Dark, chilly evenings and festive flavors set the stage for seasonal drinks like snifters of bourbon and warming mugs of hot toddies. While we love those, we’re always eager to shake it up, playing with recipes that transport us to bars and restaurants throughout the South. From brown spirits and steamy drinks to sparkling cocktails and pretty punchbowls, these winter cocktails make us feel warm and fuzzy all season long.
Chilled Cocktails and Winter Warmers
This cocktail uses a cider-tea mixture as its base before boozing it up with Tennessee-made Blue Note Bourbon. The recipe here serves one, but you could easily double or triple it to make a batched punch.
“Grog” in traditional terms refers to a warm beverage made with rum, lemon, sugar, and spice. This version from Off the Record in Washington, DC gives St-Germain a wintry update with scotch and an orange-spiced simple syrup.
This isn’t your child’s hot chocolate. Powdered hot cocoa mix gets a kick from a splash of moonshine, but the addition of a little cream makes this drink rich and palatable.
This apple-and-spice punch makes an easy set-it-and-forget-it drink when hosting guests—or just yourself. Combine the ingredients into a slow cooker, set it on low heat, and have a winter warmer at the ready.
Call us predictable, but nothing sets the mood for the holidays like a punchbowl of eggnog. This recipe yields about eighteen servings, so it can sustain family and friends throughout all the festivities.
While not a cocktail, per se, this batch of vanilla-and-spice booze provides an at-the-ready solution for spiking ciders, punches, eggnog, and toddies with holiday-appropriate flavors.
This wine cocktail recipe is highly riffable. Feel free to experiment with cabernet or zinfandel in addition to merlot. For the fruit syrup, you could complement the red wine with a sweet raspberry syrup or contrast it with a citrus syrup.
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Hannah Lee Leidy
Hannah Lee Leidy is a food writer and editor based in the Carolinas. She is currently the digital content editor for Our State magazine, a position she came into following her time at The Local Palate. Her contributions have appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Epicurious, Culture, and Eater. She’s spent time working in restaurants in both front and back of house positions, doing everything from burning gateaux to expediting to shaking a Manhattan (don’t worry, this only happened once). An avid curd nerd, her favorite beat is reporting on boutique cheese makers; she’ll sniff out every creamery near and far whenever traveling. When not parenting a Bernese mountain pup named Ava, you’ll find her running or working on her lamination technique.
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