Blogmas: Festive Beverages

Autumn, winter, and the holiday season are perfect for hot beverages. Some are limited edition (tied to the holiday) or only available in the season (pumpkin spice, anyone?).

Mulled wine, glühwein or spiced cider

For everyone who’s bored of regular wine and cider, the warm mulled option is available again. This is one of my favourite gifts to give to everyone who likes a glass of alcohol. The warm drink is sure to keep you comfortable. It’s also perfect to serve at a winter barbeque. You can make your own as well. Double the recipe since it’ll be gone pretty quickly, especially if you’re giving a part away. You can even make it a tradition to make a large batch of mulled wine or spiced cider at the beginning of the colder season.

Hot chocolate

What’s the best drink to go with a piece of chocolate? Liquid chocolate, of course! Once it’s getting colder hot chocolate with whipped cream appears more and more on the menus. My mom always goes for one.

There’s a difference between hot cocoa and hot chocolate. Hot cocoa uses cocoa powder and hot chocolate uses real chocolate. It is also often sweeter and thinner since it’s cocoa powder in milk mixed with sugar. Hot chocolate is less sweet, but it depends on the kind of chocolate used. A good kind of chocolate isn’t as sweetened because it doesn’t need it. The chocolate is melted in warm milk

Hannah, of Hannah’s Bookshelf, shared her go-to recipe for homemade hot chocolate and it sounds delicious. I would definitely add mini marshmallows instead of the chocolate shavings and maybe spice it up with some liquor on an extra cold day.

Create your own hot cocoa mix and gift it in a jar. Add a written recipe and stick it on the side to make it more personal. Search Pinterest for some recipes and ideas for extra flavours or toppings.

Flavoured coffee

If you’re buying presents for the coffee addict in your life, you’ve got a few options. A gift card to their favourite coffee shop, coffee beans or coffee syrups. I live in a country where most coffee is brewed at home or at the office. We were also number five in the top coffee drinkers around the world last year.

Gifting coffee syrup with the recipient’s favourite flavour is the easiest. No matter what kind of coffee they have, or where they got it, an extra shot will spice up their caffeine shot. Get a holiday flavoured peppermint syrup or a classic flavour like caramel.

You can give coffee beans if you know that the recipient has a bean grinder and makes their own coffee. Otherwise, it’ll be wasted. Some shops offer to grind the beans for you, which might make it easier.

Tea

Most speciality tea shops have special blends for the winter season. The winter blends often have cloves, cinnamon, caramel or vanilla to give the tea a richer flavour. Black teas are richer in flavour, but rooibos is a well-rounded flavour that’s perfect for warming up. Check out my post on book-inspired tea for delicious gift ideas.

If you need something on the side, you might enjoy these easy to make, no-bake cheesecake, as made by Anna!