Warming Winter Drinks From Around The World

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‘Tis the season to be merry, as the saying goes, and we couldn’t agree more.

Getting merry on a winter warmer is part of the fun during a time of year that’s otherwise swathed in eternal darkness and soaked in dreariness. Perhaps that’s why we love all these winter drinks so much.

But yes, let us get merry, perhaps even a little tipsy, as we take a look at winter drinks from around the world, including where to drink them and what on Earth’s in these brews anyway.

Christmas Rum Punch

Although the ingredients vary from recipe to recipe for this heady concoction, the basic directions are to take a bit of Christmas, a bit of rum, and then punch yourself in the throat. At least, that’s how you’ll feel afterwards. If you want to keep it wholesome, head to Martha Stewart’s website for a Christmas Rum Punch recipe.

Where to drink it:

Most likely your office Christmas party, where its obligatory that whatever you drink has the word Christmas in the title but nobody knows what it is.

Manhattan

The origins of the Manhattan are contentious, but the only thing that can be agreed upon is that this yowzer originated somewhere in Manhattan. The mix of whisky, sweet vermouth and bitters is likely to warm any system, but after seven of them your system might start falling apart completely. Check out this Manhattan recipe for an extremely fine example indeed.

Where to drink it:

If you’re on Third Avenue in the borough that gave the Manhattan its name, get yourself a cheeky one in PJ Clarke’s. The bar has been serving Manhattans for over a hundred years to the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra.  

Eggnog

Famous for being thicker than a Yule log, eggnog is almost a drinkification of the Christmas season – it’s sweet to the point of sickliness, has way too many calories, and everybody’s ramming it down your throat all the time. And yet, also like Christmas, it still manages to remain awesome.

Where to drink it:

There are plenty of excellent examples of this gooey milky eggy syrupy stomach liner, particularly around the USA. Fusspots that we are, we like the idea of making your own at the State and Lake Tavern in downtown Chicago.

Hot Buttered Lemonade

The first non-alcoholic drink on our list (and the last!) turns people’s love for lemonade and butter into a surprisingly tasty treat. It’s the closest you can get to drinking a lemon tart.

Where to drink it:

A soft drink, you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for this one. Our recommendation is to simply demand the staff of whichever restaurant, bar or laundrette you happen to be in makes it for you on the spot. Here’s the recipe so you can give them directions.  

Pear Brandy Sidecar

Sidecars always have lemon juice and brandy in them, but the pear brandy variety has a thick gooey pear element that will perk you up by the log fire. Be warned though, you may not be ready for a drink this deliciously syrupy. While there are a few variations out there, we like the ratios in the ‘perfect’ version.

Where to drink it:

Any cocktail bar worth its salt will sort you out with a sidecar.

Hot Toddy

The Hot Toddy is the cure-all for what ails you – it’s popularly recommended as a night cap to those feeling the wintery chill and wanting to sweat out any seasonal bugs. But this multi-talented star makes an excellent drink at any hour with its lemony sugary kick and clove aftertaste.

The Hot Toddy is considered a base drink and has inspired a few variants out there, such as Esky’s Hot Spot which uses Irish whisky instead of scotch, and nutmeg instead of cloves. Our favourite is the Maple Syrup Toddy which, as the name implies, is a suitably Canadian affair. You can get maple syrup everything in Canadian cities, but you can also get this toddy south of the border, for example in Washington DC at Poste Brasserie.

Peppermint Schnapps Hot Chocolate

If you enjoy mint choc chip ice cream during summer, then it’s inevitable that you’ll want to savour a peppermint schnapps hot chocolate, sometimes known as a Peppermint Patty. Anybody who doesn’t like its combination of mint and chocolate is likely to end up in a psychiatric ward because they’re failing to integrate into consensus reality. Perhaps that explains the name Mad Monk, a variation which includes coffee.  

Irish Coffee

You can Irish up most drinks if you want to by adding a spot of proper Irish whiskey. Tea, that can be Irish. Lemonade, sure. Cola, obviously. Beer, if you like. Even water can be improved. But the drink most synonymous with getting Irished up, and probably the classiest, is coffee. A proper Irish coffee not only has a shot of good whiskey, but a fine layer of cream on top, giving the illusion of a pint of Guinness. That’s how you can tell it’s all Irish.

Just about every pub and bar will attempt to serve at least a half-decent Irish coffee, but we recommend heading to Ireland itself to do it properly. The drink was invented in Foynes, a small town that played an important part in trans-Atlantic aviation history. If you order one in the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, it’s like you’ve gone back to the 1940s. Otherwise head to the Buena Vista in San Francisco, the first bar in the USA that exported the Foynes speciality and made it their own – they reputedly make 2,000 a day! You can find their recipe on the Buena Vista’s website. If that’s not your thing, maybe try a hip modern version somewhere in the city that never sleeps. The Dead Rabbit in NYC has a cool name and a cool recipe to go with it.

