Try one of these tasty hot drink recipes to help you get warm on a cold winter’s day.

Sure, putting on a sweater can help keep the chill off, but partaking of hot drinks gets to the problem fast by helping you shake that chill from the inside out.

Whether you are looking for a quiet treat just for yourself, or a great idea to serve at your next social get together, try out these drink recipes. There’s a mix of adult beverages as well as ideas that are alcohol-free.

Hot Drink Recipes

1. Vegan Hot Cocoa – Everyone loves hot chocolate, but what if you are vegan? Sub out the milk for almond or coconut milk and make sure to use vegan sugar too (regular sugar may be bleached or filtered with bone char).
2. Irish Coffee – Traditional Irish Coffee is made with Irish whiskey, like Jameson, but you can make it a little more decadent by adding an Irish cream whiskey like Bailey’s.
3. Mulled Apple Cider – Add spices like cinnamon, allspice, and cloves along with orange slices to cider and simmer on the stove until warm.
4. Mint Tea with Honey – Add plenty of honey to Moroccan mint tea for a warm and sweet treat. It’s also very refreshing!
5. Hot Toddy – Add honey, lemon, and either bourbon, rum, or brandy to Earl Grey Tea for a classic.
6. Masala Chai Tea – One of my favorite hot drinks is Masala Chai Tea made from a blend of spices, black tea, and milk. Here is an easy recipe to make your own.
7. Mulled Wine – Make some mulled wine for your next holiday get together for a real crowd-pleaser. Here’s a simple recipe that is perfect for the holidays.
8. Minted Hot Chocolate Float – For a real treat, try this recipe for a mint hot chocolate that you can even top off with mint chocolate chip ice cream for a dessert treat!
9. Hot Buttered Rum – It might sound weird, but Hot Buttered Rum is amazing! Made with brown sugar, spices, butter, and a dark or spiced rum, it’s a great hot drink to enjoy while curled up with a good book after a long cold day.

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Image: Warm Drink via Shutterstock

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Fresh grapefruit and ginger are smart additions to your immunity-boosting winter diet. Paired together in a ginger and grapefruit cocktail recipe, these plant-based powerhouses help protect you from winter bugs and also keep you intoxicatingly refreshed.

Grapefruit is a low-sugar citrus fruit that provides a bounty of health benefits. In one cup of grapefruit juice there are 96 calories, 400 milligrams of potassium, 156 percent of the RDA of vitamin C, and 21 percent of the RDA of vitamin A. Its vitamin C content makes it effective at preventing the common cold, which is especially relevant during the winter. Grapefruit juice also lowers blood pressure, aids in weight loss, promotes a healthy heart, prevents cancer, improves digestion, hydrates the body, clears the skin, and prevents asthma.

Meanwhile, ginger brings a welcome buzz to the back of the throat and a boost in your overall health. The root decreases the risk of obesity and heart disease, improves digestion, suppresses nausea, reduces pain, and fights inflammation. It is a natural detoxifying agent, so is an excellent tool in keeping your liver robust and functioning at its finest. Ginger is also commonly used and praised for its positive effects on the immune system, helping to combat all sorts of diseases and illnesses that may creep up during the winter season.

The following ginger and grapefruit cocktail recipe brings together all of these incredible health benefits in one delicious and invigorating drink. Spiked with gin, the drink also fuels the soul with a crave-worthy buzz.

The recipe calls for basil leaves, but you can use fresh mint or any other fresh herb you have on hand. Enjoy!

Grapefruit Ginger Cocktail

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 2 thin slices of fresh ginger
• 6 basil leaves
• 2 ounces gin
• 8 ounces freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice
• 2-3 basil leaves for garnish
• 1-2 slices fresh ginger for garnish

Directions

Muddle the ginger and basil in a cocktail mixer. Add in the gin. Shake thoroughly. Strain the gin to remove the ginger pieces and basil leaves and then pour the gin into a tall glass filled with ice. Pour in the grapefruit juice. Serve with fresh basil leaves and a slice of fresh ginger.

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Grapefruit Cocktail Image from Shutterstock

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These 7 summer cocktail recipes are EcoSalon tested and approved. Don’t stick to your comfort zone!  Instead take advantage of delicious fresh and light seasonal produce and the many opportunities available to kick back outdoors. Enjoy!

7 Summer Cocktail Recipes

1. Kiwi Blackberry Summer Sangria

Traditional sangria is a summer staple, offering a sweeter and lighter take on red wine, which is otherwise best with heavier meals. This recipe for a summer sangria takes regular sangria to the next level, with oranges, lemons, limes, cranberries, strawberries and blueberries!

