Over the weekend I whipped up several batches of the most amazing and festive drink ever — Sparkling Caramel Apple Cider. I posted some photos to Snapchat and Instagram and the requests for the recipe came flooding in. So most of you now have the recipe and many of you have already made the cocktail and raved about it too! But for those of you who want to pin this away for your future Christmas party, tree decorating, Christmas card addressing, Christmas day drink, etc., here ya go…

**Also, I made a slight tweak to the sugar rim since posting to social media, substituting out the pumpkin pie spice for cinnamon! I am always revising and experimenting with recipes to perfect the blend of tastes — and I think I’ve officially nailed it.  Enjoy!

Sparkling Caramel Apple Cider

1 750 ml bottle of prosecco

1 cup caramel flavored vodka

6 cups apple cider

2 medium apples, cored and chopped

1 tbl cinnamon

3 tbl sugar

Make the sugared rim. Combine sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow dish. Wet the rim of each glass, all the way around, with water. Dip each rim into cinnamon sugar to coat. Set aside. In a large pitcher stir the prosecco, vodka, and apple cider together. Add the chopped apples to the pitcher, or to individual glasses.

Print recipe for Sparkling Caramel Apple Cider

WARNING: Pace yourself! This drink is sneaky sweet and you can’t really taste the alcohol so I highly recommend sharing your pitcher with friends. The first pitcher I whipped up was for tree decorating…and the tree definitely did not get decorated that day.

The next day Matt and I hosted a few families for dinner and I decided to whip up another batch for the ladies. Everyone agreed this is THE best drink of the season.

Originally I used pumpkin pie spice for the rim of the glass but after a few batches switched to cinnamon. The cinnamon gives it a sweeter kick instead of spicy.

One more note: I picked up the Caramel Vodka from the ABC store. When I arrived home and opened the truck door the groceries had all shifted and the bottle of vodka came tumbling out and shattered all over the driveway. I cleaned up all the pieces and ran back to ABC. The cashier looked confused to see me again and questioned why I was buying a second bottle of vodka 11 minutes apart. I explained the incident and she told me that if I had brought the broken bottle back to the store some managers will replace it for free!!! I really hope I never bust another bottle of booze, but I noted the return policy for the future!

Also, make sure you find a container large enough to house your cocktail. I ran out of room in my pitcher both times I made it over the weekend. And once you’ve had a few glasses the drink fits perfectly back into the Apple Cider container and you can pop it back into the fridge. Just make sure to clearly mark “SPIKED” on the bottle so no one pours a glass and gets a surprise!