Christmas Morning Coffee

 

I've been doing a lot of coffee and hot cocktails since making my own liqueurs this fall season. The Christmas morning idea came to me when I considered all the things that you find in holiday spiced coffee blends: cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, and chocolate. These ingredients spice up your coffee and make for a holiday treat, but the real rewards come from treating yourself.

I used two spirits to flavor the coffee and add alcoholic punch. The first is MurLarkey's cinnamon whiskey, which is unsweetened cinnamon-infused white whiskey. The cinnamon flavor is natural and very intense. For sweetness and natural ginger rounded out in American brandy, I used my homemade ginger syrup with Korbel brandy. Together, these spirits make up the base of this coffee drink.

Next, grating chocolate and orange zest on top of whipped cream transforms this ordinary cup of coffee into the scents and flavors you find in stocking-stuffer delicacies. It's all part of the holiday experience and a great way to greet the morning on a day of celebration.

• hot black coffee
• 1 oz. ginger brandy (homemade used)
• 1/2 oz. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey
• grated dark chocolate
• grated orange zest
• whipped cream

Add spirits to a cup of black coffee. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle chocolate and orange zest on top. 

Flavored Holiday Coffees

 

Mocha mint and eggnog coffee are a rich treat on cold days. We spend a boatload on these concoctions as soon as the holiday season comes around because they fill us with nostalgia. The thing is, we can make them at home very cheaply.

It's easy to flavor your coffee with liqueurs that give them a holiday flair. Just like syrups you find at coffee shops, liqueurs add  and create interesting flavors, but they also add alcohol. Whipped cream and sprinkled toppings are actually easiest of all the steps and create the feeling of escape from your daily coffee routine.

Advocaat Eggnog Coffee (top)

• 1 oz. advocaat (homemade advocaat used)
• coffee 
• whipped cream
• fresh ground nutmeg

Add advocaat to a cup of regular coffee and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle the whipped cream with nutmeg. 

Mocha Mint Coffee

• 1 oz. white creme de menthe or peppermint schnapps
• 1 oz. creme de cacao (white pictured)
• whipped cream
• grated dark chocolate

Add liqueurs to a cup of regular coffee and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle the whipped cream with chocolate. 

Pumpkin Spice Irish Coffee (Original Recipe)

 

Pumpkin spice is really a kitchen sink approach to spicing deserts: it includes ginger, cloves, cardamon, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon. You can buy this mix of spices or you can assemble them from your spice rack if you have one that is well stocked. The other way you can get spice in your coffee cocktail is to use flavored liqueurs. 

Cinnamon whiskey, while it is not a new item anymore, is a relatively recent way to add spice with your booze. It's not just for shots, that is. By comparison, allspice dram is an old way of preserving tropical spice in liquid form; it is basically rum cooked with sugar and allspice. Together these two liquors make up most of the flavors found in pumpkin spice. 

The rest you can sprinkle on top or work into whipped cream. This is a quick and dirty pumpkin spice recipe. Get creative, get inspired, get... Well, with whiskey in your coffee, quick and dirty is just an easy way of deciding Friday morning is part of the weekend. 

• 1 oz. cinnamon whiskey (MurLarkey cinnamon used)
• 1 oz. allspice dram
• 5 oz. of hot black coffee
• cream and sugar to taste
• pinch of ground and dried ginger
• pinch of ground nutmeg

Build the drink with liquors in a coffee mug. Fill with black coffee, add cream and sugar to taste and stir. Sprinkle additional spices on top.

Irish Tea

Black tea is used in many hot winter cocktails. This makes a lot of sense, because it warms whatever liquor you use and often the flavor of the liquor provides a sweetness that makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

But what if the point of the liquor is to taste like the tea? What if it tastes so much like tea that you almost can't tell that the tea is spiked?

MurLarkey makes this really cool three tea whiskey (so new it's not on their website yet) that infuses white whiskey with Darjeeling, Earl Grey and English breakfast teas. It makes a great breakfast cocktail that goes perfectly with toast and jam. The Irish enjoy especially strong black tea, and I recommend it as the namesake of this boozy breakfast drink.

