6 great cocktails for a snowy night

After a long day of shoveling or chaperoning sledding, a warm winter's cocktail is just the thing to take the edge off a blustery, icy day.

Sure, you could pop open a beer or pour a glass of wine, but a classic cocktail by the fire?​  Oh, don't have a fireplace? It doesn't matter. These cocktails are more than capable of making you feel warm and wonderful inside. You might even forget the shoveling that awaits you tomorrow.

Plus, when was the last time you busted out the cocktail shaker? We thought so. Take advantage of the snow day and try one of these six cocktails, all of which feature warming cognac or bight citrus.

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Meyer Lemon Sidecar

8 ounces Cognac
4 ounces Cointreau
2 ounces freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice

Set ice and water in cocktail glasses to chill them. Combine ingredients in a small pitcher and stir. Pour some into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Empty the water from the glasses. Shake vigorously and strain into the glasses. Garnish with a lemon twist. You may also rim the glass with sugar, but we don’t usually bother.

Brandy Crusta

First served by Joseph Santini of the New Orleans Exchange Bar, according to the PDT cocktail book.

8 ounces Hine VSOP cognac
3 ounces lemon juice
2 ounces Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
2 ounces Marie Brrizard orange curacao

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled, sugar-rimmed wine glass filled with an entire lemon and orange peel. (Obviously I don’t do that, but it sounds lovely!)

Carjack

A play on the Sidecar, but made with apple brandy.

8 ounces Laird’s Applejack Brandy
4 ounces Cointreau
2 ounces lemon juice

Set ice and water in cocktail glasses to chill them. Combine ingredients in a small pitcher and stir. Pour some into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Empty the water from the glasses. Shake vigorously and strain into the glasses. Garnish with a lemon twist. You may also rim the glass with sugar, but we don’t usually bother.

Serves: 4

Satan’s Whiskers

This forgotten classic cocktail can be found in the excellent “Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century.” The authors say there are two ways to make Satan’s Whiskers, straight or curled. The “straight” Whiskers uses Grand Marnier; the “curled” Whiskers uses Cointreau. I take mine straight. And straight up.

3 ounces gin
3 ounces sweet vermouth
3 ounce dry vermouth
2 ounces orange juice
2 ounces Grand Marnier
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake with cracked ice; strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Salty Dogs

From Raising the Bar by Nick Mautone.
1 to 1 1/2 grapefruits (juice to equal 8 ounces)
2 tablespoons sea or kosher salt
8 ounces vodka or gin
2 ounces sweet vermouth
2 ounces Cointreau

Remove four long strips (twists) of rind from the grapefruit, being careful not to remove very much of the white pith. Cut the grapefruit in half and squeeze the juice from each half. You should have about 8 ounces. Reserve one rind.

Pour the salt onto a small plate. Cut the reserved grapefruit rind in half, then rub the juicy side of the fruit along the outer edge of the lip of each glass… not along the inside of the rim. Holding each glass at an angle, roll the outer edge of the rim in the salt until it is fully coated.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the vodka, vermouth, Cointreau and grapefruit juice. Shake vigorously until the outside of the shaker is thoroughly beaded with sweat and is extremely cold to the touch.

Strain into the cocktail glasses. Add a grapefruit twist to each and serve.

Serves: 4

The Bone

Adapted from David Wondrich, cocktail historian and writer extraordinaire. According to Esquire, for which Wondrich was a cocktail correspondent (how do you like that title?), the drink was originally created for The Chickenbone Cafe in Williamsburg, but revived for a Halloween article, mostly because of its name. I think it’s tasty any time of year.

Recipe adapted from David Wondrich
8 ounces Wild Turkey 101 rye
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
4 teaspoons simple syrup
5 dashes Tabasco sauce

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Wondrich says to strain into a tall shot glass, but we prefer a cocktail glass. (Does that make us less manly?)

This article was originally published on the Lohud Food Blog.