Is A Whiskey Gingersnap A Cookie Or A Cocktail?

When you're looking to get into the holiday season's celebrations, there are a few different treats you can turn to, and some of the options you will be presented with are quite different. Do you satisfy your sweet tooth and snag a freshly baked tasty treat, or do you spend the party sipping on seasonal spirits? 

As the time for you to make this critical choice draws near, before you dump your glass of spiked cider or toss out your slice of cake, a third option could potentially please both sides of this sweet party fare debacle. Simply using a cookie dough flavor-infused whiskey to create your next whiskey ginger will effectively bridge the gap between cookie and cocktail. The whiskey gingersnap is a must-make wintertime twist on a classic cocktail that combines the richness of dessert and the bitterness of booze to make a truly delicious drink. 

The gingersnap cookie is a staple of the holiday season. We've all seen its sturdier cousin, gingerbread, in the form of beautiful candy-coated creations, but gingersnaps are considerably crispier and thinner than the cookie used for house construction.

When determining whether a whiskey gingersnap is a cookie or a cocktail, it's advisable to examine the history of these two creations. The gingersnap cookie first appeared in the early 1800s when it was introduced by European settlers in America. The sweet treat's name is derived from the German word "snappen," which is, as you may realize, a cognate of snap and refers to the crispy, brittle consistency of the gingersnap. This crispy cookie has become a fixture of the holiday dessert table. However, the "whiskey" part of the equation is an entirely different matter. 

When Prohibition, which banned all alcohol in America for about a decade, first started in 1920, finding a spirit that tickled the taste buds wasn't easy. Some crafty citizens found they could get a medicinal alcohol prescription from the local pharmacist. As you can probably guess, the prescribed alcohol wasn't necessarily a desirable drink, so it needed a mixer. The bite that you could get from either ginger ale or ginger beer made the booze a bit more palatable, and thus, the whiskey ginger was born — nearly a century after the first gingersnap cookies were baked. 

Making a whiskey gingersnap cocktail is a simple three-step process that your guests will appreciate. First, you'll start with cookie dough-flavored whiskey. You can make your own by adding cookies to a glass container of bourbon or whiskey and allowing the mixture to sit for a few days (at which point you'll begin taste tests to see if the sweets have imparted flavor). Alternatively, there are many pre-flavored cookie dough whiskeys available for purchase. Add one part of the spirit to a glass, then mix in two parts ginger beer and a squeeze of lime. You'll find that this variation on the classic cocktail packs a sweet and spicy punch

If you aren't of drinking age or are abstaining from alcohol for other reasons, getting your ginger this holiday season is still possible. Ginger wine is a deliciously spicy drink that doesn't feature any booze at all.