There’s a moment every year — usually sometime in November — when the evening drops below a certain temperature and the whole character of the night changes. The windows fog up. The jacket you grabbed isn’t quite warm enough. And somewhere between the second deep breath and the walk to the car, you think: I need something warm in a glass.
I wrote a book about that feeling. It’s called Consuming Spirits: Yuletide Cheer & Fireside Favorites, and it’s a collection of cocktail recipes built for the colder months — warm, spiced, layered drinks designed to be the thing you reach for when the fireplace is lit and the evening is just getting started.
Every recipe in it started the same way: standing in my kitchen on a cold night, trying to figure out the right combination of warmth and flavor that could hold up to the season. Some of them took months to get right. A few of them arrived almost immediately, the kind of drinks that felt obvious the moment the first sip landed.
There’s a whole section on warm cocktails — not the kind that taste like a candle, but the kind that make you close your eyes and wonder why you ever drank them cold. Hot toddies rebuilt from scratch. Mulled wines influence by my gf’s time in Berlin. Spiked ciders and toasty concoctions inspired from visits to snow covered cabins in the California wilderness
The book hit #1 in New Releases for Wine & Spirits on Amazon — again — which was a lovely early Christmas present. (thanks santa)
So if you’re the type of person who starts planning holiday gatherings before Thanksgiving, who believes a drink should be as considered as the meal it accompanies, who thinks the best nights end with something warm and a good conversation — this book was written for you.
GRAB A COPY HERE.
Humbug!
— Clint