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Issue Date: February 10, 2008
Wintry sips
Shake up your home bar with these ideas for delicious seasonal cocktails and hot drinks that go beyond the toddy.
By Erin Hartigan
When the weather is blustery, a nice cocktail can warm you faster than a seat by a roaring fire. If you are tired of your usual libation, shake things up with these ideas from some of the country's top cocktail mixologists.
1. Even a cold drink warms. "Hot booze hits you quicker and gets into every nerve," says David Wondrich, author of Imbibe! He likes hot whiskey toddies, but he's also a fan of cold drinks with warming qualities, such as the Stinger (three parts cognac to one of crme de menthe). Eben Freeman of New York City's Tailor restaurant and bar plays with the warming effect of the Stinger's mint: "If you push the flavors toward the icy menthol mouth feel, you manage to make something wintry that has a cooling effect." At Boston's No. 9 Park restaurant, John Gertsen mixes the warming cinnamon flavor of Gammel Dansk bitters with bourbon and apricot liqueur. "Even though it's cold, it's sizable and spicy," he says.
2. Mull more than just wine. Scott Beattie, bar manager of Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg, Calif., uses mulling spices to seasonalize sangria: "I take cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, toast them, add orange and pineapple juices, and cook that mixture down." He adds it to a strong red Spanish wine and equal parts cognac and dark rum. Freeman likes Glhwein, Germany's hot, spiced red wine. "Add juniper, cinnamon and allspice, or even rosemary, to red wine," he says, and to sweeten, use elderberry syrup, cassis or Cointreau.
3. Change the basics. "One way to spice things up is to use hot cider in place of wa-ter," Wondrich says. You can vary the liquor, but he recommends using brown liquors in hot drinks. Beattie, author of an upcoming book about artisanal cocktails, uses essential oils in drinks: "Spearmint is a good flavor for winter. Add just a few drops to simple syrup [a sugar-water mixture], and mix that with fruit-enhanced vodka and juice." He warns against adding the drops directly to a drink, which overwhelms the alcohol. Beattie also makes wintry honey, which he serves with vodka and segments of citrus fruit. To make the concoction, he toasts and grinds cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel seeds, clove and star anise, then infuses this spice mixture in simple syrup along with a few tablespoons of honey.
4. Go retro for new ideas. "When it's cold, people welcome something creamy that they wouldn't otherwise want," says cocktail caterer and bar consultant Christy Pope. "Flips, which are cocktails with egg, are very big." One popular flip? The Tom and Jerry. Gertsen of No. 9 describes the drink: "It features a rich egg batter with V.S.O.P. cognac, aged rum and hot milk." At his restaurant, he explains, "We serve it in a warmed mug."
5. Don't neglect the season's best. "People mistakenly think winter is boring as far as seasonal produce goes, but there's all this citrus growing," Beattie says. He cites Meyer lemons, Persian limes and blood oranges as some of the season's top produce. "It sounds weird, but drinks that seem like summer -- a mojito or lime margarita -- are really at their best in the winter."
6. Trick out some nog. Milky drinks are warming but heavy. "We create a guilt-free noggish drink, the Chai Almond Zoom," Pope says. It has cognac or rum plus chai tea and almond milk. "It's dairy-free but incorporates wintry spices, like cardamom and cinnamon, to really warm you." Faux-nogs also can be made with other flavors. "Any flavor you like to eat can become [or infuse] a liquid form," Freeman says. "Add [a chunk of] fruitcake to cognac. Find your most unusual, personal food memory or preference and infuse it."
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