated lemon and lime in a pint mason jar, then gift it with a jar of tequila and a jar of triple sec (or follow your favorite margarita recipe).
However, this might be a better way to make a homemade margarita mix: https://abeautifulmess.com/homemade-margarita-mix/
Good luck!
Could you tell me how much of each item goes in a jar, and whether to use a pint or quart jars please? I don’t want to add to many of any one item, or not enough. When you have the recipe you said split among the jars evenly. How many jars? Are the full recipes of the others posted somewhere as well? Thank you soooooo much! I can’t wait to try these.
PS. Do you ever infuse the sugar cubes?
I can’t wait to hear back from you! Thanks so much!!!
Hi Tammy! So this recipe is enough for 4 pint jars. The ingredients I’ve listed should be evenly distributed among all 4 jars.
I haven’t tired infused sugar cubes but that is a marvelous idea! Enjoy!
Great Christmas idea!
What size mason jar did you use?
I used pint jars
What size mason jar do you recommend?
Pint jars
Just to clarify 4 whole oranges slices or 4 slices of orange.
Hi Tamara – It ends up being about 1 sliced orange per jar. The recipe here is for 4 pint jars. Hope that helps!
can you share more recipes like this, like mulled wine etc?
I’m glad you asked! There is a new cocktail-in-a-jar recipe coming in the next couple of weeks.
This looks amazing!
Does this need to be stored in the fridge?
Yes, I would recommend storing the infused alcohol in the fridge.
What is the ratio for Sangria?
See previous comment for instructions to make sangria.
Hi!
What would be the ingredient ratios for the Sangria?
For sangria, you will need a larger jar if you are using a regular size bottle of wine.
In the empty jar, I would put about 10 slices of the following:
Dehydrated apple slices
Dehydrated orange slices
Also, add 8 sugar cubes, which should make for a lightly sweetened sangria.
When giving as a gift, instructions should be: Add 1 bottle of red wine to the jar. Let infuse for 2 or 3 days in the fridge. Strain out dehydrated fruit when ready to serve. Add chopped fresh fruit (like apples, pears, oranges, other traditional sangria fruit) and serve.
Good luck with this!
Do you dry like maraschino cherries? Can you buy dried canberries?
Hi Cheryl – The cherries are added as a drink garnish, not as an ingredient in the jars.
Dried cranberries may work, but they have a lot of extra sugar so I would cut back on the sugar cubes – try 6 to 8. Thanks!
Hello Haley,
Thank you for this recipe.
I’m confused about how much alcohol I need to put in each jar. Do I pour 12 ounces of alcohol in each jar?
Hi Lindsay! If you use pint jars, pair with a 375ml bottle of alcohol. This won’t quite fill the jar, but the recipe is intended for this size pairing.
Looks amazing! What do you think about buying dried fruit? And if it has sugar on the dried fruit, would you cancel the sugar cubes? I can’t wait to try….
Hi Kimi, Dehydrated fruit is ideal for this recipe because no sugar is added. If you use dried fruit, I would do what you suggested, and leave the extra sugar out.
Do you have a nonalcoholic recommendation to infuse?
Hi Shawna. Although I haven’t tried a non-alcoholic infused drink, I think it could work. You could try infusing juice (cranberry, pear, grape, etc) with dehydrated oranges, berries, pears, cinnamon sticks, etc. Then, after infusing, you could drink it straight or mix with sparkling water or tonic water. Let me know if you try it!
This brings me back to my childhood, my grandma used to make cookie and bread mixes in a jar with the dry ingredients for me and give to me at Christmas time, this is the adult version of that amazing Christmas memory and it makes me want to carry on the tradition with these cocktail mixes in a jar. Thank you for bringing back amazing memories with this incredibly creative idea!
I have been dehydrating cherries for days! I’m hoping dried cherries will work because I don’t have any longer…..
Hi Cheryl! Dried cherries will work in a pinch. I wonder if your dehydrator is working?
Also, I made orange cinnamon infused sugar cubes…. they are so good
That sounds delicious!
Hello, I would like to make this as a party favor for a bourbon theme party. I would like to use mini bottles 50mls of woodford and put the dehydrated and dried fruit as you suggested in a 4oz mason jar. Would you reduce the recipe to fit the smaller portion size?
Hi Natasha – What a fun idea! For such a small amount of alcohol, I would maybe put 2 dehydrated orange slices, 2 raspberries, 2 cranberries and 2 sugar cubes in each jar. You could certainly experiment with this to find out if you need more or less fruit or sugar. 50ml is very small…
How do we make a drink from the pint jar??? Do we add to our alcohol?? There are only “how to’s” and recipes for making your own jars!!! TOTALLY FRUSTRATING!!!
Hi Jodi – looks like you missed the instructions in the post. For easy reference, here it is again:
4: Instructions to make cocktails. Pour bourbon/whiskey into mason jar and allow to infuse for 3 or more days. Before serving, remove fruit & spices and strain to ensure no solids remain. Serve on ice garnished with cocktail cherries.
Do the ingredients need to be dehydrated? Can I just infuse them immediately to the same effect or does the liquor get watered down?
The idea behind this recipe is that it’s a gift, which doesn’t have to be used immediately. If you’re looking to make yourself a cocktail, you could certainly just infuse fresh fruit in alcohol and it would taste more like a sangria or similar drink with fresh fruit. But for a gift that will last several months, you’ll have to dehydrate your fruits and spices, per the recipe. Thanks!
Where could I find a bunch of different recipes for these infusion gifts? Im looking for some that would be good for the holidays as well as some for hot beach days (like a lemon, blueberry cocktail or pina colada)
Hi Brandi – I have another recipe (Pear-ginger cocktails in a jar: https://www.cheaprecipeblog.com/2022/11/pear-ginger-cocktails-in-a-jar/ ) – but I encourage you to experiment with new blends of dehydrated fruit, vegetables, spices, and herbs. Otherwise you can search for more cocktail in a jar kits on Google. Good luck!
Haley,
Great ideas! I’m currently making a DIY from your suggestions for take home gifts – post our celebration.
Love the Old Fashioned. Now trying to work on Lavendar or rosemary with dehydrated citrus (lemon, orange) even dragon fruit.
Any thoughts on the above for vodka or gin combinations?
thanks much!
Janine F
Hi! I was wondering if, when dehydrating the cranberries do you blanch them before hand so the skin pops open, or do you poke holes with toothpicks in them instead?
Hi Nikki – I just placed them in the dehydrator whole. No blanching or anything.