The Beefeater Thanksgiving Toast is a simple, festive gin cocktail from around 2008, designed as a holiday-themed drink that nods to classic Thanksgiving flavours like cranberry and a touch of warmth or spice. It uses Beefeater London Dry Gin as the base, paired with canned cranberry sauce for tart-sweet berry notes and ginger ale for a light, bubbly finish.
Ingredients (serves 1)
- 1 oz Beefeater gin
- ½ oz canned cranberry sauce (the jellied kind works best for easy mixing)
- ½ oz ginger ale (plus a float for topping)
Garnish (optional):
- 3 roasted walnut halves
- Speared cranberries
- Or a sprig of rosemary
Instructions
- Add the gin and cranberry sauce to a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Shake vigorously until well combined and chilled (the cranberry sauce will break down and integrate).
- Strain into a chilled martini glass.
- Top with a float (small additional pour) of ginger ale for fizz.
- Garnish as desired.
The result is a crisp, slightly tart martini-style drink with subtle holiday vibes—the cranberry evokes sauce from the Thanksgiving table, while the ginger ale adds refreshing effervescence and a hint of spice that complements the gin’s botanicals (juniper, citrus, etc.). It’s on the lighter side and easy to batch for a crowd if you scale it up (though shaking per drink keeps the texture best).
This cocktail appeared in a 2008 Seattle PI article on Thanksgiving libations alongside other seasonal drinks like a pumpkin French 75 and a vodka-based Gobble-tini. It’s not a super common modern recipe (Beefeater’s current site focuses more on classics and Christmas options like cranberry mimosas). It pops up on old cocktail databases as a fun, straightforward way to incorporate gin into holiday toasts. If you’re making it today, fresh cranberries or a homemade cranberry syrup could modernize it. The original keeps things quick and pantry-friendly with the canned sauce. Cheers!
