Sip on a Sugar Plum Sidecar and dream of the ballet! Made with homemade plum brandy, this festive holiday cocktail is a sweet and tart sipper.

Sparkly tutus, bright lights, the dulcet tones of Tchaikovsky, the unmistakable shuffle of pointe shoes hopping across the floor…
Ah, The Nutcracker. I danced ballet for 13 years of my childhood and was in The Nutcracker numerous times.
I can’t help but hum along to the music whenever I hear it. (Yes, even on TV commercials. Especially in TV commercials.)
Did you know that all the dances in the second act, when the Nutcracker Prince brings Clara (or Maria, depending on which version you are watching) to the Land of the Sweets represent different foods and drinks from around the world?
There’s the Spanish chocolate dance, the Arabian coffee dance, the Chinese tea dance, the Russian candy cane dance, and one of my favorites (who am I kidding, I love them all), the dance of Mother Ginger and her gingerbread cookies.
And then there’s the most beautiful of them all: “The Waltz of the Flowers,” which opens up to the mesmerizing dance of the famed Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier.

And now that I’ve nerded out to you about The Nutcracker, I can safely say that dance has led me to wonder my whole life…
What is a sugar plum?
The history of the sugar plum is a bit fuzzy.
In the Georgian era, many people boiled fresh plums in sugar as a method of preservation, but not really for Christmas.
Then in the 18th and 19th centuries, people enjoyed another type of sugar plum, one that doesn’t even contain plums at all!
They were in fact, pure sugar, hard shell of sugar to create Christmas sweets called dragées or comfits, made through a process called “panning.” The word “plum” referred to the oval shape of the dragées.
Sugars are cooked over high heat on a pan in motion to coat small seeds like fennel or cardamom with a glossy, sugary coating that’s similar to M&M’s and Jawbreakers. The most similar thing we have today is Jordan almonds
Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the composer of The Nutcracker and several other famous ballets like Swan Lake, lived in Russia during the 19th century, so these luxurious dragée candies were likely his inspiration.
But these types of sugar plums faded out of popularity, leaving us with no frame of reference for the origin of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Nowadays, people make balls of sugar plum candy for Christmas with honey, dried fruits and nuts, preserves and holiday spices, and then coat them in sugar or even coconut.
Sugar Plum Brandy Cocktail
Ever since I started my blog (almost 8 years ago!) I’ve wanted to create a sugar plum cocktail that encapsulated some more Nutcracker magic.
It wasn’t until I developed this recipe for sweet, plum-infused brandy that I realized I had the perfect spirit to do just that.
My plum brandy recipe is made by infusing prunes in brandy. It was inspired by slivovitz, which is a clear, distilled spirit made from plums and is enjoyed all over Eastern Europe — the spelling and method of production vary by country.
But it is delicious! And I knew it would be perfect in a sidecar, which is a classic cocktail made with cognac, triple sec and lemon juice.

Ingredients
You only need a few ingredients to make a sugar plum sidecar.
Plum Brandy
The plum-infused brandy is what makes this cocktail in my opinion! If you can find slivovitz (or one of its sisters), then it would be perfect in this cocktail.
Or you can whip up a batch of plum brandy yourself. It will come together in just a few days, but you can let it infuse for 3 months if you want a stronger flavor.

Triple Sec
Add Grand Marnier, Cointreau or plain triple sec to add some zesty orange flavor.
Along with the lemon juice, the sweet orange liqueur gives the sweet brandy some balance.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is a staple for so many cocktails! I always recommend using fresh juice if you can.
The bottled stuff will work fine in a punch though! It still has plenty of lemon flavor.
Sugared cranberries
I used sugared cranberries with their dragée look to bejewel this cocktail.
They’re my favorite holiday cocktail garnish, and they are as pretty as sparkly rhinestones on a tutu.
I love sugared cranberries on everything, from a Yule Mule to a Christmas Margarita to a Pomegranate Mimosa.
A garnish is totally optional. You can use fresh cranberries, a raspberry or whatever you like! Even a twist of lemon zest or orange zest, like I did with this Tangerine Sidecar, would be lovely.

How to make a plum sidecar
Making a sugar plum sidecar is easy! I serve mine in a coupe glass, but a martini glass will work great as well.
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Then add the plum brandy, triple sec and lemon juice. Shake vigorously until chilled.
- Pour into two martini glasses. Garnish with sugared cranberries. Serve immediately.
One or two of these and you’ll go to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head.
Need to make it non-alcoholic? Use a zero-proof spirit and some plum simple syrup (using this method).

More Nutcracker Cocktail recipes
To go with your Sugar Plum cocktail, I have a few more ideas for Christmas cocktails for a Nutcracker-themed party or any December gathering.
Mother Ginger would love these Gingerbread Mules, which combine ginger beer, orange and absinthe and taste like real gingerbread.
Boozy hot chocolate can represent the dance of Spanish chocolate.
Homemade coffee liqueur can stand in for the dance of Arabian coffee.
And if we have Russian candy cane vodka too, we’ll be spinning around to the tunes of Tchaikovsky in no time.

Sugar Plum Sidecar
ingredients
- 4 ounces plum brandy
- 1 ½ ounces Cointreau
- 1 ½ ounces lemon juice
- 3 sugared cranberries for garnish
instructions
- To a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the plum brandy, triple sec and lemon juice. Shake vigorously until chilled.
- Pour into two martini glasses. Garnish with sugared cranberries. Serve immediately.
notes
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