2. Moonshine Kombucha Cocktail

You don’t need seltzer water to get that bubbly! A hipster’s dream come true, this Moonshine kombucha cocktail recipe introduces vodka to kombucha, lemon, lime, ginger and bitters for a decidedly festive and summer-apropos outcome.

3. Pear Gin Cocktail

Sophistication just met its match. Whether you are sipping alone or seeking to entertain a small party with higher than average standards, take the time to add an extra step to the mixing process for the sake of this deliciously sweet poached pear gin cocktail. Its incredibly easy to put together!

4. Grapefruit Gin Fizz

Gin fizz is a classic cocktail made with lemon juice, carbonated water and gin. While this grapefruit gin fizz recipe was originally posted for Halloween, its components scream nothing other than summer itself, with grapefruit, honey and blackberry adding that sour and sweet dynamic your body craves!

5. Roasted Tomato Martini

Even a cocktail can satisfy you with your vegetable serving for the day (well, sorta). This roasted tomato martini recipe makes the best of summer tomatoes by satisfying your savory tooth and giving you a buzz while you’re at it.

6. Honey, Ginger Sparkling Lemonade

Step up your lemonade game with this honey, ginger sparkling lemonade recipe. Lemon, ginger and rosemary take a dip with your liquor of choice to create your next favorite summer cocktail of choice.

7. Red Cranberry Cocktail Recipe with Blue Ice Cubes

It doesn’t get much better than this? Sweetened with agave, this vodka and cranberry concoction is a lighter take on a bar favorite. The B’lure blue hibiscus concentrate ice cubes add even more fun to the party.

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Photo Credit: Paul Scott

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Explore these homemade cocktail mixers for drink recipes that are perfect for summer celebrating.

If you’re planning to spend July 4th with a celebratory cocktail in your hand, forget going to the store to buy some cheap, sugary cranberry juice. No, for a good party you’re going to need something a little classier. Homemade cocktail mixers, perhaps? These nine homemade cocktail mixers and drink recipes will all add a little pep to your Fourth of July celebrating–or any other summertime fun you have planned.

1. Make: Ginger Ale

Drink: Ginger Ale with Bourbon

What’s more American than a good bourbon? Bourbon with ginger ale. But you don’t need to buy ginger ale to get the fizzy drink with a kick. Invest in some fresh ginger and make your ginger ale yourself. Then get a good bottle of bourbon and mix away.

2. Make: Lemon verbena infused vodka

Drink: Lemon Verbena Drop

Have some lemon verbena on hand? Use it to infuse vodka and make a new spin on a lemon drop; you’ll feel like you’re drinking summer in a glass.

3. Make: Mint simple syrup

The Shortcut Mojito

This one’s called a “shortcut” mojito, because you make a mint infused syrup first, allowing you to skip the muddling part. Perfect if you’re hosting a party and many mojitos need to be made.

4. Make: Sour mix

Drink: Whiskey Sour

Using lemons and limes you can make your own sour mix, then just add whiskey and you’ve got yourself a super simple whiskey sour.

5. Make: Jalapeño infused tequila

Drink: Spicy margaritas

Of all the drink recipes, none of them say “summer” as much as the margarita, and to step things up a notch, make your own jalapeño infused tequila for a spicy version.

6. Make: Hibiscus-lime syrup

Drink: Hibiscus-Tequila Cooler

While we’re on the subject of tequila, let’s move on to a drink that’s just a little more exotic. The Hibiscus-Tequila Cooler is made with a simple syrup concocted with limes and dried hibiscus flours. The result is a red drink that’s sure to please a crowd.

7. Make: Rhubarb shrub

Drink: Spiced rhubarb gimlet

With coriander seeds and pink peppercorn, you get a punchy rhubarb shrub. Then all you need to do is add a little gin and bitters (you can make those yourself too!) and you have yourself a gimlet.

8. Make: Apricot puree

Drink: Apricot bellini

At some point during Fourth of July weekend you’re probably going to end up brunching, and when you do, you’ll want a festive drink. Grab some apricots, make a puree, add a little sparkling wine and you have yourself a tasty bellini.

9. Make: Blackberry syrup

Drink: Blackberry spritzer

Blackberries can easily be turned into a syrup, and once you have that, your options for drink recipes are endless. Make up a batch of blackberry spritzer perhaps?

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Image: Louise Ireland

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If you’re craving warmth without the bore of coffee, check out these warming morning drink recipes.