• 5 oz. hot Irish breakfast tea
• 1 oz. MurLarkey three tea whiskey
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 oz. milk (warmed)

Combine all ingredients in a teacup and stir. 

Mocha Mint Latte

This is an improvised hot drink for the winter season, a hot version of the Mocha Mint that was so successful in combining the same flavors in a cocktail glass. If you like a latte, though, this is unbeatable.

I used MurLarkey cocoa whiskey for its real cocoa nibs infusion in whiskey. This is the brunt of this drink besides hot coffee, which is plenty flavorful on its own. Then just a bit of white creme de menthe (really sweet stuff) that negates using sugar.

Just a note: I have a ton of failed chocolate curls that I was able to garnish the whipped cream with. If you don't, just grate some chocolate on top. This was especially decedent, as it should be.

• 1 1/2 oz. chocolate liqueur (MurLarkey cocoa whiskey used)
• 1/2 oz. white creme de menthe
• 4 oz. hot coffee
• whipped cream
• chocolate shavings

Warm chocolate liqueur and creme de menthe in a mug. Top with coffee and garnish with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. 

Santa's Helper

Forget Eggnog! Santa needs his coffee. This is a free-form cocktail I went with when trying to make a richly spiced and creamy coffee drink for the holidays.

It's not everyday you can get a hot cocktail with both cinnamon and coffee flavors to play well together. MurLarkey Distillery's flavored whiskeys are not sugared down or made with artificial flavors. There's just coffee and cinnamon soaking in whiskey. The flavor is intense, so you have to add sugar to taste and measure carefully, because a little goes a long way.

But that's a good thing when it comes to home bartending. I love it when a dash does as much work as an ounce. That's the case with Santa's Helper. The small amount of cinnamon whiskey is plenty to give your coffee spice. And when you are adding whiskey to coffee, you might as well use coffee whiskey with real, intense cold brew coffee. It blends so well together, you'll feel like you had it made by a barista at a fancy coffee shop.

• 1 1/2 oz. MurLarkey coffee whiskey
• 1/2 oz. cinnamon whiskey
• 2 tsp. sugar syrup
• 4 oz. hot black coffee
• whipped cream
• ground cinnamon

Combine coffee and cinnamon whiskey and sugar syrup in a small sauce pan and warm on low heat. Add it to a warmed coffee mug and top with hot coffee. Top with whipped cream and dust with ground cinnamon. 

Hot Swedish Punsch

This hot black tea cocktail is perfect for winter with its clove and cardamon spices and exotic rums. Swedish Punsch is a Scandanavian treat that was once available commercially worldwide, but now can only be found in its home country. The Hot Punsch is simply that, heating and serving the liquor hot. But if you have to make this drink from scratch as I did, there are a lot more steps to it than that. You'll need Batavia Arrack.

Batavia Arrack is one of the main ingredients in many punches of yesteryear. It is difficult to come by, but it is finding its way back to prominence with the cocktail and punch fad of late. Once you have it and some gold rum you can make the recipe that I posted a while back.

Now it is simply a matter of heating the entire punch and serving it in warm mugs with a lemon slice garnish. I did a nifty clove studded lemon slice that worked out nicely.

Tom and Jerry

It's not the overtly violent kids cartoon of analogue television days. The Tom and Jerry is a hot Eggnog drink that dates back to the 1820s. The idea is intriguing. Eggnog is quintessentially Christmas, when it comes to drinking. But in the winter, at least in most places, a hot drink is desired. Tom and Jerry meets both needs.

The trick, which this recipe addresses, is making a hot milk/ egg cocktail without turning it into a hard boiled mess. Some of that involves separating the egg and heating the milk with sugar. I can't explain why beating a yolk separate from the white helps, but someone came up with it and who am I to second guess them. The drink came out pretty good, too.

• 1.5 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum used)
• 1 oz. brandy
• hot milk
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 egg separated
• grated nutmeg

Warm milk with sugar in a saucepan on low heat, stirring occasionally. Separate the egg yolk from the white and beat them. Pour brandy and rum into a warmed mug. Recombine eggs with the spirits and whisk. Pour in hot milk and sugar mixture and whisk. Top with grated nutmeg.

