Warm your spirits
Toasty cocktails will help you forget winter’s chill
Nothing may be more pleasurable at day’s end than a wellcrafted cocktail. The clink of ice on glass, the magical mix of sweet, sour and alcoholic — it’s a great way to unwind.
But who says a great drink has to be cold?
This time of year, when Jack Frost nips at more than just your toes, warm cocktails just might be the thing to heat you back up from the inside.
But don’t just take this mulled cider lover’s word for it; take it from a professional.
“When you come in from the cold chill … there’s nothing better than a hot toddy, Irish coffee or mulled wine,” says bartender extraordinaire Sean Enright of Pittsburgh’s Tiki Lounge and the after-hours Carrick Literary and Social Association.
You don’t have to be a mixologist or haul out any special equipment to create a winning winter cocktail. In fact, some of the best winter sippers can be done in three steps: pour, stir, enjoy.
While warm-weather cocktails are often thirst quenchers (a good margarita goes down way too fast and easy), winter cocktails are meant to be lingered over, savored. Enright likes to warm the body and soul during cold snaps with concoctions that feature richer, darker spirits — think whiskey, rum, brandy and cognac — and the dessert-style spices — cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger.
“They go hand in hand with the other things you’re eating,” he says.
One of his favorite winter cocktail is Irish coffee — spiked with Jameson’s. He’s also a huge fan of the hot toddy, a simple drink of a brown liquor such as brandy, whiskey or rum mixed with honey, lemon juice and boiling water, and, when the mood strikes, also a tea bag.
“It couldn’t be easier, and you can mix it however you want,” he says.
While you want a winter cocktail to warm you up on the inside, you don’t want the drink’s heat to beat you over the head or burn your lips. So think “really, really warm” instead of “scalding hot.”