This post was made in partnership with Croft Port. Recipe and ideas are my own.
For the first time in forever SoCal actually feels cold for the holidays and I am HERE FOR IT! I’m dressing in layers, I turned the fireplace on (although, if you’ve been reading on here long enough you should know I do that when it dips below 70…), I broke out a winter coat I got on sale a few years ago and haven’t worn yet, and I’m drinking all the hot cocktails right now so that my hands stay warm. It’s heavenly.
Once Thanksgiving comes to an end and I’ve eaten all my leftovers, my brain switches instantly into holiday mode. I want all the gingerbread cookies. I want to string up lights on every surface of my house (don’t worry, I don’t actually do that because that would probably be a fire hazard, but I do think about it a lot). And it’s baking spices in everything, including my drinks. While I can make a cocktail any way I want at all times throughout the year, in December I just want it to feel extra holiday-like. And so that brings us to today’s cocktail.
I’ve teamed up with Croft Port to show you all how to enjoy port in a hot cocktail, and more importantly, how to make it extra for the holidays. Extra holiday. Croft Reserve Ruby Port has some built-in holiday spices already in its flavor profile: clove, cinnamon, burnt caramel, cardamom, and a warm chocolate nuttiness. While delicious on its own, today’s hot cocktail will bring out those spices further with the addition of chai tea. While chai teas vary widely in spices, the tea I’m using goes heavy on the cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger. A generous dose of freshly squeezed lemon juice adds a sharpness to the cocktail, cutting through some of the sweetness of the port, and the sweetness provided by my extra special ingredient, banana liqueur. That brûléed fruit flavor here is a welcome, unexpected addition to the drink, providing a deep, brown sugary sweetness that, again, makes me think of Christmas cookies.
When Croft Reserve Ruby Porto is warmed up, it also brings out the luscious berry notes and gives a rich, hearty mouthfeel which you want since you’re watering down the viscosity with the chai tea.
So bring on those cold nights, I’ll be ready for them with some hot port cocktails. And so will you!
Holiday Spiced Port Hot Toddy
1 chai tea bag
3 ounces boiling water
1-1/2 ounces Croft Reserve Ruby Port
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 ounce banana liqueur
In a heat proof mug or glass, combine the tea bag and boiling water. Let steep for 5 minutes. Strain out the tea bag and pour in the Croft Reserve Ruby Port, lemon juice, and banana liqueur. Gently stir to combine. Garnish with cinnamon sticks or dehydrated orange slices.
This past week over on Instagram I unofficially declared it the week of creme de violette. Mainly I had been staring at a bottle of it on my shelf for way too long wondering how I was going to use it up.
Right now I’ve noticed a big push at some national coffee chains where they’re advertising cold foam, or sweet cream, salted or unsalted, on their iced drinks. This may be a new concept for a lot of customers at these stores (especially with the near fanatical hype I’m seeing on some social channels for the stuff), but for several years now I’ve been getting salted cream topped tea at a restaurant called Din Tai Fung (which happens to have several locations here in SoCal and more world-wide). I had never heard of it before trying it there, and I have since gotten it every single time I go there for soup dumplings (which is all I want to eat when it’s winter here in LA). It’s basically whipped unsweetened cream that has a nice layer of salt sprinkled on top (and actually it may be lightly sweetened but as I gobble it up so fast every time I haven’t stopped to think about it). I get it atop black tea, but you can also get it with green as well.
Anyways, I also really love a tea syrup or tea infusion in my cocktails and the idea of adding a salted cream on top of one sounded, quite frankly, delicious to me. So, here we are today.
Salted Cream Earl Gray Tea Cocktail
It’s been forever since I’ve handed out a Low Rent Cocktails to you all. So, I thought I’d throw you one for all the dads out there since we just celebrated Father’s Day. The dads just trying to get through the night with a sick kid. I bring you… The Dr. Dad.
So, do you have the summer sniffles? Are your allergies acting up? Do you suffer from male pattern baldness or shingles? This might not cure any of those things but darnit this stuff is tasty. And easy! Got a shot glass or juice cup nearby? You’re already halfway there.
This post was made in partnership with Truvia®. Recipes and ideas are my own.
At the time of the party I went out and bought one of those giant drink dispensers. Standing around making tiki drinks to order was not how I wanted to spend my entire evening. I filled it with this drink thinking to myself, this is way too much; no one is going to consume this much of a blue drink. Well, to my surprise they did, and there were a number of people bummed when it was all gone. Why? Because it’s just a great, easy drinking cocktail: rum, blue curaçao, citrus, pineapple, and coconut cream. And this winning combo easily translates into a flavorful popsicle.
To sweeten up these popsicles, we’re using 
Also, if you’re looking to make these non-alcoholic, just sub the white rum with a bit more pineapple juice and coconut cream. Or add in a few more pineapple chunks! These jewel-toned popsicles are so beautiful everyone’s going to be asking for one!
Now, the look of these popsicles will change depending on what kind of popsicle mold you have. I have a lay-flat kind 
Ok, let’s make some popsicles! Tiny paper umbrellas optional!
Blue Hawaii Popsicles
And today we’ve got a wonderful cocktail that will be your spring and summer sipper: Thyme for Tea. This cocktail was made for outdoor garden parties. Fresh thyme is steeped in a green tea syrup, mixed with gin and Cinzano Bianco Vermouth, and kissed with the subtle scent of lavender and a touch of lemon. You could quietly sip one of these by yourself, lost in thought, or mix up a whole bunch and enjoy with some friends on a late summer afternoon.
