9 Olde-Timey Holiday Drinks to Whip Up This Winter

Whether the holidays are a time for you to host a party for friends and family or snuggle under a blanket in front of a roaring fire, history provides plenty of wintery drinks to accompany the activity. This season, why not whip up a cocktail (or mocktail) from days gone by? Here’s a list of festive, olde-timey libations that you can enjoy while celebrating the holidays and ringing in the new year. 

1. Hot Brandy Punch
2. Eggnog
3. Mulled Cider 
4. Apple Toddy
5. Mulled Wine 
6. Hot Lemon Flip
7. Hot Spiced Rum
8. Bishop à La Prusse
9. Grandmother’s Cherry Bounce 

Hot Brandy Punch

Punch is a party classic, and this hot version from the 1884 book The Complete Bartender by Albert Barnes is perfect during the colder months. For each serving, simply mix together a wine glass-full of cognac brandy and half a wine glass-full of Jamaica rum with two tablespoons of white sugar and half of a sliced lemon. Pour the drink into a large bar glass and fill to the top with boiling water, then sprinkle with a grating of nutmeg.

Eggnog

A glass of this rich and delicious Christmastime treat never goes out of style. Eggnog has been tied to the holidays since the 1700s, and the story goes that George Washington was a fan—he even perfected his own super-boozy recipe. If you’re making a batch for a group this holiday season, Tom Bullock’s 1917 book The Ideal Bartender offers a helpful recipe for a three-gallon bowl. It starts with beating the yolks of 20 eggs until thin, then stirring in 2.5 pounds of bar sugar (a.k.a superfine sugar). Next, pour in 1.5 pints of Jamaica rum and two quarts of “old brandy.” While adding in milk to taste, stir the ingredients in the punch bowl to  prevent curdling, then fold in the stiffly beaten whites of the 20 eggs. You’ll need a ladle to serve this showstopper of a drink.

Mulled Cider 

A winter favorite, mulled cider closely resembles a historical English roasted apple drink called wassail. It works well as a non-alcoholic winter warmer. A recipe from a century ago suggests sweetening each quart of fresh cider with four tablespoons of granulated sugar in a saucepan, then adding a cinnamon stick and tablespoon of whole cloves tied in a cheesecloth bag. Bring the spiced cider to a boil, then serve in heat-proof glasses.

Apple Toddy

Toddies are ideal for those cold and frosty nights—but this famous wintery drink has its origins in the warm climes of British-occupied India. The hot toddy (from the Hindi word tari, meaning “palm sap”) is typically comprised of alcohol, hot water, sugar, and spices. The 1913 cookbook Dishes & Beverages of the Old South by Martha McCulloch-Williams shares a recipe for an apple toddy. It calls for six large, cored, unpeeled apples, which are to be baked until tender in a covered dish. After baking, the apples should be combined in a large bowl with ginger, mace, and cloves along with “six lumps of Domino sugar for each apple” and a quart of boiling water. After it stands for 15 minutes, add a quart of “mellow whiskey” and let it sit for 10 more minutes. Serve in big goblets with an apple or half of one in the bottom and filled to the top with the alcohol. A dash of nutmeg would not be unwelcome.

Mulled Wine 

This Christmas classic dates back to the 2nd century CE, and you can make it with any kind of red wine that you have on hand. In the second edition of the Barkeeper’s Manual, published in 1910, author Raymond E. Sullivan suggests using claret wine, the English name for several dark purplish-red blends from Bordeaux. For each full glass of wine you should add a teaspoon of sugar, juice from half a lemon, a few cloves, and some ground cinnamon, then add to a saucepan and heat. “Keep it on the fire until it boils,” Sullivan writes, “then pour it through a strainer into a glass.”

Hot Lemon Flip

If you’re taking a break from alcohol, the “Temperance Drinks” section of the 1896 book Drinks Of All Kinds For All Seasons by Frederick Davies and Seymour Davies has you covered. To make this lemonade-like mocktail, simply beat an egg with a tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar in a tumbler, then fill up with hot water and flavor with “the essence of lemon.”

Hot Spiced Rum

For a warming and satisfying tipple, look no further than this recipe in The Mixicologist (1895) by C. F. Lawlor. The recipe calls for combining a scant teaspoon of powdered white sugar, a teaspoon of whole cloves and allspice, a wine glass-full of Jamaican rum, and a piece of “sweet butter as large as half a chestnut” in a warmed, medium-sized bar glass. The sugar should be dissolved first in a little boiling water, and once the other ingredients are added, the glass can be filled to two-thirds full of more boiling water.

Bishop à La Prusse

In his book The Ideal Bartender, Bullock outlines this decadent recipe, which starts with roasting six large oranges until they are light brown. Scatter a half-pound of granulated sugar over the cooked fruit, and then pour a pint of port or claret wine over everything. The whole mixture should be covered and set aside for 24 hours for the flavors to blend. Then, right before serving, set the whole dish in boiling water and press the juice from the fruit with a potato masher or the back of a spoon. Finally, strain the juice and liquor from the pan, combine with another pint of boiling wine or port, and serve warm in wine glasses. 

Grandmother’s Cherry Bounce 

It’s never too early to start planning your holiday menu for next year, and to make this drink from Dishes & Beverages of the Old South, you’ll need the time—and two whiskey barrels. One clean barrel should be filled with very ripe Morello cherries and wild black cherries plus 20 pounds of sugar. Mace, whole cloves, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg sprinkled over the fruit give this drink a flavor profile that is evocative of winter. Then, “cover the fruit an inch deep with good corn whiskey,” writes McCulloch-Williams, “the older and milder the better.” Cover the barrel with a cotton cloth and let it stand for six months in a warm and dry place before racking into another clean barrel to ferment six months longer. After that, the liquor can be bottled.

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