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Some like it hot
Thanks to bracing winter drinks, you’ll be loving the cold
BY GENEVIEVE RAJEWSKI

Who cares if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on February 2? With a few simple tools and ingredients, you can fashion soul-warming drinks that’ll help you weather the longer winter.

To get started, stop by Barnes & Noble, where you can pick up Christopher B. O’Hara’s Hot Toddies: Mulled Wine, Buttered Rum, Spiced Cider, and Other Soul-Warming Winter Drinks (Clarkson N. Potter, 2002; $16.95). While not limited to warm drinks, The Savoy Cocktail Book (Pavilion, 1999; $22.95) heats things up with its high-society vernacular and illustrations from the 1930s. Compiled by Harry Craddock, the bartender for London’s Savoy hotel, the book includes recipes for whiskey, brandy, and apple toddies; the "Blue Blazer" (which requires tossing boiling water and fiery whiskey from one silver mug to another); and an obscure milk punch made with green tea and Jamaican rum.

The brand of liquor used in these potent potions is largely a matter of budget and taste. At Bauer Wine & Spirits, you can find Maker’s Mark bourbon ($22.99) for making hot toddies or giving what feels like restorative properties to mugs of steaming tea. Captain Morgan Private Stock rum ($22.95) is good in spiced cider, while dark varieties — such as Rhum Barbancourt ($21.99), from Haiti, and Planters Gold Pyrat XO Reserve ($49.99), from the West Indies — work well in hot buttered rum. O’Hara suggests using cognac, like Rémy Martin VSOP ($41.99), for recipes calling for brandy, such as Kioki coffee and Tom and Jerrys.

Most hot drinks require the addition of baking spices if they are to exude the heady fragrance needed for lifting winter-weary spirits. While the spice aisle at your local grocery store will certainly do in a pinch, Polcari’s will make you feel like an alchemist searching for supplies. In the North End institution’s crowded and aromatic confines, you’ll find bins and jars of every spice imaginable, allowing you to purchase fresh allspice (50 cents per ounce whole, 90 cents per ounce ground), nutmeg (25 cents for two whole, 99 cents per ounce ground), cardamom ($1.75 an ounce, whole or ground), grated orange or lemon peel (99 cents), and cinnamon sticks ($1.50/package) in just the quantities you need.

You certainly can sip your concoction from an everyday coffee mug. But Crate & Barrel has several heat-tempered, handled glasses that will allow you to admire the swirling spices and liquor in style: a footed, oversize café mug ($2.95), a footed Irish-coffee mug ($1.95), and another slimmer, more elegant Irish-coffee mug ($5.95). As some of the recipes are best made in large batches, you may want to share your newfound love of winter with a few close friends. If so, the handblown, eight-piece Optic Punch Set ($79.95) will bring sparkle to a dark February night.

Where to find it:

• Barnes & Noble, various locations; www.barnesandnoble.com.

• Bauer Wine & Spirits, 330 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 262-0083.

• Crate & Barrel, various locations, (800) 967-6696; www.crateandbarrel.com.

• Polcari’s, 105 Salem Street, Boston, (617) 227-0786.



Issue Date: February 13 - 20, 2003


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