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Hot Drinks

Warming from the Inside

The Forme of Cury (by Pegge, Samuel)
Jack's Manual on the Vintage and Product... (by Grohusko, J. A. (Jacob Abraham))
The Hymns of the Rigveda : Volume 1 (by Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith)
The Hymns of the Rigveda : Volume 2 (by Griffith, Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)
The Hymns of the Rigveda : Volume 3 (by Griffith, Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)

Especially in climes where frigid winter weather brings ice and snow, nothing warms a chilled body like a hot drink. Or at least that’s how it feels. Science debunks that fleeting sensation of warmth that affects—for a few seconds only—the hands and belly, but does not actually raise internal temperature. Scientists credit the “placebo effect” for the seeming ability of a hot drink to make one feel warm and toasty.

Following is a collection of hot drinks just perfect for chasing away the wintertime chill.

Originating with the Mayans around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, hot chocolate or hot cocoa fulfills every need for a sweet, sometimes spicy, hot drink. Amenable to the embellishment of different flavors such as peppermint, cinnamon, and caramel, this combination of chocolate, sugar, and boiling milk or water soothes, invigorates, and serves as the ultimate in wintertime luxury.

A holiday favorite, mulled wine uses spices and heat to create a warming drink that can be alcoholic or nonalcoholic. Fruit juices sometimes substitute for wine. In Latvia, the use of grape or currant juice is popular. First recorded in 2nd century Rome, the addition of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper, nutmeg, marjoram, cardamom, and even rosemary create a fragrant, pungent beverage that delights the palate and mellows the mood. One of the earliest recipes of mulled wine can be found in The Forme of Cury (1390). Jack’s Manual on the Vintage and Production, Care and Handling of Wines, Liquors, Etc. also contains recipes on mulled drinks (see mulled claret on page 59).

Northern European countries developed their own versions of mulled wine. German speaking countries prepared glühwein or “glowing wine,” prepared with star aniseed, citrus, sugar, and sometimes vanilla. The Nordic countries make glögg or gløgg or glögi,generally served with raisins, dried cloves, blanched almonds, and ginger snaps. In Canada, the Québécois enjoy caribou, a heated mixture of red wine, maple syrup, and hard liquor.

Add heat and spices to apple cider and you get wassail, a popular hot drink that hails from medieval England. Early versions were made of ale brewed with honey into which roasted crab apples were dropped. The crab apples then burst in the hot liquid, creating a beverage called lambswool.

One of the earliest hot, alcoholic beverages from ancient times is mead, the fermented mixture of honey and water. Add heat, fruit, and spices and you still have mead—also called honey wine—but something hot, relaxing and sweet enough to make your jaws ache. The brewing of mead goes back as far as 7000 BC in Northern China, making it a most ancient drink indeed. One of the earliest recipes for mead is found in the hymns of the Rigveda (volumes I, II and III).

The ultimate hot drink when feeling under the weather is a hot toddy. This potent mixture of hard liquor (usually whisky, rum, or brandy) with boiling water and honey may substitute ginger ale and lemon for the liquor and honey in a nonalcoholic version. Scholars trace the name of this beverage to Irish physician Robert Bentley Todd who prescribed a hot drink of brandy, white cinnamon, sugar syrup, and hot water to cure what ailed his patients.

By Karen M. Smith