Sugarfree Cranberry Juice

My daughter and I are a big fan of the Christmas cocktail called Poinsettia.  It is a simple cocktail of vodka, champagne, cranberry juice and some orange zest.  We made it for the first time a few years ago and it has been a semi tradition ever since.

I had a bag of leftover cranberries and rather than waste them, I made them into juice for our cocktails.  It was super simple and I know our cocktails will taste wonderful due to the fresh taste of our juice!

1 12 oz bag fresh cranberries
4 c water

Pour water into a large kettle.  Add cranberries.  Bring to a boil.  When cranberries begin to pop, continue to cook on the stovetop for 10 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes, then pour into a food processor or blender.  Blend until smooth.  Strain juice into a jar.  Store in the refrigerator.

The juice is very tart, since it is sugar free.  You will want to add 2 teaspoons of sugar per cup of juice when you are ready to use the juice.  To make it sweet without using sugar, consider sucralose v stevia. Once you find your favorite, you can lessen the tartness with one of these products.

For the cocktail:

1/4 c vodka
1/4 c Champagne
1/2 c cranberry juice
1 t sugar or 2 pkg Stevia
crushed ice
1 2" section of orange peel

You can do this two ways:  fill shaker with crushed ice, add ingredients, shake until cold, pour/strain into a red wine glass, top with orange peel.  Two:  add ingredients to red wine glass, add ice, stir until cold, top with orange peel.  It boils down to whether you want ice in your drink or not.

Delicious drink, not overly sweet, and very refreshing!