I asked the Spritz app’s AI mixologist for a cocktail with cinnamon whiskey, mostly to see what it would do. Cinnamon whiskey is a category that mostly exists because of Fireball, and Fireball is mostly used in shot glasses by people who are not going to be okay tomorrow. I wanted to know if there was a real drink in there.
The app returned this one. It’s three ingredients plus bitters, built directly in a champagne flute, no shaker, no juicing, and it feels intentional in a way that cinnamon whiskey almost never does. The cinnamon sits behind the champagne instead of in front of it. The simple syrup is a small assist; the orange bitters are the part that actually makes it a cocktail. It’s the kind of drink that earns a spot in the holiday rotation.
It reads festive without falling into eggnog territory. No dairy, no whip, no heavy spice. You can have two and not feel like you’ve committed to dessert.
A drink that’s holiday-coded without being eggnog.
The one move that matters is what kind of cinnamon whiskey you use. Anything but Fireball. Fireball is sweetened to be a shot; pour it into a champagne flute with simple syrup and you’ve made cough syrup. What you want is a real cinnamon-infused bourbon (Jim Beam Kentucky Fire is fine; better is whatever your local distillery makes), or, easiest, take any bourbon you already own and drop a cinnamon stick in it for 24 hours. The infusion is free and tastes better than any brand on the shelf.
If you don’t have champagne, prosecco works. Cava and crémant also work; demi-sec or sweet styles do not. The drink needs the champagne to stay dry so the cinnamon whiskey has something to push against. With anything sweet on top, this drink becomes syrup.
Why this works
The cinnamon whiskey gives the drink a base. It’s the only ingredient with body. The champagne is the volume and the temperature: 4 ounces of cold sparkling wine is what makes this a cocktail and not a sipping pour. The simple syrup is the smallest amount of help, half an ounce to round the bitters’ edge so they don’t read as medicinal. The orange bitters are the connective tissue between the cinnamon’s warmth and the champagne’s bread-and-yeast. Without them you have cinnamon whiskey topped with champagne; with them you have a drink.
Tips & variations
- Anything but Fireball. Use a real cinnamon-infused bourbon. Kentucky Fire from Jim Beam works, or infuse your own with a cinnamon stick and 24 hours of patience. The drink will be twice the drink.
- Drier champagne or prosecco, not sweet. Brut or extra-brut. The cinnamon whiskey + simple syrup already brings sweetness; if the bubbles add more, the drink collapses into syrup.
- No NA version that really works. Without the cinnamon whiskey there is no drink. If you need NA, this is not the recipe. Make a different one.
Make it in Spritz
The Spritz iOS app holds the recipe, scales it for a party in one tap, and the in-app AI mixologist that suggested this drink can suggest what else to do with the cinnamon whiskey if you’re new to the category. Save it, scale it, share it with anyone who’s bored of plain champagne toasts.
Open this recipe in Spritz →
