Cozy Fall Cocktails: Warm Spice Recipes for Autumn Nights

Four cosy autumn cocktails, with UK measures in millilitres: a spiced apple toddy, a cranberry and rosemary old fashioned, a pumpkin spice white Russian, and a pear and ginger mule. In Britain, cider is an alcoholic drink, so the hot toddy uses cloudy apple juice. These serves are for adults aged 18 and over. More drinks built by season are in the seasonal cocktail recipes.

Embracing autumn in the glass

A falling leaf, woodsmoke, and the last warm hour of the afternoon are easy to chase and hard to put in a glass. The point of these drinks is that chase: warm spice, orchard fruit, and a spirit that can stand up to both. Mix one for a quiet night, or scale the cold ones when people are coming over.

The fall cocktail pantry

The jigger, the stir, and the ice these recipes assume are covered in the beginner's guide to cocktail making.

Core warm spices

Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and ginger do the seasonal work. Buy them whole. Pre-ground jars taste flat within weeks.

Toast a cinnamon stick or a few cloves in a dry pan until they smell fragrant, then grind them. Fresh ginger, sliced or grated, is sharper than dried powder. For a spiced sugar, toast 1 cinnamon stick and 4 cloves, leave them to cool, then grind them with 100 g caster sugar and a grating of nutmeg. A pinch is enough on a rim or on the white Russian.

Gingerbread spices in Toruń: cinnamon, honey, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and black pepper. Photo: Kpalion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Seasonal fruit

Apples, pears, and cranberries are the fruit that belong here.

Muddling is the fast route. A simmered syrup is the deeper one. For pear and ginger syrup, simmer 200 g chopped ripe pear, 20 g sliced fresh ginger, 200 ml water, and 150 g caster sugar for 15 minutes, then strain. Cool it, keep it in the fridge, and use it within a week. A 20 ml pour is the cleaner mule, below. Muddled pear stays cloudy. For a clear pear syrup, follow the clarified cocktails guide rather than this simmer.

Roasting pulls a different flavour out. Halve an apple and roast it at 180°C until the edges brown, then muddle a warm half into the toddy before the spirit goes in. Cranberries, left overnight in the rye you are already opening, give the old fashioned a tarter base. Strain them out before you mix.

Base spirits

Bourbon, rye, and Scotch take cinnamon and clove. Dark rum brings molasses, which suits the same spices if you want a softer glass. Brandy, amaretto, and apple brandy suit a lighter pour.

A smoky Scotch is the peat twist on the toddy: use 40 ml of a smoky Scotch in place of the 50 ml bourbon, in the same hot apple juice. The Whisky Exchange lists these bottles in £, usually at 70cl. Prices change, so check the bottle page.

Classic fall cocktails

The spiced apple cider hot toddy

Use cloudy apple juice, not a bottle of UK cider. The bourbon or rye is already the alcohol.

Serves 1.

• 150 ml cloudy apple juice
• 1 star anise
• 2 green cardamom pods, cracked
• 1 wide strip of orange peel, pith removed
• 50 ml bourbon, or 50 ml rye in the same spot
• 10 ml maple syrup
• To finish: 1 cinnamon stick, 1 dried apple slice, 1 star anise pod

Put the juice, star anise, cardamom, and orange peel in a small saucepan. Heat until steaming, and do not let it boil. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the bourbon and the maple syrup, and pour into a warmed mug. Add the cinnamon stick, the dried apple, and a fresh star anise pod. Drink it hot. If you check with a thermometer, about 70°C is hot without boiling the spirit away.

This frame shows lemon and cinnamon. The recipe above finishes with dried apple and star anise. Photo: Patrick Truby, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cranberry and rosemary old fashioned

Serves 1.

• 6 fresh cranberries
• 1 small rosemary sprig, plus 1 to garnish
• 10 ml sugar syrup (equal weight of caster sugar and water)
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters
• 60 ml rye whiskey
• 10 ml cranberry liqueur
• Sugared cranberries, to garnish

Muddle the cranberries, one rosemary sprig, the syrup, and the bitters in a mixing glass. Add the rye and the cranberry liqueur, fill with ice, and stir until the glass is cold. Strain onto a large cube, or serve on the ice you stirred with. Garnish with a fresh rosemary sprig and a few sugared cranberries (rinse, shake dry, roll in caster sugar).