Negus Punch

The term "Negus" is archaic and refers to Ethiopian royalty back at a time in Europe when Ethiopia represented the exotic. And you can see why this royal hot punch is equated with the "Orient" with its use of cinnamon, clove, allspice and nutmeg. It is certainly a treat fit for a king.

The recipe in the New York Bartender's Guide circa 1997 serves 10 to 12, but this is not an especially strong punch and really just extends a single bottle of ruby port into hot water diluted portions. Much better is the mix of spices and the presentation of making the punch in a pitcher as the directions state.

You can, of course make a single serving following a scaled down version of the recipe. Do this with 4 oz. of port, 2 cloves, one lemon twist, 1/2 allspice grated, 1 cinnamon stick and more sugar than you think. Keep the water portion under half a cup.

• 1 bottle ruby port
• zest of one whole lemon
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 8 sugar cubes
• 1 whole crushed nutmeg
• 7 whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
• boiling water 

Put lemon zest, spices and sugar in a large pitcher. Add enough boiling water to dissolve the sugar while stirring. Add the port and stir well, you may wish to keep the mixture warm to allow for the spices to mull. Just before serving add 2 cups of boiling water. Serve in heat-resistant punch mugs or coffee mugs.

Night Cap

The original home remedy for sleeplessness is warm milk. The Night Cap (probably originating as a home remedy given its name) suggests how much better this drink would work with a little rum. Of course you could use any light rum for this drink since nutmeg and milk are the primary flavors, but this is a colonial drink. It stands to reason that a colonial rum is the best and most classic option.

I love how the funky and sweet Buzzard Point colonial rum from District Distilling Co. makes this drink taste more old fashioned. The colonial rum is made with panela sugar, which tastes a little woody because it comes from fresh pressed sugarcane. Made this way, the Night Cap a great holiday warmer of a cocktail and a joy to sip on by the fireside.

• 2 oz. light rum 
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• warm milk 
• freshly grated nutmeg

 Pour rum and syrup into a heated coffee mug. Fill with warm milk and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Locomotive

The Locomotive is an old world hot cocktail in the style of English mulled wine or the Rumfustian, which is a hot dark beer and egg drink with a similar texture. This drink is really savory with a rich red wine like a Zinfandel. The heated egg adds a thickness that the liqueurs and cinnamon seem to cling to. I wanted to show that the lemon slice, if it remains on the surface keeps the cinnamon close to the drinker's nose, which is a great effect when sipping this hot holiday-style mulled wine.

This drink was the perfect opportunity to showcase Luxardo spirits, which are of better quality than those bargain liqueurs. Here are the maraschino cherry and triple sec.

• 6 oz. dry red wine
• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur (Luxardo used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. honey
• whole egg
• lemon slice
• powdered cinnamon

Warm red wine, liqueurs and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the honey dissolves, but do not boil. In a separate container, beat the egg and add it to the heated mixture stirring quickly for about a minute. Pour into a warm coffee mug, add the lemon slice on top and sprinkle it with cinnamon.

Amaretto Coffee

Another simple drink, taking a liqueur like amaretto and dumping it into a cup of coffee, becomes more elegant with spice and whipped cream. Dress up an everyday almond-syrup tasting coffee with a quality amaretto like Lazzaroni Amaretto can feel like an especially decadent treat.

Ground coriander on whipped cream lends a whiff of dried citrus to the nose of this special drink. The whole experience feels appropriate for the holidays when we expect to find richer and more extravagant drinks. This recipe does all of that right.

• 1 1/2 oz. amaretto
• 8 oz. hot black coffee
• whipped cream
• ground coriander (optional but recommended)

Add amaretto to a warm coffee mug. Fill with hot coffee and stir. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle coriander on the whipped cream topping.

