I know nothing about blizzards. I know very little about multiple feet of snow. Cold wind? I can’t even. Freezing rain!? Are you for serious?
I have nothing but respect for those of you that live in temperatures that fall below 47 degrees F. Mad respect. Also… I really like your puffy jackets. I’ve always wanted one of those, but I can’t deal with the freezing temps that go along with that sort of cuteness.
You and your snow tolerance? Badass. Me? I’ll happily hop between California sun and Florida sun and visit New York in the Spring… late Spring.
That being said… even people in California catch a chill. It’s mostly because we insist on wearing shorts year-round (but that’s neither here nor there).
Chilly temperatures require two things: hot water and bourbon (in various incarnations). Let’s explore.
A pot of hot water + A few glugs of bourbon + half an orange, squeezed + a big spoon of honey. This fragrant orange treat is for days when you’ve got the ick-sniffles and need to justify your bourbon consumption with a dash of vitamin C. It’s like adult Nyquil without the questionable cherry flavoring.
A pot of hot water + a few glugs of bourbon + juice of a lemon + a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger + a big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg + a big spoon of honey.
This drink is for those coooollldd night when you’re thinking.. hey! I need some spice in my life… and then I need some open-mouthed sleeping. Don’t you judge!
A pot of hot water + a tablespoon of black tea + five whole cloves + a big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg + a big spool of honey + a splash of cream. I like to consider this a creamy breakfast drink. A punch of caffeine with spices and sweetness. It’s goodness.! Of course I wanted to add bourbon… but I chose instead to be reasonable during the morning hours. Tea for me! Coffee soon to follow.
78 Responses
Sounds amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
I have to once again thank you for the bourbon, orange, honey and hot water toddy. Best night time, I-need-a-little-comfort drink ever!
LOVE that yellow teapot!
Joy, I live in Maine and just finished digging myself out of my house to go to work this morning. Ok I’m exaggerating, but we did get a ton of snow. Anyways, I love your blog and I laughed out loud at your open mouth sleeping comment. I have the ick-sniffles right now, saw this recipe yesterday and made a special trip to the grocery store for bourbon so I could make the one with orange. The water is on the stove and I’m headed for the bourbon right…. now!
Yes!
Excellent. & he he he “Don’t you judge!” – love the tone there.
Heidi xo
Thanks Joy, for the Blizzard inspiration. We used your Simple Vanilla Cupcake recipe to make Ella’s birthday cake, dubbed Lemon Berry Blizzard Cake. xoxo Annie https://athomeatsea.com/2013/02/12/lemon-berry-blizzard-cake/
If you can’t be in the climate you love, love the climate you’re in. (a little work, make a great song lyric) Survived another blizzard! woo-hoo! Bourbon is good in the summer, too.
Open-mouthed sleeping, lmao!! IT’S SO TRUE!
Oooo…I’m just seeing this. Is 11:40 a.m. EST too late to call into work (while sitting at work) to go home and make the tea and then seg way right into the toddy?
High wind warning is enough to call it a day in Michigan. LOL
The really wonderful thing about puffy coats is that they hide the entire body. I can basically go to the grocery store in my pajamas and a sports bra an no one is the wiser.
oh goodness yes this looks perfect for a cold night. my boyfriend would love me for making as well. could be a good valentine’s night drink!
I often covet your cute dresses and shoes as I’m trudging around in boots and heavy sweaters. I’m in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and we just had two weeks of -40 weather. We have enough snow in our backyard that my kids were tobogganing down the drifts yesterday. Your bourbon and orange tea sounds perfect for most nights in our house!
I think the yellow teapot brings it all together! How could you help but be warmed by such a happy little thing :)
I love your yellow teapot. It is super cute and cheerful! I would love to sit down to tea with a setting that looks like that.
where did you get your yellow one? i am on the hunt for a cute pot like that!
It has been soo cold here, -20 degrees (so like -5 Farenheit)! These hot drinks sound wonderful right about now, might make one or more… in the hopes that I pass out and wake up in the spring. Ha!
I just realized last winter that bourbon is amazing. And luckily (sadly?) I don’t get sick often, but I got this year’s cold and was a little (very little) sad when it went away because toddies are my new favorite thing in the universe. (I exaggerate… and know that I can drink them even if I’m not sick.) Anyway… I might made that orange toddy later this week just… as… preventative medicine?
