Hot drinks for Spring? Yes please!
“April is the cruelest month,” once wrote T.S. Eliot. “Breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”
And this April might be the cruelest on record. This is the weirdest spring that I can remember. In years past about this time, I have put together my spring wine roundup featuring the light, bright white wines perfect for warm, sunshiney spring days. That, or a roundup of rosé wine. Or sparkling wine. Or spritzes. Or sours. Well, not this spring, apparently. Looking out my window, it’s overcast and dark, and the forecast calls for even more rain. Those light, bright wines and sweet/sour cocktails will all just have to wait.
Just for context, the Kentucky Derby is this weekend. And Cinco de Mayo is right behind it. But mint juleps or margaritas on a rainy day? It just seems wrong.
To that end, I’ve assembled a trifecta of taste, blending three classic hot cocktails with nontraditional updates.
The first is an updated version of a classic bull shot, which was originally a bloody mary, substituting beef bouillon for tomato juice, with vodka, stock, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco, and it was served either hot or cold. In fact, in the 1960s, Campbell’s Soup had an entire marketing campaign built around drinking beef bouillon poured from the can and served over ice.
Whiskey and coffee might be the most traditional cold-weather combo, exemplified best by Irish coffee (first invented for stranded American tourists at Dublin’s airport and then popularized by San Francisco’s Buena Vista Cafe). But a good second choice is a spicy spiked version of another American classic: hot cocoa. And what better to spike it with than good old classic American rye whiskey?
The third entry is a take on hot apple cider. Applejack, a type of apple brandy, used to be one of America’s most prominent spirits featured in such classic cocktails as the Jack Rose and the applejack sidecar. These days, it’s hard to find. But, luckily for us, nearby Sonoma County is known for its apples, and several local producers make their own wonderful versions of apple brandy. In fact, Gravenstein Highway, a designation on California State Route 116, is so named because it was once lined with Gravenstein apple orchards.
And don’t worry, spring will get here eventually. It always does.
Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com
Recipes
Hot Bull Shot
Ingredients
1 ½ ounces Alamere Spirits’ Espelette Chili Vodka
6 ounces hot water
1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon beef base (or one beef bouillon cube)
1/4 teaspoon hoisin sauce
1 dash Chinese five-spice powder
2 dashes Sol Food’s Pique hot sauce
1 star anise
1 beef jerky stick
Directions
Combine the first six ingredients in a heat-tempered serving mug and stir until completely dissolved. Garnish by submerging the star anise and by placing the jerky stick across the top without submerging it.
Note: This is a take on Vietnamese pho broth. Chinese five-spice powder varies in intensity, so use according to taste. Chinese seven spice is not five spice with two additions; it’s a completely different spice blend.
Spiced Hot Chocolate with Ported Rye
Ingredients
2 ounces Sausalito Liquor Co.’s Unsinkable Rye
6 ounces warm milk or milk substitute
1 teaspoon Ghirardelli Hot Cocoa Mix
Whipped cream for garnish
1 cinnamon stick
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 brandy-soaked maraschino cherry
Directions
Combine the first three ingredients in a heat-tempered serving mug and stir until completely dissolved. Float whipped cream on top. Spear foam with a cinnamon stick and top with a cherry. Lightly dust with cayenne.
Note: The port finishing of the Unsinkable rye whiskey gives this hot chocolate a wonderful sweetness. If substituting another whiskey, try and find one that’s also port wood-finished.
Apple Jasmine Hot Cider
Ingredients
2 ounces Sonoma Brothers Distilling’s Apple Brandy
5 ounces hot water
1 ounce apple juice
¼ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 jasmine tea bag
1 cinnamon stick
1 orange slice
Directions
Combine the brandy, hot water, apple juice and lemon juice in a heat-tempered serving mug. Add a tea bag and steep for 30 seconds. Remove the tea bag and garnish with a cinnamon stick and orange slice.
Note: Flavored tea bags are especially convenient for making liquor infusions due to their consistency.