Caution: a glance out the window today might provoke a dangerous bout of Déjà vu. It’s the middle of winter term, and many of us were on the cusp of spring-break daydreams of drinking piña coladas and getting caught in warm tropical rain. Unfortunately, it seems we’ve regressed to the end of fall term, and the snowy doldrums of winter have reeled us back in. But don’t despair and let the snow ruin your evening, instead see it as an opportunity to whip out your wool socks, comfy sweaters, perhaps pop ”Cool Runnings” into the DVD player (in honor of the Sochi Olympics) and whip up one your favorite winter cocktails served piping hot. And if this does the trick, perhaps you can head to the bars later and make someone else make them for you. If you need a refresher on how to make them, here it is:
The infamous Hot Toddy
Ingredients:
1 oz. brandy, whiskey, or rum (the 1 oz. is a subjective one).
1 tbsp. honey
1/4 lemon
1 cup hot water
1 tea bag (preferably mint but you can improvise)
How to make it:
First drizzle honey into a mug, then add teabag and hot water; then add the lemon; then season to taste with your liquor of choice and enjoy.
Hot Buttered Rum:
Ingredients:
1 small slice soft butter
1 tsp brown sugar
Optional spices: ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, allspice
A pinch of vanilla extract
2 oz. dark rum
Hot water
How to make it:
Put the butter, sugar and spices at the bottom of a mug, or an Irish coffee glass if you want to be classy, and then mix them together. Pour the rum and water, stir them together until you see fit and then enjoy.
Baileys and Coffee
Ingredients:
1 cup of coffee
1 oz of Baileys Irish Cream
Whipped cream
How to make it:
It’s pretty self-explanatory folks, but here it goes: mix them together and enjoy.
Spanish Coffee
Ingredients:
1-2 ounces rum
1-2 ounces coffee liqueurs (Kahlua, Amaretto, Cointreau or homemade coffee liqueur)
Roughly 3 oz. of coffee
Lemon juice to rim the glass
Sugar or brown sugar to rim the glass
A few pinches of ground cinnamon and nutmeg
Whipped cream
Hot to make it:
Perhaps the most complex of the group, but also the most rewarding. First rim the glass with lemon juice and the sugar, and then add together the rest of the ingredients in whatever way you see fit. And then, yes, enjoy.
For more on today’s snow day click here.