Winter Drinks



The Traditional Hot Toddy

The hot toddy was created in Edinburgh to disguise the flavor of low-quality Scotch (before the Scots perfected their distilling process) and takes its name from the local water supply, known as Tod's Well:

  • 2 oz. Scotch whisky
  • Add boiling water to taste
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 4 sugar cubes

(Today’s Toddy is any combination of a spirit, a hot liquid and a sweetener.  Mulled cider is a traditional toddy.)

These should appeal to experimental drinkers:


Chai Toddy

  • 1½ oz. spiced rum
  • 1 dash peppermint schnapps
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • 4 oz. hot tea


Chicory Toddy

  • 1½ oz. rye
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 4 oz. hot chicory


Blue Blazer

A real treat for Scotch aficionados.  To Make Blue Blazers for 4 -

Equipment:

  • 2 pint-sized metal mugs with handles and flaring rims
  • Fresh ginger muddled with maple syrup
  • Stir with bitters and ice

Ingredients:

  • 1 bottle of cask-strength single-malt Scotch, such as Laphroaig, the Glenlivet Nadurra, or the Macallan
  • 4 tsp. Demerara sugar or Sugar in the Raw
  • 4 1-inch strips of thinly-cut lemon peel

Procedure:

  1. Clear all flammable materials from the mixing area.
  2. Lay down some damp cloth napkins for the spills.  There will be spills.
  3. Put a pot of water on to boil.
  4. Prepare 4 espresso cups by putting a teaspoon of sugar and a strip of lemon peel in each.
  5. Pour ½ cup of boiling water into one of the metal mugs.
  6. Quickly add 5 oz. whisky.
  7. Light this with a long match or grill lighter.
  8. Pick up both mugs and carefully pour ¾ of the contents of the flaming one into the other.
  9. Now pour ¾ of that back into the first mug, from a greater distance.
  10. Repeat 4 or 5 times, increasing the distance each time, all the while talking nonchalantly about how Jerry Thomas used to make these back in old San Francisco.
  11. Finally, pour all the liquid into one mug, and from there fill the 4 espresso cups.  These should be flaming as well.
  12. Use the bottom of one mug to snuff whatever's on fire - i.e., the other mug, the cups, the table, your shirt, the cat, etc.
  13. Stir the contents of each cup to dissolve the sugar, and serve.

Immerse the mugs in cold water between drinks.


Amaretto Sour

Amaretto is Italian for "a little bitter", and the bitter-sour combination works really well:

  • 1½ oz. Amaretto
  • 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • ½ oz. simple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon of egg white

(Don't buy sour mix - make your own.  Although the pre-made mix tastes okay, fresh ingredients turn this cocktail into a completely different drink; and the egg white - added to the other ingredients and shaken, as with any sour - keeps the foam there until the last sip.)


The Corpse Reviver II

The name of this drink and the sinister mythology surrounding Absinthe make this the perfect Halloween libation:

  • ¾ oz. gin
  • ¾ oz. Cointreau
  • ¾ oz. Lillet Blanc
  • ¾ oz. lemon juice
  • 1 drop absinthe (or absinthe substitute, such as Pernod)

(The combination of orange and anise is deceptively smooth to drink, while the Lillet Blanc works as a digestif.)


The Sandbagger

One way to make this drink is like an Old Fashioned stirred in a tumbler.  Muddle the plums first and then drop some ice into the glass; add the sugar and bitters and stir until the ice starts to melt slightly.  Add the Cointreau and the sake slowly, still stirring:

  • 1 very ripe plum (skin on)
  • ½ oz. Cointreau
  • 3 oz. dry Sake
  • 2 dashes Fee Brothers' Peach bitters
  • ½ spoon sugar

(The combination of ripe plums, Cointreau, and peach bitters mellows the dry taste of the sake.  You can also serve it shaken and up in a martini glass, plums still muddled, although if you like pulp, you should make it the Old Fashioned way.)