Holiday Beverages

The holiday season brings with it gatherings, presents, memories, and cold weather, which is a good reason to break out the recipes for holiday beverages.

Most holiday beverages are hot drinks. Nothing enhances the feelings of comfort and joy associated with the holidays like a warm spiced drink. Whether you are mulling over the season with a mulled wine or fighting the cold with a hot toddy, holiday beverages will raise your spirits.

In the early days, the recipe for mulled wine had the cook add all the ingredients into a metal mug and plunge a poker, hot from the fireplace, into the wine to warm it up. I wanted to try this recipe but I lacked a metal mug, poker, and a fireplace in which to heat it.

For people who live in a more modern setting supplied with a stove, an updated version of this recipe might be in order.

The main spices in most mulled wine mixes are cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. If you have these on-hand, you have the basic spices needed to mull wine.

You can usually find mulled wine spices pre-mixed at your local market, tea and spice shop, or online but if you feel adventurous or have a cabinet filled with spices you can mix your own.

You can add allspice, cardamom, clove, ginger, mace, peppercorns, or star anise to your mulled wine mix if you have them handy. If you like you can add a cup of sugar.

• 1 bottle of dry red wine
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 8 whole cloves
• 2 whole star anise
• 4 whole allspice
• 4 cardamom pods
• Peel of 1 orange
• 1 lemon or orange sliced into ¼-inch thick rounds

1. Place everything in a large pot.
2. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
3. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Ladle the mulled wine into a cup.
5. Place an orange or lemon round into the cup.
6. Share with friends.

When it is cold outside and the snow is piling up around the house, nothing soothes the soul like being snug outside a hot toddy. When contemplating a toddy, you need to take stock of your liquor supply. You can concoct a toddy using whiskey, brandy, rum, or bourbon, making the toddy a great party drink because you can make one to each guests tastes. This recipe makes one hot toddy.

• 1 ounce of blended whiskey (scotch is always nice), brandy, rum, or bourbon
• 1 ounce of honey
• 1 slice of lemon
• ¼ cup of hot water or tea
• 1 cinnamon stick

1. Pour the honey into the bottom of a cup.
2. Add the liquor.
3. Pour in the hot water or tea.
4. Stir with the cinnamon stick until the honey has dissolved.
5. Top with the lemon slice.

You can use rum to make a toddy, but if you have the rum out you might want to make a hot buttered rum just for a change of taste. This recipe makes one hot buttered rum.

• 1 teaspoon or dark brown sugar
• 1 pat of butter (a ¼-inch thick slice from a butter stick)
• 2 ounces of dark rum
• Boiling water

1. Place the sugar into a cup.
2. Fill 2/3 of the way with boiling water.
3. Add the butter and rum.
4. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

The rich aroma of coffee brewing warms the heart but to warm the soul a drop of good Irish whisky is needed. When you combine the two, you create a drink that can warm you through.

It is said that Irish coffee was invented in Limerick County in the 1940s. Variations abound but a true Irish coffee uses both sugar and heavy cream. The sugar, dissolved in the coffee, helps the cream float on top. You can either whip your cream first and add a dollop on top of the coffee or carefully pour the cream over the back of a spoon over the coffee so that it floats on top of the coffee. This recipe makes one Irish Coffee

• 1 ½ ounce of Irish whiskey
• Freshly brewed hot coffee
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (more if you like)
• Heavy cream

1. Whip the cream with some sugar if you want to use whipped cream.
2. Pour the Irish whiskey into a tall glass or mug.
3. Add the sugar.
4. Add the coffee to ½ inch from the top of the mug.
5. Add a dollop of the whipped cream.
6. Alternately, you can pour the cream over the back of a spoon into the mug. This will make the cream float on top of the coffee.

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• Category:Coffee Recipes
• Category:Drinks
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