“Making spirits bright” from the classic holiday song “Jingle Bells” may not have been referring to alcohol, but some years (and perhaps particularly this one), it just might be spirits making our spirits bright.
The holidays are known for cookies, treats, and festive foods but there are also a number of unique alcohol drinks that only come at this most wonderful time of the year.
With that in mind, our team wanted to find the most popular holiday cocktail in each state. We used Google search interest data from the last 45 days and below are the results:
Interesting Findings
- After gathering the data on dozens of different holiday cocktails, only six were the most popular in at least one state: eggnog, holiday punch, holiday sangria, Hot Toddy, Irish coffee, and wassail.
- Eggnog was the winner by count of states with 26.
- Holiday punch was second by count of states with 11 and wassail was third with 8.
- Irish coffee was the most popular in two states: Vermont and Wyoming where you certainly might need a little pick-me-up from the cold.
- A Hot Toddy was only the most popular in Montana and holiday sangria was only the most popular in Virginia.
- There are definite regional trends when it came to these cocktails: the South primarily favored holiday punch while the Northeast and West Coast favored eggnog.
Below is a chart with the findings for each state:
| State | Winner |
| Alabama | Eggnog |
| Alaska | Eggnog |
| Arizona | Holiday Punch |
| Arkansas | Holiday Punch |
| California | Eggnog |
| Colorado | Wassail |
| Connecticut | Eggnog |
| Delaware | Wassail |
| Florida | Eggnog |
| Georgia | Holiday Punch |
| Hawaii | Eggnog |
| Idaho | Wassail |
| Illinois | Eggnog |
| Indiana | Eggnog |
| Iowa | Eggnog |
| Kansas | Holiday Punch |
| Kentucky | Holiday Punch |
| Louisiana | Holiday Punch |
| Maine | Eggnog |
| Maryland | Eggnog |
| Massachusetts | Eggnog |
| Michigan | Eggnog |
| Minnesota | Eggnog |
| Mississippi | Holiday Punch |
| Missouri | Holiday Punch |
| Montana | Hot Toddy |
| Nebraska | Wassail |
| Nevada | Hot Toddy |
| New Hampshire | Eggnog |
| New Jersey | Eggnog |
| New Mexico | Eggnog |
| New York | Eggnog |
| North Carolina | Holiday Punch |
| North Dakota | Eggnog |
| Ohio | Eggnog |
| Oklahoma | Eggnog |
| Oregon | Eggnog |
| Pennsylvania | Eggnog |
| Rhode Island | Eggnog |
| South Carolina | Holiday Punch |
| South Dakota | Wassail |
| Tennessee | Holiday Punch |
| Texas | Wassail |
| Utah | Wassail |
| Vermont | Irish Coffee |
| Virginia | Holiday Sangria |
| Washington | Eggnog |
| West Virginia | Wassail |
| Wisconsin | Eggnog |
| Wyoming | Irish Coffee |
Our Methodology
To find the most popular holiday cocktail in each state, we used Google Trends search interest data from the last 45 days (early November through mid-December). We pulled and analyzed the data for 34 classic holiday drinks including the ones listed above as well as others such as hot buttered rum, spiked hot chocolate, and mulled wine.
We did have to make some calls on what is a considered a holiday drink. For example, while many people will be drinking a Moscow Mule over the holidays, we didn’t consider that a drink unique to this time of year and therefore did not include it. But a cranberry Moscow Mule? We sure did, although it didn’t win in any state.
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