I tried Meghan Markle's favorite almond spiced holiday cocktail and it was a royal disappointment with my family

Before we knew Meghan Markle as the Duchess of Sussex, she was making her own name. Prior to royal life, she starred in "Suits" and simultaneously ran her successful lifestyle website, The Tig. As Insider previously reported, Meghan made around $80,000 a year from sponsorships and endorsement deals with The Tig before she decided to shut it down after getting engaged to Prince Harry.

In 2015, she did an interview with Grazia and dished her top tips for hosting the perfect holiday party with friends. With the holiday season upon us, I was curious to see how Meghan's spiced almond holiday cocktail measured up to my festive favorites.

The recipe calls for:

• 4 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp of powdered ginger
• 1/2 tsp of clove
• 6-8 dried dates soaked in water
• Your favorite bourbon
• Cinnamon sticks for garnish.

Since bourbon is a type of whiskey made in the US, it was difficult to source in the UK. Instead, I substituted it with Glenfiddich, a single-malt Scotch whisky.

Meghan didn't specify how long to soak the dates prior to making the drink.

However, I assumed that the purpose of soaking the dates was to ensure they blended smoothly, so decided to leave them in water for just over an hour.

It is possible to buy cardamom in powder form but I just decided to use what I already had at home, which was a handful of cardamom pods. In order to use it in the recipe, I cracked open the pods and crushed the seeds inside into a smooth powder.

I measured it to be just under a teaspoon of cardamom, slightly less than what the recipe calls for.

Despite having a little less than what was required for the cardamom in the recipe, it was the strongest-smelling ingredient in the blender. This showed me that a little bit of cardamom goes a long way.

I blended all of the ingredients for roughly 45 seconds. I checked the mixture, which seemed pretty smooth, but to be sure I used a fork to double-check there weren't any big chunks of dates stuck at the bottom and blended it for a further 30 seconds.

According to Meghan's recipe, the next step is either heating up the mixture or simply adding the alcohol to serve it cold. I personally love a warm holiday drink so decided to do the first option.

Even though I'd done my best to ensure the drink didn't have large chunks of dates floating around, there were a good amount of clumps left at the bottom of the blender.

I decided to scoop these out, but was nervous it would detract from the overall sweetness.

In her interview with Grazia, Meghan recommended using anywhere between 4-6 ounces of alcohol.

I'm not a huge fan of the taste of whiskey and come from a family of rum and gin drinkers, so I opted to go a little lighter on the booze.

My dad isn't big on desserts or anything super sugary so to hear from him that he thought Meghan's drink needed "more sweetness" made me think that it really was lacking in that department.

He advised possibly adding some honey or sugar to make it more palatable.

I also offered a cup to one of my sisters and my mom, both of whom cringed after taking a sip. They too thought that it wasn't sweet enough and my sister pointed out that there were bits of dates floating around, despite me doing my very best to avoid that.

My family's favorite holiday drink will always be my mom's coquito, which I can confidently say is 10 times better than eggnog.

But that said, any recipe can be a foundation to build a meal or a drink that is better suited to whoever is consuming it. With Meghan's holiday drink, I think I could've done at least two things to make it more of a delectable treat for myself and my family.

Firstly, I could've upped the level of sweetness using my father's suggestion of adding honey or sugar. Secondly, after some reflection, I realized I could've run the liquid through a strainer. That would've ensured there were no bits of dates left behind to make the drinking experience less pleasurable.

Ultimately, I can understand why Meghan is a fan of the drink. It smells like Christmas, it's not as heavy as other holiday beverages, and it's perfect if bourbon is your go-to alcohol. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for me, or my family, so I can't imagine I'll be serving it during future holiday seasons.