Pumpkin spice white Russian

Syrup for several drinks: simmer 100 g pumpkin purée, 100 g light soft brown sugar, 100 ml water, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, a grating of nutmeg, and 3 slices of fresh ginger for 10 minutes. Strain, pressing the solids, then cool. Keep it in the fridge for up to a week.

Serves 1.

• 40 ml vodka
• 20 ml coffee liqueur
• 20 ml pumpkin spice syrup
• 30 ml double cream
• Ice
• To finish: a spoon of whipped cream, a pinch of the same spice, a biscotti

Stir the vodka, coffee liqueur, syrup, and double cream with ice. Strain into a cold glass over fresh ice. Add the whipped cream, a pinch of spice, and the biscotti on the side.

Pear and ginger Moscow mule

Serves 1.

• 4 slices ripe pear (about 40 g)
• 3 slices fresh ginger
• 15 ml lime juice
• 50 ml vodka, or the same 50 ml of a London dry gin if you want juniper with the pear
• About 100 ml chilled ginger beer
• Candied ginger and a pear slice, to garnish

Muddle the pear, ginger, and lime. Add the spirit and ice, top with ginger beer, and stir once. Garnish with candied ginger and a pear slice. For a cleaner glass, skip the muddle and use 20 ml of the pear and ginger syrup instead.

This is the sharper drink of the four, and the one to pour before dinner. Other openers are in the pre-dinner aperitif drinks.

Beyond the basics

Spiced syrups and infusions

A cardamom and vanilla syrup, about 300 ml: simmer 200 ml water, 200 g caster sugar, and 8 cracked cardamom pods, then take the pan off the heat, add 1 split vanilla pod (or 5 ml vanilla extract), and steep for 20 minutes. Strain, cool, and keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks. It is the soft, fragrant sweetener when maple feels too woody.

An overnight infusion is the other move. Cover chopped roasted apple and a cinnamon stick with the bourbon or rye already open for the toddy, leave it overnight, and strain. Use that bottle. There is no need for a second one.

Garnish

The garnish should smell of the drink. Dried apple on the toddy, sugared cranberries and rosemary on the old fashioned, candied ginger and pear on the mule. Dehydrated fruit and a single herb sprig do more than a crowded skewer.

Smoked cocktails

A smoking gun, or a covered bowl with a pinch of applewood or hickory, adds the woodsmoke the introduction talks about. Smoke the glass, or smoke the finished cold drink for a few seconds, then serve. Do not smoke the hot toddy under a lid; you will lose the heat and gain a bitter edge.

Batching for a gathering

Syrups can be made the day before. The old fashioned and the white Russian can be stirred as a jug for four: multiply the spirits, syrups, and liqueurs by four, hold the jug in the fridge, and add ice in the glass. Keep ginger beer out of the mule until you pour, or it goes flat. Keep the spirit out of the toddy until the juice is off the heat.

A labelled bottle of syrup is also one of the simpler easy holiday cocktail gifts to hand over at the door.

Food and the room

Serve roasted butternut squash on toast with the toddy, cranberry and brie with the old fashioned, and a small pumpkin pie with the white Russian. The pear mule wants something salty and light, not a pudding. A wider chart is in the cocktail and food pairing guide.

For the room: low light, a few candles, instrumental music, and a blanket in reach. Branches, leaves, and one or two squashes are enough. The drink should be the thing that smells like the season, not a scented candle fighting it.

Pro tips

Heat the toddy juice to steaming and take it off the hob before the spirit goes in. Chill the glass for the old fashioned, the white Russian, and the mule. Ice from a full tray, not a melting handful of shards, is what keeps the stirred drinks cold.

Change the sweetness, the spice, or the pour until it tastes right. If 10 ml of maple is too much, use 5 ml. If the rye is too loud, drop it to 50 ml and keep the cranberries as they are.

Use the fruit you would eat that week. Compost the peels, the spent rosemary, and the strained spices. Skip plastic straws. A glass you already own is the right glass.

Make the first one tonight

You need cloudy apple juice, a few whole spices, and a bourbon or a rye. Heat the juice, take it off the heat, add the spirit, and you have the toddy. The other three use the same pantry. Start there, then change one thing.