Recipes
Five Winter Bourbon Cocktails Worth the Effort
Hot toddies done properly, a spiced old fashioned, and the milk punch you make the night before.
Wyatt Brennan
Head Bartender, The Cellar at Bourbon & Oak
Summer bourbon drinks are about lengthening and cooling — soda, citrus, ice. Winter drinks work in the opposite direction. You are adding warmth, weight and spice, and the risk is different too: heat and sugar will flatten a delicate whiskey far faster than a highball ever could. The five below are built so the bourbon still has something to say when it arrives.
A note on bottle choice before you start. Do not open your best bottle for anything served hot — above roughly 60 degrees Celsius, ethanol carries the aromatics off before they reach you, and the nuance you paid for evaporates. A dependable, characterful bourbon in the 90 to 100 proof range is the right tool here. Save the allocated bottles for a Glencairn and a quiet room.
1. A Hot Toddy That Is Not Just Hot Whiskey
Most toddies fail for one reason: boiling water. It scalds the honey into flatness and strips the whiskey. Bring the kettle off the boil and let it stand two minutes — around 80 degrees Celsius is the target. The drink should be hot enough to warm your hands through the glass, not hot enough to sip immediately.
Recipe
Proper Hot Toddy
Serve in: Heatproof glass mug, pre-warmed
Ingredients
- 60 ml bourbon, 90 to 100 proof
- 15 ml honey syrup (2 parts honey to 1 part warm water)
- 10 ml fresh lemon juice
- 90 ml hot water, off the boil and rested 2 minutes
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cloves stuck into a lemon wheel
Method
- Fill the mug with hot tap water and let it stand while you measure; discard before building.
- Add honey syrup and lemon juice to the warmed mug and stir to combine.
- Add the bourbon, then the hot water, and stir once.
- Drop in the cinnamon stick and float the clove-studded lemon wheel.
GarnishClove-studded lemon wheel and a cinnamon stick
Honey straight from the jar will sink and never integrate. Making honey syrup first takes thirty seconds and is the difference between a balanced drink and a sweet layer at the bottom.
2. Spiced Maple Old Fashioned
The winter version of the classic swaps sugar for maple and adds a little baking spice. Maple is sweeter than demerara by volume and much more assertive, so use less than you think. This is a drink where a high-rye bourbon earns its keep — the pepper cuts through the syrup rather than drowning in it.
Recipe
Spiced Maple Old Fashioned
Serve in: Rocks glass, one large cube
Ingredients
- 60 ml high-rye bourbon
- 7 ml Grade A dark maple syrup
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1 dash orange bitters
- 1 wide orange peel
- Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Method
- Add maple syrup and both bitters to a mixing glass and stir to loosen the syrup.
- Add bourbon and fill with ice. Stir 25 to 30 seconds — longer than a summer stir, since maple needs the dilution.
- Strain over one large cube in a chilled rocks glass.
- Express the orange peel over the surface, rub it around the rim, and drop it in.
GarnishExpressed orange peel and a light grating of nutmeg
Grade A dark has the caramel depth this needs. Grade A golden is too delicate and disappears entirely.
3. Bourbon Milk Punch, Made the Night Before
This is the one that looks like effort and is not. Milk punch is bourbon, sugar and dairy left to curdle deliberately, then filtered — the milk proteins pull out harshness and colour and leave behind a whiskey that is silky, clear and almost impossibly smooth. It keeps for weeks in the fridge and makes you look like you know what you are doing.
Recipe
Clarified Bourbon Milk Punch
Serve in: Small chilled coupe
Ingredients
- 350 ml bourbon
- 250 ml whole milk
- 120 ml fresh lemon juice
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, split, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 orange
Method
- Combine bourbon, sugar, vanilla and orange zest in a jar and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Warm the milk gently to about 40 degrees Celsius and pour it into a large bowl.
- Pour the bourbon mixture into the milk, then add the lemon juice. It will curdle immediately — this is correct, do not stir it back together.
- Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours, ideally overnight.
- Strain through a coffee filter set in a sieve. The first pass runs cloudy; pour that back through and let it drip without pressing. Expect an hour or more.
- Bottle and keep refrigerated. Serve cold in a chilled coupe, no ice.
GarnishNone — the point is the clarity
Do not squeeze the filter to speed it up. Pressing pushes proteins through and clouds the whole batch. Patience is the entire recipe.
4. Mulled Bourbon Cider
The drink for a crowd. The mistake almost everyone makes is boiling the bourbon along with the cider, which drives off the alcohol and most of the flavour. Mull the cider with the spices, take it off the heat, and add the whiskey last.
Recipe
Mulled Bourbon Cider
Serve in: Heatproof mug
Ingredients
- 1 litre cloudy apple cider
- 240 ml bourbon
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 star anise
- 6 allspice berries
- 1 orange, sliced into wheels
- 2 tbsp dark brown sugar, to taste
Method
- Combine cider, spices, orange wheels and sugar in a saucepan.
- Bring to a bare simmer and hold for 20 minutes. Do not let it boil.
- Remove from the heat and let it stand 5 minutes so the temperature drops below scalding.
- Stir in the bourbon off the heat and serve immediately.
GarnishOrange wheel and a star anise floated in each mug
Serves six generously. If it must be held warm, keep it on the lowest possible setting and add the bourbon by the mugful rather than to the whole pot.
5. Bourbon Hot Chocolate for Grown-Ups
Real chocolate, not powder, and a pinch of salt. The salt is not optional — it is what keeps this from reading as a dessert and lets the bourbon come through.
Recipe
Salted Bourbon Hot Chocolate
Serve in: Heatproof mug
Ingredients
- 45 ml bourbon
- 200 ml whole milk
- 40 g dark chocolate, 70%, chopped
- 1 tsp dark brown sugar, or to taste
- Generous pinch of flaky sea salt
- Lightly whipped cream, unsweetened
Method
- Warm the milk in a small pan until steaming but not simmering.
- Off the heat, add the chopped chocolate and sugar and whisk until fully melted and glossy.
- Whisk in the salt, then the bourbon.
- Pour into a warmed mug and top with a spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream.
GarnishFlaky salt over the cream
Unsweetened cream matters. Sweetened cream on top of sweetened chocolate leaves no room for the whiskey at all.
A workhorse bottle like Eagle Rare 10 Year or a bonded whiskey at 100 proof will carry all five of these comfortably. The extra proof is genuinely useful in winter drinks — it survives dilution from melting ice, hot water and cream in a way that an 80-proof bourbon simply does not.
Tagged
Common Questions
Frequently Asked
- What bourbon should I use in winter cocktails?
- A characterful bourbon at 90 to 100 proof. The extra strength survives dilution from hot water, melting ice and cream, where an 80-proof bourbon disappears. Save allocated or delicate bottles for drinking neat — heat drives their aromatics off before you taste them.
- How hot should the water in a hot toddy be?
- Around 80 degrees Celsius — off the boil and rested about two minutes. Boiling water scalds the honey flat and strips the whiskey of aroma. The drink should warm your hands through the glass rather than be too hot to sip.
- Can you make bourbon milk punch ahead of time?
- Yes, and you should. It needs at least six hours of curdling before filtering, and it keeps refrigerated for several weeks. Filtering cannot be rushed — pressing the coffee filter pushes milk proteins through and clouds the whole batch.
