What to Drink on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is all about eating the same old thing, but do we have to drink the same old thing, too? Salon asked a variety of chefs, sommeliers, and foodies for alternatives to that boring old bottle of wine. Some suggestions:

• A rose champagne cocktail with cranberry juice, sloe gin, and grapefruit will “please everyone, while providing a seasonal yet wide-ranging profile.”
• The thematically appropriate Wild Turkey should help you deal with the relatives.

• Eve’s Cidery Autumn Gold is delicious, and cheap at just $14 a bottle.
• Plain ol’ root beer ought to pair nicely with the “fall spices” (nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon), and it makes sense historically, since the Native Americans introduced colonial settlers to root tea.
• Another historically appropriate choice: Batavia Arrack, a clear, rum-esque distillation of cane sugar and red rice that colonial America drank like water.

(More Thanksgiving dinner stories.)