Researchers at Yale University and the University of Colorado have suggested that physical warmth and emotional warmth are actually linked, and in fact the temperature of your beverage can influence your trust and tenderness toward the people around you. Maybe that’s why we sip on warm beverages more often in the winter.

4 Warming Winter Drink Recipes

1. Spiced Warm Apple Cider

Ingredients

1/2 gallon apple cider
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
1 0ne-inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled
3 whole cloves
8 sliced apples

Method

1. In a 3-quart saucepan, combine cider, sugar, cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, ginger, and cloves.

2. Heat to a simmer and allow to cook 20 minutes. Strain into a punch bowl and garnish with orange slices. Serve warm.

Serves 6.

2. Aztec Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

4 cups organic whole milk
One 3.2-ounce disk Mexican chocolate, chopped
1/2 tsp chipotle chile powder
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Bring the milk to a simmer in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the chocolate, guajillo chile, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean.

2. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 10 minutes, whisking constantly to develop some froth and completely melt the chocolate.

Serves 4.

3. Soothing Ginger Tea

Ingredients

4 tsp cardamom pods, crushed
4 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
5 cups water
1 piece (6 inches) fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thick slices
1 Tbsp. raw honey

Method

1. Toast cardamom and fennel in a saucepan over medium-high heat for 1 minute.

2. Add water and ginger. Reduce heat, and simmer until it reaches the desired strength, 10 to 15 minutes.

Recipe: Martha Stewart

Serves 5.

4. Chocolate Cappuccino

Ingredients

1/2 cup whipping cream
3 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped organic dark chocolate
8 cups very strong coffee or espresso
Chocolate curls for garnish

Method

1. Beat whipping cream and powdered sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until soft peaks form.

2. Spoon 1 tablespoon of chopped chocolate into a coffee cup and add hot espresso. Top with whipping cream and chocolate curls.

Serves 8.

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Images: Elana’s Pantry, awduthie, Cinnamon Vogue, eblaser

The post 4 Warming Morning Drink Recipes Instead of Coffee (We Dare You) appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you haven’t understood my love for kombucha, you mustn’t been spending enough time reading Foodie Underground. But as I discussed a couple of months ago, there’s really no point in spending $4-5 on bottled fermented tea when you can make your own. And if there was ever a time to commit to brewing your own kombucha, it’s now.

Why? Last week Whole Foods pulled all the kombucha from their shelves because testing showed that the drink might have elevated alcohol levels that would necessitate a government warning. Kombucha certainly isn’t up their in the ranks with wine and beer, but according to the law, products containing 0.5 percent or more of alcohol have to carry a government warning.

The concerns over elevated alcohol levels may or may not be justified, but a couple dozen of Whole Foods’ kombucha suppliers agreed to a voluntary withdrawal of the product. To understand just what 0.5 percent alcohol content means, think of a can of non-alcoholic beer, a drink that has an alcohol content of less than 0.5 percent of its volume. In other words, we’re certainly not talking Friday night drinks with the ladies, so you can keep chugging on that kombucha guilt-free.

But if you are looking for a way to spice up your cocktail hour (and in response to our “should kombucha be your party drink?” question, we say “yes!”), here are a couple of kombucha inspired drinks that should do the trick.

The Basic

• 1 part vodka
• 1 part tonic water or club soda
• 1 part Kombucha

Pour over ice

Note: if you want to get fancy, throw in a splash of juice concentrate or a liqueur. My personal favorite is crème de cassis.

The Mojito

• 1 cup plain Kombucha
• 1 lime quatered
• 6 mint leaves
• ice
• mineral water
• 4-6 drops of stevia
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• a shake of sea salt (optional)

Muddle mint with lime in a tall glass and add the rest.

I haven’t personally tried this one, but discovered it recently and it’s on the “drink to-do list.”

Make Your Own

If you’re feeling extra feisty, create your own kombucha cocktail. Need help? Mombucha, sold at the Brooklyn’s popular Green Point Food Market, recommends blending with bourbon, whiskey or scotch. Vodka and rum are also great candidates. Now get to mixing.

Non-Alcoholic But Still Fun

Smoothies are certainly the way to go if you want a non-alcoholic pick me up that includes kombucha. Here’s a basic recipe to play with:

• 10 ounces orange
• 4 ounces Kombucha tea
• 5-6 large fresh strawberries OR 1 cup of chopped pineapple
• 1-2 large bananas
• Other fruits to throw in at your discretion: blueberries, raspberries, cherries, etc.

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Enjoy!

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: Anna Brones

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