Bonfire Night falls on a Thursday this year, 5 November, and the honest forecast for a field in South Lanarkshire on a Thursday night in November is cold. So here are three drinks that are meant to be warm, one of which we make ourselves at The Stillhouse and two we'd happily stand behind. We make the spirits, so we're not neutral. We are, at least, practised at drinking outdoors.
The short version
- Mulled Plum Gin: apple juice warmed with a cinnamon stick and star anise, ladled over a double of Clyde Valley Plum Recipe. Our own serve, and the one to start with.
- Bonfire Gin Hot Toddy: honey, lemon, hot water and a double of Bonfire Gin, which brings its own chilli, ginger and cloves.
- Hot Mocha: proper hot chocolate with a double of Cold Brew Mocha Liqueur stirred in off the heat. Warm and sweet rather than warm and strong.
- Take any of them out in a flask, but add the spirit at the fire, not at the hob.
1. Mulled Plum Gin
This is the one we make ourselves. Clyde Valley Plum Recipe is our limited-edition 40% gin infused with plums grown in the Clyde Valley. It turns out that plum, apple and cinnamon are the combination the whole season was waiting for. It's the closest thing gin has to mulled wine, and it's better than most mulled wine.
Per mug:
- 150ml cloudy apple juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 50ml Clyde Valley Plum Recipe gin
- To finish: a cinnamon stick and a dried orange wheel
Warm the apple juice with the cinnamon and star anise in a pan until it's steaming, not boiling. Put the gin in the mug first, then ladle the hot juice over it. Drop in a fresh cinnamon stick and float the orange wheel on top. No added sugar; the plums and the apple do that between them. For a crowd, scale the juice and spices up in a big pan and keep it hot over a low heat. Pour the gin into each mug as you serve. That way the alcohol doesn't cook off, and the person who doesn't want any gets a mulled apple that's good in its own right.
2. Bonfire Gin Hot Toddy
A toddy usually needs spice added. Bonfire Gin brings its own. It's our spiced gin at 43%, with hot green chillies, ginger, cloves, cardamom and pink peppercorns in the botanicals. It's named for Biggar's Hogmanay bonfire, where the old year is burned out and the new one burned in. In other words, a gin built for standing next to a fire. Bonfire Night is eight weeks early for it, but the gin doesn't mind.
Per mug:
- 50ml Bonfire Gin
- 15ml honey
- 15ml fresh lemon juice
- About 120ml hot water, just off the boil
- To finish: a lemon wheel studded with two or three cloves
Put the honey in the mug with a splash of the hot water and stir until it dissolves. Add the gin and lemon, top with the rest of the water, and stir again. Float the clove-studded lemon wheel on top. The chilli arrives at the end of each sip rather than the start, which is the point. If it's too much, use a little more honey rather than less gin.
3. Hot Mocha with Cold Brew Liqueur
This one is for the person who wants warm and sweet, not warm and strong. Our Cold Brew Mocha Liqueur is distilled from speciality coffee beans, cocoa nibs and cocoa husks, then finished with cold brew from Papercup Coffee in Glasgow, and it's 22%. In a hot chocolate it does what a shot of espresso and a square of dark chocolate would do, in one pour.
Per mug:
- 200ml whole milk
- 30g dark chocolate, chopped, or two heaped teaspoons of good cocoa
- 50ml Cold Brew Mocha Liqueur
- To finish: grated chocolate, or a small pinch of sea salt
Heat the milk gently and whisk in the chocolate until it's smooth. Take it off the heat, then stir in the liqueur. Adding the liqueur off the heat keeps the coffee bright and stops the alcohol cooking off. Grate a little chocolate over the top, or add the pinch of salt if you want it less sweet.
Taking them to the field
All three travel. The rule is the same for each. The hot part goes in the flask, the spirit goes in a bottle in your pocket, and they meet in the mug at the fire. Spirit that's been sitting at flask temperature for an hour loses aroma, and hot mixers left to cool are miserable. Keep the garnish in a bag. A wide-necked flask is easier to pour from than a narrow one when your hands are cold. Six litres of the mulled apple base kept warm on a camping stove will do forty mugs without anyone noticing you're repeating yourself.
The 50ml in each recipe is plenty per mug when it's hot; don't pour heavier because it's cold. Warm drinks go down faster than cold ones, and a field is not the place to find that out.
If you'd rather stay in, all three also work in a kitchen with the door shut. The 3:2:1 principle explains why the sweet-and-sour balance in the toddy matters as much as the heat.
Enjoy responsibly. Our spirits are for adults aged 18 and over.