Cranberry Cooler: The Vodka Cocktail and the Mocktail, Side by Side

There is a can of frozen orange juice concentrate in the back of our freezer most of the year, and in November it finally earns its spot. It goes into the cranberry cooler, which is the drink we set out when the house is full and nobody wants to stand at a shaker.

We make it two ways, always at the same time. One pitcher has vodka in it. The other one doesn’t, and it disappears just as fast.

Two pitchers, one recipe card

Both versions start from cranberry juice and orange, and both are built in the glass or the pitcher with no shaking at all. Here is how they compare.

The proportions are ours, worked out over a few years of family dinners, so taste and adjust.

Why the frozen concentrate

This is the part people raise an eyebrow at. Why not just pour orange juice?

Concentrate brings more orange flavor in a smaller spoonful, so it doesn’t water the drink down. It also thickens the cranberry slightly and softens the tartness without a separate sweetener. Stir a spoonful into the cranberry before the vodka goes in, and it dissolves in about ten seconds. If you add it to a glass full of ice first, it clumps and sinks, and you’ll be fishing for it with a straw.

We prefer 100% cranberry juice cut with a little concentrate over cranberry juice cocktail. The pure juice is sharp and almost dry, and the orange concentrate rounds it out. If all you have is the sweetened cocktail kind, cut the concentrate in half.

The virgin cranberry cooler

The mocktail is the one we’re asked about more. It’s bright and clean, and the ginger ale gives it a little warmth at the back of the throat that makes it taste grown-up.

The recipe calls for sugar-free ginger ale and unsweetened orange juice, which keeps it from tasting like a juice box. Regular ginger ale works fine, it just tips the drink sweeter. Pour the cranberry and orange first, then top with the ginger ale so the bubbles last.

We serve it in the same glasses as the vodka version, with the same orange wheel, so nobody at the table feels singled out for not drinking. Our Thanksgiving mocktails post has more in that spirit.

Batching for a holiday table

For eight to ten people we make one pitcher of each.

Vodka pitcher: one 750 ml bottle of vodka, two quarts of cranberry juice, and one 12-ounce can of thawed orange juice concentrate. Stir until the concentrate disappears, then chill for at least two hours. That’s roughly twenty five-ounce pours at about 10%, the strength of a light wine, though it drinks much easier than wine does. We set out smaller glasses for that reason.

Virgin pitcher: two quarts of cranberry juice and one quart of orange juice, chilled. Add a two-liter bottle of ginger ale only when guests are walking in, or pour it into each glass as you serve.

Garnish both with orange wheels and a few fresh cranberries, which float for a while and then sink like little red marbles. A sprig of rosemary in each glass smells wonderful next to the turkey. Ice goes in the glasses, never in the pitcher, so the last pour tastes like the first.

For a bowl instead of pitchers, our holiday party punch recipes cover ice rings and big-batch math.

Other cranberry coolers worth pouring

Somebody always wants a variation by the second round. These are the ones we reach for.

The Citrus Cooler mixes citrus vodka with lemonade, cranberry and club soda, which makes it lighter and fizzier than ours and better for an afternoon. Its cousin, the Citronella Cooler, skips the soda and adds lime juice, so it tastes tart and lemony. The Fat Cat Cooler trades vodka for Bacardi Limon and tops it with Sprite, and the Summer Sunset Cooler brings passion fruit syrup and ginger ale to citrus vodka and cranberry, which sounds like July but holds up fine in December.

If you like gin, the Cape Cod Cooler is a proper cocktail, with sloe gin, gin, cranberry, orgeat and lime. Shaker drink. Four people, not twenty. The Melon Cooler uses dark rum with Midori, cranberry and orange, and it turns a strange murky red that tastes better than it looks.

For the kids, the Cranberry-Cherry Cooler is cranberry, orange juice, cherry Kool-Aid and sugar. It’s very sweet and very red, and children think it is the best thing on the table.

There are plenty more cranberry drinks in our guide to cocktails with cranberry juice, and you can type in whatever’s left in your fridge on CocktailBuilder to see what it makes.

Questions from the kitchen

Can we make it the night before? Yes, both bases keep well overnight in the fridge. Hold back the ginger ale until you serve.

Can we use cranberry juice cocktail? Yes. Use less concentrate, since the cocktail is already sweet.

What about other spirits? White rum and citrus vodka both work. Whiskey fights the cranberry, in our experience.

By the time the pie comes out, both pitchers are usually down to the orange wheels stuck at the bottom. We consider that a good sign.

Last modified on October 25, 2026