Collection
Warm Cocktails
A warm cocktail is the whole point of winter drinking. The heat carries aroma to the nose before the first sip, the glass warms your hands, and a drink that would be unremarkable cold becomes something you sit with.
Collections
Winter Cocktail Collections
The same 167 recipes, sorted by the kind of drink you are actually after. Start with a collection if you know the mood but not the name.
Collection
Alcohol-Free Winter Drinks
An alcohol-free winter drink should be built as its own recipe, not as the same drink with the alcohol removed. Take the wine out of mulled wine and you are left with hot juice, which is exactly what makes people stop asking for it.
Collection
Mulled Drinks
Mulling is the oldest idea in winter drinking: warm something alcoholic, add sugar and spice, and drink it before it cools. It began as a way to make rough wine palatable and survived because it turned out to be genuinely good.
Collection
Festive Classics
These are the drinks that have been on the table every December for decades, in some cases for over a century. They survived fashion cycles rather than following them.
Collection
Après-Ski Drinks
Alpine drinks were designed for people who had spent a day outdoors in the cold, which shows in how they are built. They are hotter than most winter serves, often around 70 to 75°C, and considerably stronger.
Collection
Christmas Cocktails
Christmas drinking has two modes. There is the drink you hand someone the moment they arrive, and the drink you nurse after everyone has eaten too much. Both are here.
Collection
Warm Gin Cocktails
Gin is filed away as a summer spirit, which is a waste of the one thing it has that whisky and rum do not: aromatic clarity. Juniper sits naturally beside clove and cinnamon, and the citrus botanicals lift heavy spice rather than adding to it.
Collection
Spiced Cocktails
Spice in a cocktail works best when it is built into the drink rather than dusted over it. A cinnamon syrup, a cardamom infusion or a saffron honey gives you the aroma throughout instead of a grating on the surface that lands in the first sip and nowhere else.
Collection
Winter Punches
Punch is the oldest format in this collection and still the most practical. One vessel, one ladle, and a host who is not making drinks to order for twenty people.
Collection
Modern Winter Serves
This is the part of winter drinking that has changed most in the last few years, and the part that most recipe collections skip entirely.
Collection
Low-Alcohol Winter Drinks
A long winter evening and a full-strength mulled wine are not always compatible. These drinks keep the ritual, the spice and the warmth while sitting somewhere well below the usual strength.