Californians sound like Sydney-siders (Australia), we can’t cope with the cold, we don’t have heating systems to deal with the cold, we walk around in winter in skirts and short sleeves and just complain. It’s terribly embarrassing to be one of them and wonderfully hilarious at the same time.
Hot Toddies are seriously my go-to adult beverage if I feel a cold coming on. I’m not even a big bourbon or whiskey fan, but I love a hot toddy every once in a while.
Believe me, we don’t always enjoy our snowy cold days either. We were without heat for about 24 hours, and we were some of the lucky ones!
2 feet of snow on the ground here in Maine after the blizzard all weekend. This looks like a perfect sort of mid winter cozy pick me up by the fire, after snowmobiling or snowshoeing. I have to say your California sounds pretty nice right now.
Now that I am back from the sun… this hits the spot.
i sometimes make a quick-n-easy hot toddy by using lemon tea, bourbon and honey. it’s cheating, i know, but it does the trick. i might make the last one today. it sounds absolutely delicious!
also, ps. i’ve made the bourbon banana bread from your cookbook for my friends several times, and it’s been simply devoured every time. the first time i made it, i think i ate 2/3rds of the loaf myself. i am not sorry.
I’ve been stuck inside in Boston this weekend due to the blizzard, and it’s been made so much better by two recipes from my new Joy the Baker cookbook! The chocolate brownie white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and single lady pancakes will be repeats for sure. Thanks Joy!
I have to say I’m very glad to see you using Makers Mark. Life is too short for cheap booze.
Thanks for the drink ideas. They all look great. I’ve been looking for a tea pot kind of like your yellow one. Could you share where you found yours?
You came in my Dillon’s (Kroger) mailing today! Well, not you you, obviously. Rather, your photo and beet cake recipe.
I love your photos. So colorful and fun. Thanks for sharing this blog.
Sonnia J. Kemmer
I grew up in Colorado, where we have winters where it wont get above 5 degrees for a week or two, and sometimes we get hail in August. But just because I grew up on that climate, doesn’t mean I enjoy it. In fact I hate being cold (which I am 24/7 due to circulation problems), but I can’t live in a place where I never get snow. My life is a contradiction, haha.
The last drink sounds perfect, but only because I can’t have alcohol yet :P
I was JUST recommending bourbon in hot tea to my brother earlier this evening! Sending a link here…. :-)
Cold here in Shasta County all month (mind you, nothing like the rest of the country)…I’m not complaining! Nice ingredients to expand one’s remedies; hmm, bourbon, that’s interesting.
although i’ve grown up in the east with very cold temps my whole life, the only way i get through winters as a grown-up is a hot toddy or a glass (or 2?) of red every evening. i envy your year-round warm temps like you envy my puffy jacket.
Ah, the classic hot toddy. I definitely drink a lot of these all winter–even in California! Hey, it’s not like our houses are actually insulated….
I live in the east south of France. Tonight, we went to eat at restaurant and it’s very windy and cold, here, right now. Getting out from the restaurant, I told to my husband : “Living in Canada is one of my biggest dream. But, just thinking about the temperatures …. I think I would get into my home in September and get out for june !!!!”
Being Norwegian, I am no stranger to -22 degrees F during the winter. I know that sounds like a nightmare to ye sunfolk, but it is actually quite lovely! We have puffy jackets, sure enough, and big fireplaces and ugly hats and other cozy stuff that keeps us warm, and we also enjoy drinks like this!
Now I live in Paris, where we’ve had a sorry excuse for a winter (if you ask me – the Parisians wouldn’t agree). Good thing there is no upper temperature limit for hot drinks!
Bon week-end, Joy! You are an eternal inspiration!
I am so excited to have found you! Thanks to Ralph’s grocery store they published one of your recipes and I cannot wait to try it (Chocolate Beet Cake with Beet Cream Cheese Frosting). I (and my Mon Ami girls) am new to the whole blogging world and would love for you to come check out our blog http://www.monamicreatery.blogspot.com. I am excited to start following you and checking out some of your recipes. The pictures are great too! :) Thank so much
Yes! I have been adjusting to moving from CA to NC and need some beverages to fight off the cold! This is perfect :)
Dood: that first shot looks like a PAINTING. SO beautiful. Nice work! (and, of course, yum…. )
I too was raised on honey, lemon and whiskey when I was sick. My uncle was a pediatrician and suggested that my parents give it to me. Worked like a charm. Your version sounds delicious too. And I’m in Riverside, we had hail here yesterday, that’s cold enough for me, feeling sorry for those in the east.
