I hope you enjoyed a marvelous Thanksgiving. You know, I don’t mention this often enough, but I am sincerely thankful for all of you—visitors, readers, commenters, followers—and greatly appreciate your support. This blog wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for your constant encouragement. Sometimes I just want to run up to each commenter and give her (or him!) a big kiss on the cheek. And you guys, I don’t even kiss my friends on the cheek. I’m American, not French!
Onward! The holidays are upon us, so what better way to ring them in than with a brand new cocktail series? I had so much fun mixing and photographing my summer cocktails that I decided to host a winter-themed series. For those of you who are new to my way of making cocktails, I should explain that my cocktails are made with basic liquors and fresh, seasonal ingredients. Not a single one calls for refined sugar in the form of simple syrup; I prefer to sweeten mine with fresh fruit, juices or natural sweeteners like agave nectar, honey or maple syrup. I also think that most liqueurs are expensive and far too sweet, so I avoid them.
Today I present my first holiday cocktail, which contains reposado tequila, pear nectar, honey and spices. If you braved the stores this morning for Black Friday deals, you’re going to need at least one of these.
If you’re put off by the idea of tequila combined with pears, please hear me out: reposado tequila tastes quite a bit different from the silver or blanco tequila used in margaritas. Reposado is Spanish for rested, which means that reposado tequila is aged for a short time (between two months and a year) in oak barrels. Bourbon is also aged in oak barrels, so naturally, bourbon and reposado tequila share some of the same oaky flavors. If you have bourbon on hand, feel free to substitute it for the tequila; the drink is good both ways.
Pear Nectar and Reposado Tequila Cocktail
- Author:
- Prep Time: 3 minutes
- Total Time: 3 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
- Category: Cocktail
This cocktail is a delicious fall/holiday drink. It’s easy to mix up—just combine reposado tequila, pear nectar, honey, cinnamon and lemon. Sip and enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ oz reposado tequila (I used Milagro’s 100% agave reposado tequila)
- 3–4 ounces pear nectar (I like R.W. Knudsen)
- Tiny dash of cinnamon
- One drop vanilla extract
- Light drizzle of honey simple syrup*
- Half of a lemon, juiced
- Cinnamon stick, to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Fill a double old-fashioned or high ball glass with ice.
- Pour in the tequila and pear nectar. Add the cinnamon, vanilla and honey to the glass. Squeeze in half a lemon’s worth of juice.
- Mix by pouring into a cocktail shaker or another glass, give it a shake or stir well, then pour it back into the original glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
Notes
*How to make honey simple syrup: Pure honey doesn’t mix well with ice-cold drinks, so we’ll turn it into simple syrup. Simply mix small, equal parts of honey and water in a heat-safe bowl or your smallest saucepan. Warm in the microwave or on the stovetop, stirring often, just until the honey dissolves into the water.
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
Melissa // thefauxma
Yesssss!!
Lena
I rarely make cocktails myself. I would enjoy drinking them though. Pear nectar is rather sweet, isn’t it? Do you think pear juice would work just as well?
kate
Hey Lena! I honestly don’t know if I’ve tried regular pear juice before, but I’m sure it would be good. If I were to guess, I’d say the difference between the nectar and the juice is that the nectar is cloudier, like cider is compared to apple juice. I think they must leave some of the pear pulp in the nectar. I’ve only tried the R.W. Knudsen brand of pear nectar and I don’t think it’s super sweet. Hope that helps!
Katrina
What a yummy treat! This sounds lovely.
Pure2raw twins
great idea! this sounds wonderful
Averie @ LoveVeggies
yum! the whole recipe sounds perfect. I love every single ingredient in it! :)
Lena
Thanks, I think I know what to look for now. I forgot to say, I love the photo!
erin
I’m slightly concerned as it is 8:00am on a Monday and I’m already thinking about drinking- this looks lovely!
chinmayie
What a beautiful drink! Thanks for sharing the recipe :)
Kathryn O
Gorgeous! Pear is just so wonderful and refreshing in drinks. I feel like I need to have a party now just so I can serve this!
Sylvie @ GitK
I did not brave the sales but I could have used one of these regardless! Beautiful.
Ashley@BakerbyNature
A drink is exactly what I need right now! This gorgeous little cocktail will be getting made!
Maria@Orchard Bloom
This drink looks so beautiful with the cinnamon stick.
Carolyn
Ooh, a whole holiday cocktail series? I love that. This one looks really good. Excited to see more!
Kasey
I am definitely going to have to try this…maybe with my own fresh-squeezed pear juice (I’ve been on a big juicing kick lately!)
kate
Lucky! I wish I had a juicer. Fresh pear juice sounds fantastic!
Mabel
When I saw the picture I smiled. I was thinking “Yes! A new cocktail series!” Your cantaloupe fiesta cocktail was what got me to your blog in the first place so I am really looking forward to seeing (and reading) new posts about cocktails!
Keep doing what makes you happy!
Mabel
Anonyvox
While I can’t handle tequila (bad experience, man), I’m adding this to my round-up of holiday drinks post for those friends of mine who like it!
Dramatic Pancake
Kate, just thought you should know: I made a huge pitcher of this Christmas day when my family and family friends were all waiting for dinner to be ready (which was taking longer than expected), and it was a huge, HUGE hit. Thanks for this — completely saved the day! :)
kate
Hey Kathryn, I somehow missed your comment until now, but I’m so delighted to hear that your family loved the pear cocktail! Hooray!
Holly
Delicious cocktail! I hadn’t had a drink in 1 year and 9 months after getting pregnant with my son. What a delicious first drink!! Thank you for the recipe Kathryne :)
Kate
Way to treat yourself! :) You are welcome and congrats on the little guy, Holly.
Valeska Sequeira Caceres
So I was desperately looking for a drink to make with my tequila, and found this recipe. I didn’t have pear nectar, but I did have a nice bottle of Williams pear liqueur, which happens to be almost as sweet. The result was fantastic, although next time I’ll probably go lighter on the lemon juice. Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Kate
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad you liked it.
ilira
I made this drink for New Year’s Eve, so delicious thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome! I’m happy you loved it.
Ruth
Tried this recipe and it was just ok. Then tried it again using mezcal and it was exponentially better!
★★★★
Jacquie
This is an excellent cocktail (among many on your wonderful site that we have tried). We didn’t have pear nectar so I put two ripe pears (leave skin on, remove the core and tops and bottoms) and 1 cup of water in the Vitamix and turned it into pear juice. Everyone loved it. Thank you for another great recipe… It helped make our Saturday night during lockdown (in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) better.
★★★★★