Drinks
These Spiced Gin Cocktails Will Warm You From the Inside Out
For the holiday season, and beyond.
Winter temps are dropping, so we’ve teamed up with NOLET’S Gin to bring you warming, gin-based cocktails to enjoy during the colder months. Crafted with real botanicals and over 330 years of Nolet family experience, NOLET’S Silver Gin is a bar-cart essential.
When the winter nights get long, I relish the opportunity to spend time indulging simple comforts at home. That might mean braising short ribs on the stove, baking a loaf of pumpkin bread, or making some cozy cocktails that I can sip while I’m cooking. It’s also the perfect time to get reacquainted with warm wintery flavors and spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and maple, which fill the house with holiday joy.
Winter is an ideal season for gin, too—it’s an aromatic, full-bodied spirit that makes me feel instantly cozy. I particularly like NOLET’S Silver Gin because its floral and fruit-forward botanicals (think: rose, peach, and raspberry) marry so well with a variety of seasonal spices to create well-rounded, delicious drinks.
What Makes A Warming Winter Cocktail
While there are plenty of drinks that are hot in temperature to imbibe in the wintertime—from hot toddies to hot chocolate—warming cocktails can also come in cold forms. Warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and coriander are not only flavorful and festive, they actually increase your internal temperature so they make you feel physically warmer. They’re easy to incorporate into a wintry cocktail by creating a spiced syrup with sugar and water, mixing with a tea, or by mulling into apple cider or wine. Below are two warmly spiced cocktails for you to try this season.
Spiced Gin Sour
Sours are one of my favorite types of cocktails because they contain a bit of everything I like in a drink: booziness, tartness, and creaminess. The inclusion of egg white may seem a bit intimidating, but I like to think of it as a perfect time to practice your bartending skills at home. Simply crack the egg white into a separate bowl to prepare, and make sure to add it to your shaker last so that you can start shaking immediately.
While a whiskey sour may be the more traditional preparation, I love this Spiced Gin Sour for winter. It’s incredibly warm and cozy, perfect for sipping fireside before dinner. I use whole cardamom pods, lightly crushed, to create a cardamom syrup, which has a striking floral quality that teases out the rose notes in NOLET’S Silver Gin. And adding the egg white makes the drink feel extra luxurious.
Maple Gimlet
Maple syrup may not seem like a traditional winter spice, but we all know and love this classic flavor. It’s great on pancakes, or in holiday treats. It’s also the perfect flavor agent for this gin-based cocktail, bringing the right balance of sweet and spice. When maple syrup is paired with the real botanical flavors of NOLET’S Silver Gin and offset with just a bit of lime juice, it makes for a surprisingly comforting drink you’ll love drinking all winter long.
Our friends at NOLET’S Gin can help you get cozy this holiday season with a warming drink in hand, whether it’s a spiced gimlet or a boozy mulled cider. Nolet Distillery crafts its spirits like NOLET’S Silver Gin with care and 11 generations of expertise. NOLET’S Silver Gin is made with floral and fruit-forward botanicals making it perfect for mixing festive sips.
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