Candy Cane Cocktail

The most garishly-Christmassy cocktail on our list has no official ingredients other than a seasonal candy cane, hence the name. That being said, if you like your cocktail sweeter than a bunny playing with a puppy, then whatever the recipe on offer, you’re sure to enjoy it whether your bar steward is making it with vanilla rum or strawberry vodka. We would never advocate both though… At least, we don’t think we would. You can make up your own mind by checking the recipes from Martha Stewart, Betty Crocker, Pop Sugar and the Food Network.

Whisky Mac

Way better than your teetotal Apple computer, the Whisky Mac has been raising temperatures since it was invented by a commanding officer in the British Raj. Equal parts malt whiskey and green ginger wine makes an excellent winter warmer, with some people adding a dash of hot water to cement the fact.

Where to drink it:

Any pub with a log fire is ideal for a whisky mac. If you want to keep it Scottish, you can’t go wrong with the Blue Blazer pub in Edinburgh.

Bacon, Bourbon and Hazelnut Hot Chocolate

Meat, booze and chocolate in one convenient mug. Essentially, this cocktail enables you to bypass all your meals and instead maintain a liquid diet throughout the holiday season. We don’t recommend you do this at all, as it’s extremely dangerous, but what are you, chicken?

Bombardino

The Bombardino is an Italian skiing favourite, combining equal parts brandy with eggnog or Advocaat. The name is a summing up of how the drink hits you like a bomb.

Where to drink it:

On the ski slopes of the Dolomites, of course. It’s the go-to drink in places like Cortina where being seen and the good life manages to take precedence over the glorious ski runs that surround it. You could always head to Suaze in the Alps too. If that’s too far for you, Honest Cooking’s recipe is accompanied by some suitable snowy photos.  

Tom and Jerry

Dark rum, brandy, hot milk and a raw egg – from that list of ingredients, you can probably see how the drink truly evokes the cat-and-mouse tomfoolery of the cartoon Tom and Jerry…. If so, can you tell us how? We’ve no idea.

Where to drink it:

The Pegu Club in Manhattan’s SoHo area is one of the best places to sample it on the US east coast. Otherwise, the drink is a Mid-Western favourite and readily available around states like Wisconsin.  

Hot Milk Punch

There are a lot of different ideas about what a milk punch is these days. Right now, the New Orleans version is very fashionable, featuring in plenty of mustard-cutting bars in New York. This type of milk punch involves adding lime juice to separate the milk into curds and whey and then tossing the curds, leaving a translucent drink that many people can’t quite believe is still allowed to have the word ‘milk’ in the title. If you’re in Brooklyn, Forrest Point in Bushwick does a mean version of this milk punch as well as a host of other cocktails.

  As swish as that sounds, that type of milk punch is rarely served warm and takes days to prepare – you’ve been spending long enough on the turkey and stuffing as it is. If you’re going DIY, we recommend going nice and easy – brandy and rum, or simply bourbon, with hot milk, dusted off with nutmeg or star anise. It makes an excellent eggnog substitute too if you can’t be bothered to make that either!  

Mulled wine

One of the most popular drinks in winter has to be mulled wine. The general idea is about heating red wine with spices and fruit, but just about every country has their own version. For example, the Czech Republic has Svarene Vino, Moldova has the peppery Izvar, and Turkey has their super sweet Sicak Sarap. Poland likes mulled wine so much, they even serve mulled beer there, otherwise known as Grzane Piwo.

  There is one type of mulled wine that is truly synonymous with winter: gluhwein. The reason that German winter markets are so popular is almost solely down to the appeal of the stuff. It’s like mulled wine, but German, hence more efficient and more in control of the EU than your regular warmed up glass of red.

Where to drink it:

The Christkindlmarkt in Nuremberg is the most famous weihnachtsmarkt in the world, so you know they’ve got to have some stellar gluhwein to boot. But every winter market will have some variation, even Winter Wonderland in London’s Hyde Park.  

  But our favourite type of mulled wine is the Scandinavian version. Glogg has to be the most powerful mulled wine out there, what with its addition of vodka, or brandy, or rum, or bourbon, or everything in the drinks cabinet at once. It’s what treacherous Prince Hans hands out during Arrendelle’s Ice Age in Frozen. Top tip: don’t use glogg to quench your thirst – your brain will end up as mulled as the wine.  

(Feature image: marco monetti)