This post was made in partnership with 
What I’m getting at is this, Tiki cocktails have come a long way and these new modern nods are just as interesting, and sometimes, much more complex and delicious, than the originals. And today I have a very out there, very delicious, addition to this new wave, the Port Dues Cocktail.
If you’re a familiar reader around here you may have noticed that I partnered with 
So I’m super excited about this cocktail, with nods to some of my favorite tiki drinks and especially to the Missionary’s Downfall with the herbal, minty notes from the fernet. You’d be surprised, but there are actually quite a number of tiki drinks out there that incorporate a hint of chocolate in them too. Using the creamy, rich Kerrygold Irish Cream here gives this dry, rum forward cocktail with a sour punch an unexpected twist with a hint of chocolate at the end.
Port Dues
This post was made in partnership with Truvia®. Recipes and ideas are my own.
After reading this my secret will be blown. But, since we’re all friends, I doubt they’ll care all that much. They know I really come for the Swedish meatballs. Are you sitting there reading this thinking to yourself “I like wine, I like spices, but I don’t necessarily want them piping hot…” Well, lucky for you great minds think alike and I’ve got a new twist for your holiday mulled wine traditions!
I’ve teamed up with 
Since we’re making this into a cocktail I decided to pair this mulled wine syrup with bourbon for a wintery drink. Bourbon imparts some vanilla and buttery caramel flavors into the mix as well. Finally, a burst of citrus comes from freshly squeezed lemon juice and Cointreau. How to garnish is up to you. If you want it to be reminiscent of a Glögg, add in a cinnamon stick, orange slices and a star anise when you serve up the drink. You could also leave all of this out and you’d be fine. Personally I like the aroma that fresh spices add to the drink, but if you’re serving this up at a party you could also just throw in the orange slices. And speaking of parties! This syrup makes enough for plenty of drinks so you might want to consider this for a different take when you host your next holiday party.
One last note. I realize I might be edging out some of you that really enjoy a hot mulled wine. Clearly my friends do since they host this party every year. Here’s a quick tip so you can enjoy a glass of Glögg any time: you can make this drink hot too. Yes! You don’t have to wait for someone to throw a party and use up several bottles of wine and occupy your InstaPot for an entire day. Make the syrup, add the ingredients, and add in some hot water! You’ve got a hot mulled wine cocktail now!
Truvia Chilled Mulled Wine Cocktail (with Hot Version too!)
A few days ago I grabbed my phone, opened Instagram, scrolled down to a fellow cocktail blogger I follow and wrote something to the effect of “this is cozy AF” to describe their photo. And it was super cozy! But it got me thinking, when did we collectively decide that we want to curse, or rather, give the illusion of cursing, so frequently on social media?
Now, I’m a seasoned swearer in my day-to-day life. Well, before I had children, and now I’ve adapted to effectively cursing with substitute words as if I was actually dropping an f-bomb (like when I screamed OH FUDGE immediately following a head-butt to my chin rattling my jaws shut the other night while trying to wrestle a kid into pajamas.). However, I have chosen, for the most part, to refrain from using obscenities on my blog or social media sites because it just felt… not necessary. However, there has been a subtle shift with our acronym usage over the past several years where I might not have spelled it out, but I definitely let a WTF slide into a conversation that was being publicly broadcast over twitter. And now, commenting nonchalantly that someone’s fall-themed cocktail is definitely cozy enough to warrant an “AF”.
This masked profanity usage made me do a second glance at an email recently as an online course in social media was being promoted as, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Make your photos cool AF on Instagram”. I mean, sure, I’d like my photos to be professional, cool even. But this marketing ploy felt kinda clumsy, and definitely not geared towards a level I would consider spending money on to become an expert. I half expect the course would show you how to incorporate some animated gifs of cats vomiting rainbows or the like.
All of this, while I accept it, still feels strange. Maybe it’s a turning tide of age lines, and that I have been doing this blogging thing for a while now and there’s a new crop of DGAF social media personalities that don’t want to be too polite (but polite enough not to spell out that they are, in fact, swearing). Or are they even aware that what they’re shortening is a curse word? Or maybe with our collective need for brevity we would all be cursing at each other but we just don’t have the attention span, or time. Well…shit. What do you guys think?
Before we conclude, I actually AM feeling some fall feelings finally and since it got into the low 70s in Los Angeles this past week, I made myself a Hot Toddy! I’ve had “turmeric hot toddy” scribbled on a note for some time now ever since I started making a tea with ground turmeric, black pepper, honey and almond milk. How on trend you might be thinking. But! It actually came from my Indian mother-in-law who grew up drinking something similar when she was sick and suggested I drink it the last time I came down with a cold. Turmeric is supposed to help with inflammation along with the addition of black pepper, and improve immune functions, and blah blah blah, this isn’t WebMD so I can’t say any of this works for sure. What I can say, with certainty, since this is a cocktail blog, that it is very tasty with the addition of rum and apricot liqueur. The earthiness of the turmeric is balanced out nicely with the sweetness from the apricot and honey, then the sharp citrus cuts through so that it doesn’t lean too much toward the sweet side. The aged rum give the whole drink flavors of spice and vanilla.
I might even go so far to say it’s tasty AF.
Turmeric Rum Hot Toddy
This post was made in partnership with 90+ Cellars. Recipes and ideas are my own.
Today we’ve partnered with 
To start: Apple Jelly with cured ham and Manchego
Palate cleanser: Sweet and Spicy Apple Granita (full recipe below)
With the main meal: Spiced Apple Chutney (full recipe below)