The Best Warm Winter Cocktails

Warm cocktails have a reputation for being fussy. In truth they are among the easiest drinks to make well, provided you respect one principle: warmth, not heat. Get that right and everything below is straightforward.

This guide runs through 23 warm winter cocktails, from a three-minute whisky mac to a punch that feeds a table, with the technique that makes all of them work first.

The one rule that matters

Never let a warm cocktail boil. Boiling cooks off the alcohol and the bright, volatile aromatics that give a drink its life, leaving something flat and stewed. Aim instead for gently steaming, around 60-70°C, and add any spirit at the end, off the heat, so its character survives.

Three habits make the difference between a good warm drink and a disappointing one:

• Warm the glass. A cold glass pulls several degrees out of a drink the moment you pour. A rinse of hot water while you build the cocktail is enough.
• Heat the mixer, not the spirit. Bring the water, juice, tea or wine up to temperature, take it off the heat, then add the alcohol.
• Sweeten before you taste, not after. Honey and sugar dissolve properly in a hot liquid and are almost impossible to incorporate once the drink has cooled.

Our guide to serving temperature for warm cocktails goes further into the numbers, and the warm cocktail techniques guide covers infusing, batching and butter batters.

Toddies: start here

The toddy is the foundation of the whole category. Spirit, something sweet, citrus, hot water. Everything else is a variation.

Hot Toddy

The original and still the best introduction: Scotch, honey, lemon and hot water with a cinnamon stick and a few cloves. Eight minutes, no equipment, and it is genuinely soothing when you have a cold. If you make one drink from this guide, make this. Hot Toddy

Hot Maple Toddy

Rye or bourbon with pure maple syrup instead of honey, which pushes the drink towards vanilla and caramel and away from floral sweetness. American in character and rounder than the Scotch version. Five minutes. Hot Maple Toddy

Hot Cognac Toddy

The most refined toddy here. Cognac, honey, fresh lemon and a cinnamon stick to stir, with the brandy’s dried-fruit character doing most of the work. A good after-dinner drink where whisky would be too assertive. Hot Cognac Toddy

Apple Brandy Hot Toddy

Apple brandy, honey, lemon and hot water, infused with cinnamon and a slice of crisp apple. Mellower than the others and the most obviously autumnal, which makes it a good drink for October and November before the heavy spice season starts. Apple Brandy Hot Toddy

Hot Whisky Mac

The fastest drink in this guide at three minutes. Scotch, Stone’s ginger wine and hot water, and nothing else. The ginger wine supplies sweetness, spice and body in one bottle, which is why this has survived as a British classic. Hot Whisky Mac

Rum, butter and richness

Hot Buttered Rum

The great American winter drink and worth the small amount of preparation. A spiced butter batter of softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon is made in advance, then a spoonful is melted into dark rum and hot water. The batter keeps in the fridge and makes about ten drinks. Hot Buttered Rum

Hot Rum and Butter

A slightly leaner take on the same idea, with nutmeg and clove in the batter and a cinnamon stick in the glass. Eight minutes and velvety. Make this one if you want the richness without committing to a full batch of batter. Hot Rum and Butter

Spiced Rum Punch

Spiced or dark rum mulled with apple and orange juice, lime, brown sugar, cinnamon and clove. Fruity, generous and built for a group, which makes it the drink to reach for when the toddies stop scaling. Seventeen minutes. Spiced Rum Punch

Mountain Grog

The alpine version: dark rum, hot water, fresh lemon, brown sugar, cinnamon and clove. Bracing rather than comforting, and a genuinely honest cold-weather drink. Five minutes, and it is the one that tastes most like being outside. Mountain Grog

Chocolate and cream

The indulgent end of the menu, and the drinks most likely to convert someone who says they do not like winter cocktails.

