It’s this time of the year again. Cold weather, rare sunshine, fog, and, quiet honestly, all you want is to stay in your pj’s and never leave bed. However, it’s not a perfect day off during winter without tasty, addictive hot drinks. I’ve always been the kind of person who can’t stick to a recipe either because I don’t have all the inquired ingredients (I mean who has anyway?) or I don’t like what’s written on the list. Hence the stuff I prepare always turns out to be a crossing of recipe and freestyle - but miraculously it always results not that bad at all.
This winter I’ve been running nuts on hot punch and whatever fruit juice I have, it will end as negus. Simple as that. The only thing you have to make sure is to take NFC juice (juice not from concentrate) it is so much tastier, cleaner and healthier. Moreover I discovered that spices such as sticks of cinnamon or anise are not just for decoration and being gawked at but can be used as real spices! Incredible, isn’t it?
Wintery hot drinks are not only pleasant for the stomach, your frozen hands and doing well for aesthetic pics on Tumblr, Instagram or whatever platform you prefer, but also they’re quite the room scent as well as put you in a cozy mood.
My choice fell on wassail (hot punch), mulled wine and cinnamon-coffee-chocolate. They’re really easy to do, are quite healthy and taste amazing (that’s not just my opinion but also the one of my friends who I got sloshed). I also put alcohol into most of the drinks but that’s of course optional though I must say it really blends perfectly with the fruit juice and I used it in a decent dose thus you won’t die from it. I promise.
In case you still don’t want any alcohol you could skip the Whisky in the punch and substitute the red wine with grape juice though the taste will be different. BLGB’s Spicy Mulled Wine
I have prepared mulled wine just once and the one time I did it I had about five recipes but abandoned them really quickly. Usually if you buy mulled wine on Christmas fairs they taste strongly of wine and many people aren’t really too fond of that. My recipe is definitely one for people who don’t like mulled wine. They will definitely grow to like it. Of course it is also meant for already mulled wine supporters and lovers.
You’ll definitely love this recipe.
Prep: 5 min
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: super easy and requires no skills at all (foolproof)
Servings: 6
Ingredients
750ml red wine (dry)
750ml orange juice (NFC)
1 organic orange
1 organic lemon
3 cinnamon sticks
4 cloves
1 vanilla pod, halved
1 ½ tbsp cane sugar
1 tbsp honey
Method
Pour the red wine into a cooking pot and add the orange juice.
Slice the orange and the lemon into thin discs. Add the fruits and the spices to the orange juice – wine mixture.
Boil up the wine mixture and then leave it to draw on the stove for at least one hour. Add the honey and the sugar after 15 minutes.
Heat the mulled wine before serving, keeping the spices and fruit discs in the whole time. Serve it hot and steaming.
Apple meats Highlands Punch (Apple Whisky Punch)
Last fall and this winter I’ve somehow been running on punch. When I find a fresh fruit juice then you’ll find me seconds after at the stove with fruit juice boiling in a pot in front of me. I’ve tried it before with apple, orange, grapefruit and wild berries before. It’s super easy, tastes amazing and is fast to prepare.
Prep: 5 min
Time: 20 min
Difficulty: super easy
Servings: 5 (but if you love it, it is never enough)
Ingredients
750ml apple juice (NFC)
250ml water
200ml (more or less to one’s own taste) Scotch whisky from the beautiful Highlands (can be replaced by regular Whiskey but it won’t be the same, folks)
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 organic orange
2 cinnamon sticks
5 cloves
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp honey
Method
Pour apple juice into one large cooking pot and add water and lemon juice.
Slice the orange into discs and add it to the juice-water mixture together with the cinnamon sticks and the cloves.
Boil up the punch and take it from the stove.
Add the honey and the ground cinnamon and let the punch rest for 15 minutes.
Before serving add the Scotch and serve the punch warm.
Cinnamon-Coffee-Chocolate
It’s no secret that I am slightly (understatement of the century) addicted to coffee. Since I like to try something new every so often I mixed cinnamon and chocolate into my coffee and it turned out to taste great.
Prep: 7 min
Difficulty: easy
Servings: 1
Ingredients
200ml soy milk (optional, you can choose whatever milk you prefer)
100ml coffee
1 tbsp chocolate powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
A glug of Baileys Irish Cream
Method
Add the chocolate powder and the ground cinnamon to an empty, large mug.
Heat up the milk and pour it into the prepared mug.
Add hot coffee and optionally a glug of Baileys.
The recipes are really easy to make so don’t worry if you’re usually lacking of cooking skills. Everything will be fine.
All you need now is to wrapped yourself into one fluffy blanket, sprawl on a settee and sip your warm drinks. Enjoy!
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