With all of the delicious dessert cocktails and fuller-flavored ingredients now en vogue, it’s a perfect time to experiment with temperature. Creating warm cocktails is surprisingly easy; just follow these simple rules of thumb.

Choosing the Cocktail
While some cocktail recipes specifically call for the drink to be served warm, many do not… but could. A great rule: if the flavors in the drink are typically served warm in cuisine, they would likely make a great candidate for a warm cocktail. Fall flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices usually make for tasty cocktails. In the Stirrings line, we find that our Chocolate, Chocolate Peppermintini, Espresso, Egg Nog, Pear, Pomegranate, Spiced Apple, Sugar Plum, and Wild Blueberry Mixers lend well to this practice. (Note: many of these are seasonal or limited edition flavors. Check our product page for the current selection.)

Warming the Ingredients
Because you don’t want to reduce the alcohol content in your spirits, we recommend heating the nonalcoholic ingredients only. Add a small amount of water (roughly 10% ) to compensate for evaporation and heat on the stove or in the microwave until piping hot. Once the nonalcoholic ingredients are warmed, mix them with the rest and enjoy!
--------------
Don't forget to subscribe to Stirrings' enewsletter -- it'll be the most cheerful thing in your inbox.