Spiked Hot Chocolate

Real dark chocolate at 60 to 70 percent melted into milk and cream with brown sugar and a pinch of flaky salt, then spiked with rum, bourbon or orange liqueur. Deep and glossy rather than powdery. Ten minutes and worth every one. Spiked Hot Chocolate

Lumumba

The continental classic: rich cocoa laced with brandy and crowned with softly whipped cream. Lighter than the chocolate-based version and quicker to drink, which is why it works at a Christmas market as well as at home. Lumumba

Tom and Jerry

The festive American original that eggnog is descended from. A frothy egg batter spiked with dark rum and brandy, topped with hot milk and finished with grated nutmeg. More work than anything else here and a genuine occasion drink. Tom and Jerry

Spiced Coconut Hot Chocolate

Dark chocolate melted into coconut milk with a cinnamon stick and a whisper of chilli, spiked with dark rum. Dairy-free without tasting like a substitute, and the chilli keeps it from becoming cloying. Spiced Coconut Hot Chocolate

Coffee and tea

Irish Coffee

Hot coffee, Irish whiskey and brown sugar under a float of softly whipped cream. The definitive after-dinner warmer, and the drink most often ruined by rushing the cream. Five minutes if you take your time over the float. Irish Coffee

Swiss Café Fertig

The Swiss après-ski answer: strong hot coffee, brown sugar and a generous measure of Träsch or Williamine pear brandy. Small, potent and served in a little glass. Five minutes and completely different from an Irish coffee despite the shared ingredients. Swiss Café Fertig

Hot Spiced Tea Cocktail

Strong black tea with dark rum, orange, honey, cinnamon and clove. Tea makes a lighter base than water and carries spice better, which makes this a good long drink for an afternoon rather than an evening. Hot Spiced Tea Cocktail

Jägertee

The Austrian alpine warmer: strong black tea and overproof rum with a measure of red wine, cinnamon, clove and lemon. Robust in every sense, and traditionally drunk after skiing rather than before. Treat the overproof rum with respect. Jägertee

Modern and spirit-forward serves

The newest part of the category, and the drinks that have moved warm cocktails away from wine and cream.

Hot Apple Gin

A ready-to-serve warm gin-and-apple drink, poured into a stemmed glass with an apple slice and a pinch of cinnamon. Lighter and drier than everything above it on this page, served a touch warmer than most at 65-70°C, and made in five minutes without a pan. Hot Apple Gin

Warm Aperol Spritz

Aperol with warm orange and apple juice, topped with prosecco. There is no single agreed recipe and it divides opinion, which is part of the interest. Bitter, orange-led and unlike anything else on this list. Warm Aperol Spritz

Hot Spiced Sake

Warmed sake infused with fresh ginger, star anise and yuzu, sweetened with a little honey. Served at around 55°C, cooler than everything else here, and the cleanest drink in the guide. A good palate change halfway through an evening. Hot Spiced Sake

Mezcal Warmer

Smoky mezcal with warm orange juice, agave, lime and a whisper of chilli tincture. Short, spirit-forward and with a long finish. The most modern drink here and the one least likely to appear on anyone else’s list. Mezcal Warmer

The alcohol-free options

A warm alcohol-free drink should be built as its own recipe, not as the same drink with the spirit left out.

Alcohol-Free Hot Toddy

Strong black tea with honey, lemon, fresh ginger and cinnamon. It keeps the structure of a toddy, with tea and ginger supplying the warmth the whisky would have. Seven minutes. Alcohol-Free Hot Toddy

Hot Apple Gin 0.0

The 0.0% twin of the original, built to the same apple-and-spice balance rather than assembled as an afterthought. Useful when half the table is driving. Hot Apple Gin 0.0

Choosing between them

The three questions that decide it are how many people, how much time, and whether the drink is standing in for pudding.

For one or two people on a cold evening, the toddies are unbeatable: five to eight minutes, ingredients most kitchens already have, and no washing up beyond a glass and a spoon. For six or more, stop making drinks to order and move to the Spiced Rum Punch or a mulled drink, both of which hold at low heat while you do something else. For the end of a meal, the chocolate and coffee section is the whole answer, and one drink each is usually plenty.

There is also a question of intensity. Jägertee and Mountain Grog are strong drinks that were designed for people who had spent the day outdoors in the cold. Served indoors after dinner they can be overwhelming. The Hot Cognac Toddy or Hot Spiced Sake suit a warm room far better.

If you are buying for a winter of these rather than a single evening, four bottles cover almost everything on this page: a blended Scotch, a dark rum, a brandy or cognac, and a bottle of good dark chocolate’s worth of cocoa. Honey, lemons, cinnamon sticks and cloves do the rest.

Where to go next

If mulled drinks are what you are really after, mulled wine and mulled apple cider are the two to learn, and our glühwein alternatives guide covers what to serve when you want the ritual without the red wine.

For serving a crowd rather than a glass at a time, see batch serving warm cocktails. And if you are still deciding what belongs on the list at all, what is a winter cocktail is the place to start.