The 5 Cold-Weather Cocktails We're Making This Holiday Season

The directions of a cold cocktail recipe (1. Add ingredients to the shaker with ice. 2. Shake. 3. Pour) are a lot like this very paragraph: often ignored, but deemed absolutely necessary by the higher ups at the Food Media Factory. The same cannot be said for drinks served above room temperature. Warm cocktails—like mulled wine, hot buttered rum, and this Spiced Apple Pie cocktail—deserve step-by-step instructions because, well, they require actual cooking. And timing. And precision. All of which pays off, when you’re sipping something hot, strong, and fully delicious, like any of these five cold-weather cocktails.

1. Dead Rabbit Irish Coffee

Community member Fiveandspice puts it best, “If you're going to make an Irish coffee, you may as well make the version of Irish coffee from the bar that has been named best bar in the world—NYC's The Dead Rabbit.”

2. Glogg (Mulled Wine Punch)

Admittedly, I rarely mull wine because the drink’s ingredients list reads like a terms and conditions contract. While this hot wine punch from Erik Lombardo certainly has its fair share of inputs, the majority of them are already in your pantry—making Glogg much less of an undertaking.

3. Hot Buttered Rum

Per recipe developer John deBary, the main idea behind this drink is, “the harmony of the butter and rum, cushioned by brown sugar, with hot water providing the space to expand.” Which, to me, translates as: Yes.

4. Dirty Chai Toddy

After testing this recipe, former Food52 editors left the following note: “This starts out as a fragrant and mildly indulgent chai—it's made with half-n-half—and then right before serving you sling in some espresso and bourbon, and suddenly it's a drink with purpose and conviction.”

5. Spiced Apple Pie Cocktail

Anything that involves simmered apple cider, whiskey, warm spices, and whipped cream is destined to become a crowd favorite. It also helps that the drink’s called “Apple Pie Cocktail”—because that’s just…fun.

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What's your favorite cold-weather cocktail? Let us know in the comments below!