The Best Winter Cocktails to Make This Season

There is a particular pleasure in a well-made winter drink: the warmth in your hands, the smell of spice, the sense that the cold has been kept firmly outside. Below are the cocktails we think are most worth your time this season, grouped by the mood they suit. Each links through to a full recipe.

The everyday classic: Hot Toddy

If you make one winter drink, make a hot toddy. Whisky, honey, lemon and hot water, it is soothing, quick and endlessly adjustable. It is the drink for a cold coming on, a wet walk home, or simply the end of a long day.

The festive centrepieces: Mulled Wine and Glühwein

Nothing fills a home with Christmas quite like a pan of mulled wine or its market-stall cousin, glühwein. Both are red wine warmed gently with citrus and spice; both are made for sharing. They scale beautifully, which makes them the natural choice when people are coming over.

The after-dinner treats: Irish Coffee and Spiked Hot Chocolate

When the meal is done, turn to an Irish coffee — hot coffee and whiskey under a float of cream — or a properly thick spiked hot chocolate. Both sit happily between drink and dessert.

The modern serves: warm, spirit-forward and ready

Winter drinking hasn’t stood still. Alongside the classics, lighter spirit-forward serves have become a fixture — warm gin-and-apple drinks such as Hot Apple Gin among them — offering an alternative for anyone who finds mulled wine too heavy. Our glühwein alternatives guide explores these in full.

Where to go next

Hungry for more? Browse the full recipe collection, pick a drink by occasion, or read up on the ingredients that define the season.