3 cocktails to help fight the winter doldrums

Mustering that “New year! New you!” energy can be tough with the rotten curtain about to open on Pandemic: Act III. Cases are spiking, restaurants are closing, and social plans are going up in flames like the Roy siblings’ attempted coup. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but here we are. And here are three festive, sophisticated winter cocktails that can make staying home feel a little more like going out. If you’re carrying some anxiety into 2022, you’re not alone. Might as well carry a spirit-raising drink along with it.

The Dawn Departure combines elements of two classic gin cocktails, the Aviation and the French 75. New York bartender Hugo Ensslin, publisher of the last cocktail guidebook before Prohibition, invented the former, a lilac looker of gin, lemon, and maraschino and violet liqueurs served up. The latter, which takes its name from the powerful gun used by French forces during WWI, is essentially gin-spiked Champagne balanced with lemon and simple syrup. The Dawn Departure jettisons the maraschino as overweight baggage and swaps in honey syrup for simple to create a more complex sweetness, then drops crème de violette into the stately 75 structure like a lavender glitter bomb. The resulting cocktail is floral, brisk, and just sweet enough to smooth out the gin. It’s fizzy and revelrous and happens to match Pantone’s Color of the Year.

A note on crème de violette: Like checked luggage, she can be elusive. New Liberty Distillery in Olde Kensington makes one under its Liberty Belles liqueurs label. (Full disclosure: New Liberty is a partner of Quaker City Mercantile and Art in the Age, with whom I produced the book The Cocktail Workshop.) Rothman & Winter brand is also available at several Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores.

Makes 1 cocktail

Ingredients

1 ounce gin

1 ounce crème de violette

½ ounce honey syrup (equal parts honey dissolved in water)

½ ounce fresh lemon juice

4 ounces brut Champagne or other dry sparkling white wine

Directions

Combine the gin, crème de violette, honey syrup, and lemon in a mixing glass with ice. Stir to chill, about 20 seconds, and strain into a wine glass or Champagne flute. Top with the Champagne, garnish with a lemon twist, and serve.

Life comes at you fast when you’re the Espresso Martini. The Espresso Martini is Everywhere (Again), reported the New York Times in June, followed by Forbes offering, A Moment of Appreciation for the Espresso Martini in September, and Punch rounding the cycle out in November by suggesting, The Espresso Martini is a Total Monster. A triumphant return is deserved for some ‘90s artifacts (Champion sweats, Fear Street), but the Espresso Martini is not among them. Bartenders hate them and hate you for ordering them. Not that that matters. The caffeinated cocktail has entered the zeitgeist, the unstoppable churn of which has already spat out an Espresso Martini Cheese from Aldi, and there’s no bottom in sight.

In the spirit of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” here’s an Espresso Martini that’s also not. It contains no espresso, instead deriving its more nuanced kick from a concentrate inspired by café de olla, the spiced Mexican coffee traditionally brewed in a clay pot and often enjoyed during the holidays. (Try the real thing at South Philly Barbacoa or Café Ynez.) Instead of neutral vodka, we’ve got equal parts mezcal — its ethereal earthy-smokiness is a natural in coffee cocktails — and cream sherry, bringing nutty sweetness and body. The original Espresso Martini served two purposes with savage efficiency: jacking you up while keeping you up. This one is a slow burn, its glimmers of orange, cinnamon, and licorice like sequins catching light against a near-black backdrop.

Makes 2 cocktails

Ingredients

2 ounces mezcal

2 ounces cream sherry

4 ounces Cafe de Olla Concentrate (recipe follows), cooled

Pinch kosher salt

Directions

Chill 2 coupes. Combine the ingredients in a shaker with ice, vigorously shake for 10 seconds, and strain into the prepared glasses. Express and discard an orange twist over each cocktail and serve.

Cafe de Olla Concentrate

Makes about 4 ounces

2 cinnamon sticks

2 star anise pods

1¼ cup water

2 six-inch pieces of fresh orange peel

4 tablespoons finely ground coffee

¼ cup grated piloncillo (can substitute dark brown sugar)

Toast the spices in a saucepot over low medium-heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the water and orange peel, bring to a high simmer, and cover. Steep for 5 minutes. Add the coffee and piloncillo and bring to a boil, uncovered. Immediately reduce heat and allow the mixture to cook at a low simmer for about 10 minutes. Strain out the solids, then strain again to remove any coffee grounds, reserving the finished concentrate until ready to use.

A technique that dates all the way back to colonial times, clarified milk punch gets two arch nemeses, milk and citrus, to work together for a common goal: a delicious group-serve cocktail that’s greater than the sum of its parts. First, a quick overview of how this method works: You batch out the punch base, combine it with hot milk, then observe in horror as the mixture curdles on contact. Don’t worry: That’s supposed to happen. All the impurities latch on the curds — this is the clarifying process — so that when strained, what’s left behind is a beautifully clear elixir that possesses the silky texture of dairy, without the actual dairy. You can’t see the milk, but you can sense it, like a ghost.

John Wanamaker, the tycoon who originally opened what is now the Macy’s department store in 1876, had strong ties to Biarritz, the French Atlantic resort near the Spanish border. As such, this pale gold, brandy-based milk punch speaks fluent French, with a base of Cognac and Grand Marnier, plus a little Madeira, mingling with heavy citrus and touches of green woods and winter spice from sage and cloves.

Wanamaker actually didn’t drink alcohol and was a supporter of the temperance movement, so while he might not love being the namesake of this cocktail, he — and anyone not drinking for whatever reason — would be pleased to know you can totally omit the booze from this recipe. Just double the tea or replace the alcohol with zero-proof spirit(s) of your choice. A mixture of Ritual Zero-Proof Whiskey and Abstinence Cape Citrus, both available at Herman’s Coffee in Pennsport, would mimic the profile well.

Makes 4-6 cocktails

Ingredients

2 Earl Grey tea bags

1 cup boiling water

¾ cup Cognac

¼ cup Madeira

¼ cup Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur)

2 ounces simple syrup

3 ounces fresh lemon juice

1 ounce fresh orange juice

6 dashes aromatic bitters

12 sage leaves, divided

6 cloves, divided

1½ cups whole milk

Directions

Make a double-strength tea by steeping the tea bags in the boiling water for 5 minutes. When the tea is completely cooled, strain and combine it with the Cognac, Madeira, Grand Marnier, syrup, citrus, bitters, half of the sage, and 4 of the cloves to make the punch base. Stir to incorporate and reserve.

Bring the milk and remaining sage and cloves to a boil in a saucepot over medium-high heat, cover, remove from heat, and steep for 5 minutes. Strain the hot infused milk into to a heat-safe pitcher.

Add the reserved punch base to the milk, which will instantly begin to curdle. Gently stir a few times, then cover the pitcher with plastic wrap and allow it to sit at room temperature for an hour, after which the curds will significantly separate.

Set a coffee filter into a mesh strainer and set it over a clean pitcher. Working a little bit at a time, strain the rested milk punch through the filter, changing the filter as needed. Transfer the strained milk punch into an airtight container or bottle, close and chill for at least an hour before serving.

To serve, pour 3 ounces of the chilled milk punch into a glass of choice. Clap a sage leaf between your palms to express the oils, float it on the surface of the drink and serve.