You can’t go wrong with Makers Mark
Have you heard of Jeni’s influenza sorbet? Sounds like you could use that in chilly LA…. :)
Also – pictures of Nemo in Boston!
I live in Minnesota. Last week it got down to 30 below with the windchill! Mad respect indeed! Although, I can’t imagine raising my kid somewhere she couldn’t go sledding and make snow angels :)
Sooo timely! I happen to have a lot of snow to move around today. But this warm bourbon drink…all the necessary ingredients are in the house! I fuzzy heart this post Ms. Joy! Thank you!!!
I want some of that sweet and creamy black tea. Sounds delicious.
Mmmmm… That sounds pretty tasty! We get pretty cold around here (-30 minus wind chill a few weeks ago), but we never made a warm treat!
I have always loved the cold and the snow! A good thing, too, since I live in Wisconsin. As for the puffy jackets…nope, not cute, haha. I don’t wear them. But I have a snowmobile jacket that keeps me warm. :) All of these drinks sound divine and I just might have to try the first one tonight!
you are hilarious. and let me just say, i am in puffy jacket zone and its definitely not cute. i am like an amorphous green michelin-man bouncing through the snow (my pup does cold much cuter though with his baller scarves). i will say, though, that the snow is rather fun these days :) thanks for this little warm cup of remedy!
Trust me, there is nothing cute about puffy jackets. We’re in the midst of a blizzard here in New England and I am weary of my puffy jacket. The drinks will be perfect today!
puffy jackets are mostly cute if you aren’t forced to wear one. i know… i’m sorry.
As I have been complaining nonstop about the coldness and I have recently discovered the wonders of bourbon, I am definitely looking forward to trying these.
Last week it was between 20 and 30 below with wind chill. These would be perfect for those nights!
It’s cold with about a foot of snow on the ground. Still love New York. Your right the Spring is a great time to be here. If you were here now I think these drinks would serve you well along with some hot chocolate.
I have been really into this drink recently, but with grapefruit rather than orange. So delicious
That is a lot of “some kind of wonderful!” in a couple of hours the kids will be getting up; maybe after breakfast doubt it very much clothes will be picked out…snow pants will be asked for along with gloves, hats and boots…. they will go outside to play in the snow and mom will be inside sipping the spiced tea….the bourbon one will have to wait a bit… ( maybe after lunch) I guess I’m not a bad-ass New Yorker – I enjoy the snow and watching the kids play in it from my warm comfy living room. Thank you!
I have the dreaded flu at the moment so this post has just came at the right time :) I always have honey with lemon but I may pop some orange in there for some added Vit C!
Thanks for sharing!
x
load up on that ginger and feel better soon!
warm beverage + booze + fragrant spices = life made.
Living in England I am very much the owner of a puffy coat. Not sure about the cuteness factor though! Great ideas for warming drinks. The second one is my cold cure. The teapot cheers it up no end. :)
I made an orange loaf yesterday and I was thinking of what drink to make with it today. These are perfect! I think I’m going to make the third one… Love your blog :)
It’s gnarly cold and raining, windy and dare I say blustery in ‘sunny’ San Diego tonight. Totally miserable outside! I could use some hot tea. Spiked please :)
The first drink? Yeah, we don’t use no fancy tea pots. It’s the lemon drink, and my dad insist we drink it when we are sick. Made with Wild Turkey. And lemon instead of orange. And no water to dilute. Bourbon, lemon, and honey. It is seen as a downside to being sick. Your version seems so much more pleasant.
That top photo is beautiful! *squirrels away link for photo inspiration* :)
Add a couple of great cookies and all is well.
Makers. Nice. I had a few glues tight to accent my Sweet Carolina’s while video editing. Not in the snow.
I am in the middle of Nemo right now and this sounds so good! Also, I collect teapots and LOVE your yellow one!
xx Kait
mmmhh…this sounds like perfection!