Cafe Diablo

 
The Devil's coffee is fiery, spicy and black. That's the point of the Cafe Diablo. It is a punch that serves four people and should be made in a medium sized punch bowl. Warming the brandy, curacao and Cointreau a little and lighting it on fire to scorch the cinnamon, cloves and coffee beans before adding the hot coffee will excite your guests and possibly start a fire in your dining room. But oh, well! That's the price you pay for messing with the Devil.

The other point is to achieve an orange-like aroma in a black coffee drink that is pleasing if not too strong on liqueur. You don't even need fresh fruit. The burned liqueurs do all the work.

Besides the fire issue, you may also have trouble finding four people who can agree to drink the same drink. These days, everyone wants to be the man out. Between arguments over decaf versus regular, and hot and cold punches, you're probably better off just using 1/2 oz. of brandy and 1 oz. of orange liqueurs, reduce the number of cloves and cinnamon sticks significantly, and make a single cup of coffee. Here's to drinking your hot drink alone.

•  2 oz. cognac
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. white curacao
• 16 oz. black coffee
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 8 cloves
• 6 coffee beans

Put all ingredients except coffee in a chafing dish and warm contents on low, direct heat. Ignite (and really keep your face and limbs away from the dish. This stuff burns brightly with intense heat. Have a long spoon for stirring and hot coffee at the ready to extinguish the flames.) Add coffee and stir until the flames are out. Pour into warm coffee mugs. Serves four.

Hot Milk Punch

There are lots of Milk Punches: from bourbon, to brandy, to gin. But there is only one Hot Milk Punch, and this one calls for blended whiskey. I like how the whiskey adds vanilla to an already sweetened milk drink. Then there's that thing that happens when the fat from the milk solidifies into a sweetly spiced skin as you drink down into the mug.

This is a great bedtime cocktail that is soothing in winter. It is also a great way to try a whiskey that maybe lacks character when had on ice. Warm booze is easier to taste, and a very vibrant whiskey when it is cold can be overpowering when it is hot. Stick with bargain blends for this hot punch.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey
• 8 oz. milk
• 1 tsp. sugar
• cinnamon stick
• grated nutmeg

Warm all ingredients except nutmeg and cinnamon stick in a saucepan on medium heat. Do not boil, but stir until well heated and pour into a warm coffee mug. Dust with nutmeg and stir with cinnamon stick. 

Gluhwein

Gluhwein is a traditional German drink made in large batches and served at those popular Christmas market squares during the holiday season. Many an Alpine skier can receive this warming beverage in the slopeside lodges.

This is a milder hot wine drink, the Germans would say fit for children and adults. Compared with British mulled wine with brandy and the Swedish Glogg with fiery akvavit, it is pretty tame. But it does warm you in more than one way.

This recipe is designed for a single serving, but make a bottle or two of it by increasing the proportions. 

• 6 oz. dry red wine
• lemon peel
• orange peel
• cinnamon stick broken in pieces
• 5 whole cloves
• pinch grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp. honey

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan on medium heat and stir until honey is dissolved. Do not boil. Serve in a heated coffee mug. 

London Dock

Londoners are fond of hot spiced wine cocktails in the winter. This hot drink is popular among these, with a good gob of dark rum to situate it perfectly among the docks where sailors to the Caribbean islands come and go.

Pusser's British Navy rum is an excellent choice for this hot drink because of its British nautical heritage and rich wooden still flavor that is noticeable under all that wine and spice.

• 3 oz. dry red wine
• 2 oz. dark rum (Pusser's British Navy used)
• 1 oz. honey
• cinnamon stick
• grated nutmeg 
• boiling water

Dissolve boiling honey in boiling water at the bottom of a warm coffee mug (Check my London mug!) Add rum, red wine and nutmeg and top with boiling water. Use the cinnamon stick to stir. 

Mulled Wine

A tradition in the British Isles, a hot Mulled Wine is part of any Anglo holiday celebration. This drink is pretty much a hot punch with wine being the main ingredient, but port, brandy, and honey are there for sweetness and the selection of spices is there for flavoring.

• 6 oz. dry red wine (Ravens Wood zinfandel used)
• 1 oz. ruby port
• 1 oz. brandy
• 1 cinnamon stick
• grated nutmeg to taste
• 3 cloves
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Warm, do not boil, while stirring and pour into a warm coffee mug. 

