Hot Rum & Cider

[Badfellow]

Find yourself a nice, dark-as-chocolate sort of rum. Something aged in the neighborhood of 8 years. Add to the equation a bottle, or even better a box of decent quality still cider of at least 5% abv. Heat them 50/50 until just hot in a pan or kettle. The resulting restorative mixture provides both physical and mental resiliency during the godless months of winter, substituting for coffee quite well in your average thermal flask.

I've also tried it with a bit of heavy whipping cream. If you're not adverse to dairy, it's fairly damned delicious.

[Palinka (RIP)]

Well, I prefer rum and tea (and more rum) but whatever suits (although the cream does sound ghastly to me).

[oettinger]

It is this time of the year again, when you feel the need to cook your buzz up. In germany there is this thing called Feuerzangenbowle which basically consists of mulled wine filled in a big bowel heating on some sort of candle or other kinds of fire. Then lots of sugar is caramelized with rum on top of it ala absinthe. As a child it was quite mesmerizing and being allowed to puff out the burning dipper was quite a dignity.
But with years gone by and I myself becoming allured to the great Alc, I found it very upsetting and disturbing to see that good stuff getting burned away just for the joy of some wannabe caramel feeling in your piss hot drink.
So me and my russian drinking buddy made our own recipe of "winter rumbowle": Take the cheapest mulled wine you can possibly find (they are usually all damn cheap in germany because they consist of the very leftovers you find in industrial wine barrells and are injected with every kind sweet tasting chemical known to man) some spoons of sugar and last but not least strong but also cheap rum (my choice is Pott Rum 54, which most of the time is only used to clean breaking discs or to sterilize public restrooms). The ratio should roughly be 2 wine 1 rum. Heat it, but don`t ever cook it! Or you have some very tasty sugarwater...
Just when the alcohol seems to begin to evaporate take off the heat and enjoy!
Of course there will be some alcohol molecules already in the air, so a lid on the pot is mandatory!
Everytime we cook this shit up it gives us the warms and feelings of security these cold days demand of us...

oh and blackouts

[Wolfcoat]

I will try both the hot run and cider, and the tea and rum.

I drink much more tea than coffee, like Typhoo and PG Tipps, and Bewleys now and again.

Going to the UK showed me two important things:

American tea is shite,
American beer is only one type of beer...mostly fukkin close to water. Gimme a John Smith's bitter any day!

[peterscoth]

Hi..

I always like to drink rum and my favorite ingredients are Stone's ginger wine, Dark Rum, Triple Sec, Lemonade, Lime Wedge. I just love it! Whenever I get the time I used to drink such cocktail. What's your lifetime cocktail?

[Badfellow]

I found it very upsetting and disturbing to see that good stuff getting burned away just for the joy of some wannabe caramel feeling in your piss hot drink.

Maillard Reaction

Don't insult chemistry.

[Oggar]

In winter I will often make a large kettle of hot mulled cider (non-alcoholic) or something akin to a wassail in an institutional sized coffee maker. Mixing the booze in as a simple cocktail often a Spiced Rum but Whiskey works great as well. Higher end apple ciders have less or no added sugar so they don't caramelize as quickly and work better for this purpose. The spices and sweetness of the cider/wassail allow for generous mixes and the warm booze gets into your system much more quickly. In my experience this means you will need more booze than you think. I once personally went through 3L of Rum by myself on a particularly cold day. It's a delicious treat that everyone can enjoy and it's why your drinking set up maybe incomplete with out a 30+ cup capacity coffee urn.