Sunday, March 02, 2008
Food, Wine, Beer & Spirits
Fire in the belly
Hot drinks for chilly nights
CREDIT:Alex James Bramwell
Warm yourself from the inside out with a hot drink.
Hot Toddy
- ½ to 1 tsp. sugar or honey to taste
- 1 shot (or more) of your liquor of choice
Stir, and then drop in a lemon wedge, three cloves and a cinnamon stick.
Add hot water (or hot tea, hot cider), and sprinkle with nutmeg.
Serve in a mug or tempered glass.
Add two dashes bitters and a squeeze of lemon juice to create the Hot Rum Sling.
Hot Rum Cow
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
- 1 1/2 oz. light rum
Fill with hot milk.
Add nutmeg sprinkle.
Serve in a tempered glass.
By Jason Tesauro and Phineas Mollod
Despite Atlanta’s recent spate of mild winter weather, temps still drop into the 30s at night, making enclosed porches and smoking decks a mandatory three-blanket zone. Forgo the kerosene. In lieu of battery-powered socks and hand-warmer packs with their exothermic chemical reactions that keep your digits toasty, wouldn’t you like a hot-buttered diaphoretic in your high ball to induce a little sweat on a March night? Read on for reasons to add “boiling water” to your seasonal bar’s list of active ingredients.
According to CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,” “Ethanol causes vasodilation, which produces a brief ‘warming’ sensation that interferes with peripheral vasoconstriction, the physiological defense against cold, while also inducing hypoglycemia.” As they warn, unattended children, persons older than 65 and the under-scarved partygoers of East Atlanta are also at greater risk for hypothermia and unrelated liver disorders.
Yes, in the end, alcohol speeds heat loss from the skin and the extremities. Yet, the real bonus is if you drink enough, you will no longer be able to feel the cold’s harsh effects while waiting for your car’s floor heater to warm up. So, what are the best nips that can foster hot cheer to a cool body shivering to the organs? Let us go beyond the rare splendor of a bracing tequila shot that shoots warming cactus love down the gullet, and even past the classic snifter of brandy, which, when swirled, provides an olfactory singe and a belly burn that delights, especially sitting in finely upholstered armchairs and wearing something silk. On to the hot toddy.
A hot toddy is a simple concoction, with a few ingredients and variations to suit the crowd and encourage spice cupboard imagination. Begin with the liquor of your choice: whisky, brandy, rye, rum, Drambuie, bourbon or applejack. Then, add a couple lumps of sugar (or dollop of honey), toss in a cinnamon stick, cloves and a lemon wedge. Top with boiled water, and sprinkle with freshly grated nutmeg (creative types might spear the lemon wedge with the clove for an eye-catching effect). Serve in a mug or, even better, a tempered Irish coffee glass that can take the heat. For additional flavor, in place of hot water substitute hot tea, hot apple cider or, for dairy fans, milk and bitters for a hot-milk punch. Incidentally, an experienced tippler is never boxed-up and brandy-faced on rich, creamy drinks; despite your sweet tooth (or liver), do not overindulge and thereby earn surefire sugar-high, upset-milky belly hangover.
Lastly, the well-known hot-buttered rum, made by mixing white rum, sugar and hot water, along with spices and a floating pat of butter, is an oil slick to beware of. As liquor authority David Embury once noted, “Hot spiced rum without the butter is bad enough, but the lump of butter is the final insult. It blends with the hot rum just about as satisfactorily as warm olive oil blends with champagne!” SP
Phineas and Jason are the authors of “The Modern Gentleman” and “The Modern Lover.” E-mail them at booze@sundaypaper.com.