Glogg

Glogg is a Swedish hot wine drink with lots of booze and tasty roasted snacks served in it. It differs from English mulled wines in having akvavit in it, as well as port, and the raisins and nuts that are cooked in it are left in the mug to be eaten with a small spoon. 

This recipe is strong and meant to serve 10, but feel free to make an individual portion. One tricky thing about the large recipe is how to scorch a pound of sugar cubes over a steaming pot of potentially combustible liquor. It is logistically hard to do over such a large surface (using a mesh screen of some kind, the recipe says.) It is also dangerous, as lighting a bottle of high test akvavit is likely to blow you right out of the kitchen and burn your house down. I'm not kidding!

Better and safer to put sugar cubes on spoons over individual servings. That way the fire is small in size and can be enjoyed by each person who gets a glass of Glogg.

• 2 bottles of dry red wine
• 1 bottle of brandy (cognac please)
• 1 pint or 16 oz. akvavit (also spelled aquavit)
• 25 cloves
• 20 crushed cardamom seeds
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 2 oz. dried orange peel
• 2 cups blackened almonds
• 2 cups of raisins 
• 1 pound or 16 oz. of sugar cubes 

Braise almonds in a large kettle for several minutes and allow to cool Add all other ingredients with brandy being the last to prevent fire. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Using a mesh strainer over the kettle, spread the sugar cubes over the liquid and coat them with akvavit. Ignite and let the sugar and allow it to melt into the kettle. Stir again and serve in heated mugs. (Alternatively, ignite several sugar cubes over each individual mug with a good helping of akvavit.)

Cafe Brulot

Brulot refers to a coffee cocktail served with liquor and certain spices. The term is French comes from Quebec. It also means a scathing (scorching?) report, and is used to describe a fire ship, a ship loaded with explosives and set on fire to be directed toward an enemy fleet.

It's very fitting when referring to this most fiery cocktail. The liquor, spices and sugar are set fire before being extinguished by coffee. The effect is a nice charred flavor imparted to the liquor and coffee, like burned spices.

It goes without saying that making a Brulot is dangerous. Hot liquor on a stove can combust at any time and it will spread quickly as evaporation is causing more alcohol vapor to leave the liquid and ignite. This is part of the fun, but part of the danger as well. Make this your first drink of the evening, just to be safe.


This recipe makes 6-8 servings:

• 8 oz. cognac (Remy Martin 1738 used)
• 2 oz. curacao
• 32 oz. black coffee
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 12 cloves
• 2 lemon peels
• 2 orange peels
• 4 sugar cubes (8 small cubes)

Combine cinnamon, cloves, fruit peels and sugar in a saucepan. Stir in cognac and curacao and warm on medium heat. Ignite the mixture and allow it to burn for several seconds, carefully stirring with a long spoon (bar spoon recommended). Slowly fill with coffee and stir while the flames are extinguished. 

Mulled Cider

This cider drink is the quintessential hot mulled cider cocktail. It is colonial and rich, with gold rum, cider and spices. While you can make it with any brown spirit and cider, there's something about the old world taste of rum that clinches it.

Interestingly enough, "gold rum" does not denote a particular category. It refers vaguely to the color of the rum, which may be lighter or darker depending on age and blending. To prove this point, Cruzan labels all their rums, light, gold and dark as simply aged rum. The color, not the label is the only visible difference between them and is a result of the blending decisions. In fact, gold rum is created by blending light and dark rums--but it also may contain caramel as a cheap way to achieve the color of an aged rum.

I blended Cruzan aged rum with the very dark Pampero Venezuelan rum. Both are aged and contain no added caramel. You can chose to blend yourself, or open a bottle of brownish (not-spiced) rum to go with your home-spiced cider.

• 2 oz. gold (aged blended) rum
• 6 oz. apple cider
• 1 tsp. honey
• cinnamon stick
• grated nutmeg
• lemon peel

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until well heated but do not boil. Pour into a heated coffee mug.