Christmas Shots: 8 Festive Shooters That Are Not Just Peppermint
I worked three Decembers behind a bar that did a Christmas shot menu. Eight items. Six of them were peppermint.
That is the problem with this category. Peppermint and cream. Peppermint and chocolate. Peppermint and more peppermint. By the third week the whole menu tasted like a candle and I could not smell mint without flinching.
Mint belongs here. It is the flavor people want in December. But cinnamon does the opposite job and does it just as well, and a round that has both is a round people finish.
Eight below. Four lean mint, two lean cinnamon, two are neither.
The mint ones
Christmas Cookie
Equal parts peppermint schnapps, Kahlúa and Baileys. Shaken hard, strained. An ounce of each makes two shots, not one.
Make this one first. The coffee liqueur is why it works — it puts a bitter edge under the cream, and the mint cuts through that. Take the Kahlúa out and you have a dessert. Leave it in and you have a drink. See recipe
Note: the original build calls for Rumple Minze rather than supermarket schnapps, and at 50% that changes the drink considerably. If you are using the gentler bottle, pour a little more of it.
Chocolate Covered Candy Cane
Three quarters of an ounce of Godiva chocolate liqueur, then a quarter ounce of Rumple Minze floated on top.
It tastes like the thing it is named after. That is rarer than it sounds.
The float is not decoration. Stir it and you get a muddy brown shot. Float it and the chocolate lands first, then the mint about a second later. That gap is the entire drink. See recipe
Christmas Cheer
Half a shot of eggnog, half a shot of peppermint schnapps, stirred and drunk immediately.
Two ingredients. The most divisive thing on this page.
People either want another immediately or set the glass down and do not pick it up. Eggnog and mint is not a natural pairing. The drink knows it. See recipe
The cinnamon and whiskey ones
Cinnamon is the half of Christmas that mint lists forget, and it behaves very differently in the glass.
Dead Man Walking
Half an ounce of absinthe, half an ounce of Goldschläger, poured in equal parts and drunk straight down.
Anise and cinnamon, both aromatic, both assertive, and nothing whatsoever to soften them. It is the most intense shot here and the one that actually clears the palate after a heavy meal, which none of the cream builds will do. Pour it small. See recipe
Golddigger
Equal parts Goldschläger and Jack Daniel’s.
No cream, no sugar beyond what is already in the cinnamon liqueur, and the whiskey underneath it. This is the grown-up option on the page and the one that suits a table that has already eaten. See recipe
Jack Frost #2
Three quarters of an ounce of Jack Daniel’s, a quarter ounce of peppermint schnapps, stirred in the glass.
The mint here is a seasoning rather than an ingredient — a quarter ounce is just enough to read as cold against the whiskey’s vanilla. Close cousin to the Golddigger, opposite flavour. See recipe
The two that are neither
Big O
A shot of Irish cream floated on a shot of Kahlúa in a double shot glass. Not remotely Christmassy on paper and completely at home on the table anyway, because it is what people reach for once they have had one of everything else. The recipe is emphatic that this one wants a lighter Irish cream rather than Baileys, which floats more cleanly. See recipe
Bo Diddley Shooter
Ouzo in the glass first, Irish cream topped over it, half and half. Anise and dairy, which sounds wrong and works for the same reason mint and dairy does — the aromatic cuts the fat. Worth having once so you know. See recipe
How to float a layer
Three of these get floated. The order is not a preference, it is density. Sugar makes a liqueur heavy. Heavy goes first.
Coffee liqueur sits at the bottom of nearly anything. Irish cream floats on that. High-proof mint floats on the cream. Pour the top layer over the back of a spoon, slowly, touching the inside of the glass.
Stop before you think you should. Everyone pours too fast.
A broken layer still tastes fine. It just stops being a trick.
Which bottle of mint
This matters more here than it does in a long drink, because a shot has nowhere to hide a mistake.
| Bottle | Strength | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarket peppermint schnapps | 15–21% | Christmas Cheer, Jack Frost #2 |
| Rumple Minze | 50% | Chocolate Covered Candy Cane, Christmas Cookie |
Swapping one for the other is not a substitution, it is a different drink. Our peppermint schnapps guide goes into why the category splits so sharply.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most popular Christmas shot?
The Christmas Cookie — peppermint schnapps, Kahlúa and Irish cream in equal parts, shaken and strained. It is the one most bars pour in December and the one most people mean when they ask for a Christmas shot.
What alcohol tastes like Christmas?
Peppermint schnapps and cinnamon liqueurs like Goldschläger do most of the work, with Irish cream and coffee liqueur underneath them. Eggnog, butterscotch schnapps and spiced rum cover the dessert end.
Can you make Christmas shots ahead of time?
The mixed ones, yes — shake a batch of Christmas Cookies and keep it cold for a couple of hours. The layered ones have to be built to order, because the layers merge within a few minutes whatever you do.
What is in a Chocolate Covered Candy Cane shot?
Godiva chocolate liqueur with Rumple Minze floated on top, roughly three parts to one. Pour the chocolate first and lay the mint over the back of a spoon.
If the table wants more than eight, the creamy shots and cinnamon shots collections both run deep in this direction, and the Slippery Nipple — the other famous Irish cream and mint shot — is covered in our Baileys shooters roundup. Everything else is at Cocktail Builder.
Last modified on September 19, 2026
