The Best Warm Winter Cocktails That Aren't the Same Old Hot Toddy

Photo: Claire Lower

Warm cocktails are tricky for me. I have an overactive internal furnace, and hot ethanol tends to waft in an aggressive manner. (I even chill my mulled port.) But, at lest once a holiday season, when I’m nice and high on nostalgia, I give into the warming promise of a toddy, a mulled something, or a boozy coffee, and I am rarely disappointed.

The following are a few of my favorite ways to consumer hot alcohol. The toddy is made with gin, the wine is mulled in the microwave, and the Wassail is from Trader Joe’s (sorry to my British readers). Aside from the real-deal Irish coffee, these beverages favor the lazy, and are easily thrown together without too many ingredients, or much work. (Because the holidays ask so much of us already.)

A proper Irish Coffee

It’s possible you’ve never had a good Irish coffee. As Cian Maher wrote in his blog for Lifehacker on the subject, “the quality of Irish coffee in restaurants and bars has been deteriorating for some time now. We’re essentially being served cheap coffee and even cheaper whiskey, topped with over-aerated whipped topping. But there’s an art to Irish coffee.”

Luckily, Cian’s grandfather was a very Irish—like, grew-up-on-the-grounds-of-Dublin-Castle Irish—bartender, and he taught Cian how to make perfect Irish Coffees. You can read his extensive guide here, but take heed: The cream is where it often goes wrong.

A gin toddy

Pretty much everyone knows how to make a hot toddy with whiskey, but did you know you can also make one with gin? The warmth opens up the spirit, letting you taste the wide range of botanicals a good gin has to offer.

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Gin is so aromatic, you often don’t need any tea. A high-quality dry gin is your best choice, as more botanical-forward, floral gin can contain compounds that turn tannic when exposed to heat. (The Spruce Eats recommends Tanqueray, and I concur.)

Making a gin toddy is simple: Combine 1 1/2-2 ounces of good quality dry gin with 3/4 ounce lemon juice (use Meyer lemons if you have them), 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 2 ounces of hot water, or your favorite tea.

Chocolate cherry coffee

This combination of coffee, chocolate syrup, and cherry liqueur is just boozy enough for Christmas morning. The caffeine gets you buzzed and the liqueur smooths out the rough edges, but it doesn’t contain enough ethanol to get you truly sloshed.

All you have to do is add an ounce of high-quality cherry liqueur (not Luxardo though—it’s too almond-y) and a tablespoon of chocolate syrup to a cup of coffee. Stir and sip. It tastes like a better version of those cherry cordials we stuffed into my grandmother’s stocking every year.

Cheater’s Winter Wassail

“Wassailing” is what British people call roaming around orchards while singing and drinking a spiced cider punch called “wassail.” According to Wikipedia, the “purpose of wassailing is to awaken the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn.” There is often a king and queen involved, and the queen will hang a piece of wassail-soaked toast in a tree, though in “some counties the youngest boy or ‘Tom Tit’ will stand in” for the queen.

There are plenty of recipes for making your own wassail (and you can find them with a quick internet search), but Trader Joe’s sells a bottled punch version of uncertain authenticity. It tastes pretty good when combined with bourbon or—if the moms in the TJ’s Facebook group are to be believed—vodka. Combine 1 part bourbon and 2 parts TJ’s Winter Wassail, then gently heat in a pot to warm. Serve with a strip of orange zest.

Instant Pot (or microwaved) mulled wine

Mulled wine might be my favorite hot seasonal bev. The lower ABV means the the ethanol doesn’t waft quite so aggressively, and it tastes good and looks pretty. It does, however, take some amount of simmering to infuse all that seasonal flavor into the wine.

If you don’t feel like minding a simmering pot, there are two ways you can take the beverage off of the stove: Pop it in the microwave or lock it in the Instant Pot. Both get flavor into cheap-ish red wine fast, which means you can start sipping sooner. For either method, I like to use the following.

In the Instant Pot

Add the wine and apple juice to the Instant Pot, and remove the zest from the orange with a peeler, taking care to shave off as little white pith as possible. Stick the cloves through a few strips of zest, then add all the zest to the pot along with the juice of that same orange. Add the star anise and cardamom, and seal her up. Press the “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” button and, using the “+” and “-” buttons, set the time to zero minutes. Once the cooking time has elapsed, press “Cancel” and let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then release any remaining pressure manually. Press the “Keep Warm” button—which is also the “Cancel” button—stir in the liqueur and honey, and serve to friends in pretty mugs, garnishing with cinnamon sticks (which would be kind of expensive), strips of citrus zest, or freshly grated nutmeg.

Safety note: You may be tempted to try and infuse other, higher-ABV beverages with your Instant Pot. Do not do this. The heating element can spark, causing flames to shoot out of your favorite tabletop pressure cooker.

In the microwave

Add the wine and apple juice to a large microwave-safe bowl, and remove the zest from the orange with a peeler, taking care to remove as little white pith as possible. Stick the cloves through a few strips of zest, then add all the zest to the bowl, along with the juice of that same orange. Add the star anise and cardamom, and microwave it all on high until it’s hot but not boiling (about three minutes), then cover and let steep for 15 minutes or so.

Stir in the Cardamaro and honey, ladle the wine into mugs, and garnish with the usual suspects (cinnamon sticks, clove-studded strips of citrus zest, etc.).

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