By DCist contributor Nathan Wilkinson
As a bartender, I know winter’s here when customers start asking for hot toddies and Irish coffees. Hot drinks are often the refuge of the sick who console themselves that it’s the warmth—not the alcohol—that makes them feel better. Otherwise, they’re a convenient way to disguise an alcoholic beverage as coffee in an innocent looking mug. Let’s face it, hot drinks have a mixed reputation. But this year, restaurants are going all out to create seasonal cocktails for those who like it hot.
The winter bar at Poste Modern Brasserie (555 8th Street NW) is open Thursday through Saturday with a fire pit for roasting s’mores, hot drinks and area heaters to keep guests warm. Head bartender James Nelson has put a new spin on three old favorites: a hot cider drink, the hot toddy, and the Mexican cocoa. “I knew I wanted to do a salted caramel cider, and I played around with Calvados for the liquor before I settled on dark rum,” Nelson says of his Appleton of My Eye. He starts the drink with a boiling pot of heavy cream, brown sugar and salted cider, and completes it with Appleton VX rum and a caramel coated apple slice. “They’re very popular,” says Nelson. “Last Saturday we sold about eighty of them. We had to start batching them to have enough.”
The Holy Mole is an aptly named drink that smothers Milagro (Miracle) Silver tequila in dark cocoa powder spiced with vanilla and cinnamon. The miracle is that you can still taste the spicy, dry tequila through all the bittersweet flavors. Then there is Maple’s hot toddy with Nelson’s own cedar bitters, which are like a tincture of bourbon and real wood. “I cut up cedar planks with a hack saw…burned them with a torch and soaked them in a jar of bourbon and bitter cinchona,” Nelson says. Hot tea, Maker’s Mark, and maple syrup round out this delectable drink.
My search for original cocktails sometimes takes me to unlikely places, but I’m glad I stopped at Mandu (453 K Street NW) for a hot drink you won’t find anywhere else. Bartender Nikki Annan invented The Hot Stuff by joining hot vanilla almond milk, Bengal-spiced tea and pear puree for a non-dairy rum and Grand Marnier winter warmer. Annan says she hit upon the recipe through experimentation: “At first I wanted to do a vodka drink with vanilla bean and pear juice, but it wasn’t working. So I went with something dark, like Meyers rum.” The alcoholic tea and pear base is steeped overnight in vanilla almond milk to lock in the fruit flavor before it is strained. The result is perhaps my favorite hot drink of the season for its originality and light creaminess that goes well with Mandu’s Korean cuisine.
I can’t write about hot drinks without at least mentioning the variety you will find at McCormick and Schmick’s (901 F Street NW and 1652 K Street NW). (Full disclosure: I used to bartend at one of their locations, but the mere fact that they have five hot drinks on the menu year-round is nothing short of dedication.) The dessert cocktails range from the ordinary—Irish coffee with Jameson, and Spanish coffee with brandy and Tia Maria—to the inspired: the Spiked Mocha, made with Stolichnaya Vanilla vodka, Chambord, cocoa, and coffee, topped with whipped cream. There’s also the Hot Apple Pie, a spiced cider drink with Tuaca and whipped cream, and the Millionaire Coffee with equal parts Bailey’s, Frangelico and Kahlua.
Whether I am at a bar or at home, my go-to hot drink is easy to make with a little rum and a few things found in the kitchen. Here’s what you need to make a Hot Buttered Rum:
• 2 oz. dark rum
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 pat of butter
• Boiling water
• 1 dash cinnamon
Pour the rum in a coffee mug and add brown sugar. Pour boiling water over the mixture until the mug is three quarters full and stir. Add butter and dust it with cinnamon.
