I was feeling a bit cold and lonely in my one-bedroom apartment, and so I felt like making some hot (or at least warm) cocktails, both to warm me up and to take my mind off the fact that, once again, when the new year rolls around, I will most likely be single. But that’s OK, because I have these drink recipes to share.
First up, I made a classic “hot toddy,” just with hot water instead of hot tea:
Hot Toddy
1 cup hot water
1 oz brandy
1 tablespoon honey
juice of 1/4 lemon
lemon slice
I didn’t have any uncaffeinated tea so I went with water. The honey didn’t make this too sweet, and the brandy made it just slightly boozy. So it’s just slightly boozy and slightly sweet and slightly sour, and it’s a nice warm drink for a cold night.
Next I tried a variation with rum.
Hot Rum Toddy
2 oz rum
1 teaspoon simple syrup
5.5 oz boiling water
lemon slice
At first this just tasted like slightly sweetened warm rum, as you might imagine from the ingredients. But squeezing the lemon slice into the drink actually made it better, with the tartness and sweetness working together. I personally would prefer a bit more water, but it wasn’t bad.
I wanted to have a warm milky drink, so I tried the Sweet and Hot.
Sweet and Hot
1.5 oz dark rum
0.75 oz Kahlua
2.75 oz warm milk
lemon twist
clove
0.75 oz of the milk was supposed to be cream, but I opted for a slightly healthier version with all milk. Despite the high proportion of alcohol in this, I actually found it to be quite drinkable. The drink was pretty sweet from the Kahlua, and it was just alcoholic enough to give me a nice buzz on a half-empty stomach. I’m not sure about the lemon twist, though, since otherwise it was all milky flavors.
Finally, I tried a recipe that required a bit of work with a saucepan.
Hot Whiskey Punch
4 oz blended whiskey
3 oz water
2 tablespoons sugar
half a lemon, cut into slices
1 clove
1 cinnamon stick
lemon slice
The way you make this is by first bringing the water, sugar, lemon slices, clove, and cinnamon stick to a boil in a saucepan, then simmer for 10 minutes on low heat. Then you add the four ounces of whiskey, heat up the mixture without boiling it again, then strain into a mug and garnish with a lemon slice. I scaled down this recipe by 8 from the original. Unbelievably, the original had a whole liter of whiskey in it. Even at an eighth of the original volume, this drink has four whole ounces of whiskey. Despite the really high alcohol content, it was actually pretty good. Yes, the whiskey flavor is strong, as you might imagine, but the sugar and the lemon with the spices really take the edge off. Really easy to get drunk off of a single serving of this, though. I mean, who drinks 4 ounces of whiskey in one sitting? Well, I did. But that was just for testing this recipe.
Since winter is nowhere close to being over, there’s still lots of time to experiment with some warm cocktails!