How to warm up with winter cocktails

There’s more to hot cocktails than dodgy mulled wine. Take the chill off with these winter warmers, all simple to make and absolutely delicious to taste. And if you do go for the traditional mulled wine, make sure it’s the good stuff. Try our latest must-have ingredient for festive cocktails: Christmas Mulled Cup by Professor Cornelius Ampleforth – you’ll never have dud mulled wine ever again.

The King’s Winter Cup

30ml The King’s Ginger
20ml cloudy apple juice
100ml apple cider
Cinnamon stick to garnish

Method:
Add all ingredients into a pan. Simmer on a gentle heat for 30 minutes then serve. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Hot Mulled Sloe Gin

50cl Sipsmith Sloe Gin

50cl cloudy apple juice

50cl water

Cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks

Slice or two of orange or satsuma

Method:

Pour the cloudy apple juice and water into a saucepan. Add a few cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks if you have them, plus a slice or two of orange or satsuma. Let this simmer covered on low heat for about 20 minutes. Add Sipsmith’s Sloe Gin and let it warm back up to a simmer. Serve in tea cups, mugs or Irish whiskey glasses, garnished with a half slice of orange and/or a cinnamon.

Recipe by Jared Brown.

Rekordernogg

200-250ml Hot Rekordelig Winter Cider
30ml dark rum
20ml sweet sherry
10ml sugar syrup
3 dashes Angostura aromatic bitter
1/2 egg

Method:
Add first five ingredients into a pan. Whisk in egg. Heat pan on a stove, stirring gently. Pour into a tankard. Dust with ground cinnamon and serve with a candy cane and star anise.

Hot Apple Toddy

50ml Drambuie
150ml pressed apple juice
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
20ml sugar syrup
25ml lemon juice
2 orange twists

Method:
Heat all the ingredients in a pan, except for the Drambuie. Add the Drambuie to a teacup or latte glass with a handle, then strain in the warm apple juice mixture. Garnish with a lemon slice and cinnamon stick.

The Piping Hot

30ml Rigg’s blackberry and raspberry spirit (available from thedrinksshop.com)
200ml apple juice
10ml lemon juice
10ml maple syrup

Method:
Shake all ingredients except apple juice in a shaker without ice then strain into a small tankard. Warm the apple juice in a pan then pour over the Rigg’s, lemon juice and maple syrup. Garnish with an apple fan and/or cinnamon stick.

Christmas Mulled Cup (serves 8)

1 bottle of good quality, fruity red wine
50ml (or more to taste) Professor Cornelius Ampleforth Christmas Mulled Cup (available from www.masterofmalt.com)
65g granulated sugar

Method:
Add all ingredients into a pan. Heat, stir gently and serve.

The Cocktail Lovers say:

If you don’t fancy getting the pan out, pop down to Reform Social & Grill for its mulled wine pop-up cart parked outside the hotel. Each day between 3pm and 8pm shoppers can enjoy a festive tipple for a very modest £3.50 a cup – well worth noting if you’re in or around Bond Street.
Reform Social & Grill, Mandeville Hotel, Mandeville Place, W1U 2BE. reformsocialgrill.co.uk

This week we’re loving

There’s nothing like getting personal. Particularly at Christmas. If you’re looking for a gift for the whisky lover in your life, treat them to a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. It’s a given that they’ll love the rich toasty notes and bold, verging on feisty character of the hand selected, hand bottled single barrel Tennessee whiskey but they’ll be equally impressed with the personalised message you can choose to have engraved on the side and front of the bottle. Available exclusively at The Whisky Exchange, priced £44.95. thewhiskyexchange.com

As featured on The Independent, Dish of the Day blog 12/12/2013

The Cocktail Lovers

The Cocktail Lovers are Mr G and Ms S, a man and a woman who share a passion for cocktails. (We also happen to be married, so we’re cocktail lovers in more ways than one…)