Holiday Cocktails with Walnut Flavors: Ingredients and Recipes

Since our family business name is Walnut and we are geeks, we’re always seeking out walnuts in our life! Ceramic walnuts from thrift shops and walnut food and drink ingredients are some of our faves.

Here’s a brief overview of walnut drink ingredients, along with two walnut cocktail recipes we created that celebrate them (and links to several more!).

A coupe cocktail glass filled halfway with a cold amber brown liquid and with a curled orange peel on a skewer in front of a collectin of ceramic walnuts on a dark brown and white wool tablecloth,and a leather whiskey tube in the background.

Our ceramic walnut collection with a Walnut Old Fashioned cocktail and the Leather Whiskey Case

Table of Contents

Walnut Drink Ingredients: Sweet, Bitter, and Nutty Sweet Walnut: Nocello vs Nocino Liqueuers Bitter Walnut: Black Walnut Bitters Nutty Walnut: A Crispy Nutty Garnish Walnut Cocktail Recipes Walnut Studiolo’s Old Fashioned The Nehalem Jetty: A Tiki-Inspired Walnut Mai Tai More Walnut Drink Recipes

Walnut Drink Ingredients: Sweet, Bitter, and Nutty

Sweet Walnut: Nocello vs Nocino Liqueuers

Though both are walnut liqueurs with Italian names, Nocello and nocino are very different! Here’s a comparison of the two

	Nocello	Nocino ( Noix, Nüsse, Orehovec, Nucată)
What is it	Very sweet dessert liqueur with a musky, perfumey, oily, woody nut flavor and vanilla notes	A traditional medieval amaro with complex spice, bitter, and sweet notes unique to each maker
Made from	Neutral spirits sweetened with sugars and infused with walnut flavors	Spirits steeped with green (unripe) walnuts, with light spices and sweeteners
Made by	Toschi (international distribution, widely available)	Many craft distilleries, small brands, and families worldwide
Alcohol	24%	30% - 40% usually
Use in	Desserts like Nocello Tiramisu , coffee, aperitifs	Cocktails, digestifs
Substitutes	Frangelico, Kahlua, nut syrups	Sweet vermouth, amaros
Interesting Info	In the US, Toschi’s Nocello is labeled Imitation Liqueur , meaning it includes artificial flavors. The bottle also comes with a fun and collectible walnut-shaped cork!	Nocino is an ancient drink with a fascinating history, rites and lore, and religious significance in Europe. It’s said the Romans discovered the Picts (ancient Scots) making it for Summer Solstice celebrations. It later became a tradition for St. Johns Day , since John the Baptist was born on the Summer Solstice.

Taste Comparison: Nocino vs Nocello

We had a tasting of both Nocello and nocino here at Walnut Studiolo. We have to admit, we might not buy Nocello again. It was cloyingly sweet, and that musky perfume was difficult to complement with other ingredients. With the wrong pairing, Valerie thought it had kind of a sawdust flavor, while Geoff found the woody taste uniquely endearing.

But nocino: what a revelation! We tasted a local nocino made by Stone Barn Brandyworks, which uses green walnuts foraged from urban lots in Portland, Oregon. They steep the walnuts in a blend of pinot noir brandy and rye whiskey as the spirits base along with autumnal spices. It was complex and balanced: we’d just drink it neat.

Walnut cocktail ingredients laid out on a table: ceramic walnuts with a bottle of Stone Barn Brandyworks Nocino, Toschi Nocello, Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters, with a leather handmade whiskey case in the background by Walnut Studiolo

Walnut drink ingredients: Stone Barn Brandyworks Nocino, Toschi Nocello, Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters

Bitter Walnut: Black Walnut Bitters

A good cocktail contains a balance of sweet and bitter. Unlike “English” walnuts (Juglans regia, actually Persian), which are the ones we normally eat and come from Europe, black walnuts (Juglans nigra) come from North America, have a very strong flavor, are usually grown for their beautiful timber.

Their strong flavor makes them perfect for bitters, those small bottles of highly potent, intensely-flavored spirits. Bitters are supposed to be great for gut health, and used to be taken medicinally as digestive bitters. Like a pinch of salt in lemonade, a dash of bitters takes a cocktail from good to great.

There are many great craft brands making bitters, and Black Walnut Bitters is a common one. We used the one by Fee Brothers, but you can also make your own!

Nutty Walnut: A Crispy Nutty Garnish

As any good bartender knows: don’t skip the garnish! You taste with your eyes first, and should give a hint of flavors to come. Edible garnishes at the end top off a cocktail with a tasty little snack that adds to the flavors.

The humble, simple, whole walnut is the perfect garnish to not just walnut cocktails but any autumn-inspired, sweet, creamy, or chocolately drinks.

You can balance a whole walnut on the rim of the glass, or spear it on a cocktail skewer. For the best flavor, toast the nuts fresh in a dry pan or under the broiler for 1-2 minutes, tossing frequently, Glazed salad walnut or sugared and spiced walnuts add more sweetness, like a little walnut candy. Or try our very favorite family orchard-grown crispy sea salt walnuts right out of the bag.

Close-up image of a brown cocktail in a coupe glass with a skewer resting on the rim, and one whole walnut midway down the spear, hanging over the cocktail as a garnish

You can spear a whole walnut on a cocktail skewer for a garnish. Credit: California Walnuts

Prop a whole walnut on the rim between the two hemispheres of the nut as a garnish. Credit: Reddit

Walnut Cocktail Recipes

Without further ado, here are the cocktails we created using walnut ingredients, plus links to other great walnut cocktail recipes.

Walnut Studiolo’s Old Fashioned

Valerie’s favorite flavors, a strong drink inspired by an autumnal walnut apple crisp.

1 oz apple brandy or calvados
½ oz Nocino
¼ oz honey syrup*
2 dashes Black Walnut Bitters

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass with fresh ice. Garnish with orange twist.

*Tip: to make honey syrup, mix 1:1 honey with boiling water and stir until dissolved. Let cool to room temperature before use. Store in fridge.

A brown frosty cold drink in a coupe cocktail glass with an orange twist, in front of the bottles that comprise the drink: Stone Barn Brandyworks Nocino, Clear Creek Distillery Apple Brandy, homemade honey syrup, Fee Brothers Walnut Butters, and a handmade leather whiskey gift case

Walnut Studiolo's Old-Fashioned Walnut Cocktail

The Nehalem Jetty: A Tiki-Inspired Walnut Mai Tai

Geoff tried to recreate the magic of the mai tai, but using only ingredients that grow in our region of the Pacific Northwest: cherries, walnuts, maple, apples.