Flor de Puebla

Today is National Margarita Day! As random as these various holidays may seem, I do love how they bring lots of people together to play with the same recipe or ingredient. If you check Twitter, Instagram, or your favorite blogs today, you're almost certain to find dozens of fantastic margarita recipes. And I'm happy to throw one more into the mix.

For this margarita, I infused blanco tequila with dried hibiscus flowers. This gives it a floral, slightly fruity taste and a beautiful bright pink color. Hibiscus is not as hard to find as you might think. I like getting it from my local natural wellness store, which lets you scoop your own teas and spices. It's great because you don't need much for an infusion. But you can also buy dried hibiscus online. Just a half tablespoon of dried flowers in one cup of your spirit of choice will give you a beautiful infusion overnight.

To give this margarita a bit more depth and spice, I also threw in some Ancho Reyes chili liqueur. This is a surprisingly versatile ingredient that goes with lots of different flavors, but it certainly does shine with agave spirits. If you don't have a bottle, you can still make a more traditional hibiscus margarita by subbing in some triple sec or Cointreau. And if you want to keep it spicy, try adding a few jalapeño slices to your hibiscus infusion. I finished off the drink with a hibiscus-chili salted rim - definitely optional, but a fun touch!

Flor de Puebla

2 oz. hibiscus-infused tequila blanco*
3/4 oz. Ancho Reyes
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. agave nectar
Hibiscus-chili salt, for rim**

Prepare glass by running a wedge of lime around the rim and dipping it in the salt. Fill the glass with ice. Combine tequila, Ancho Reyes, lime juice, and agave nectar in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into the prepared glass and garnish with a few rehydrated hibiscus flowers.

*For hibiscus-infused tequila, combine 1/2 tbsp. of dried hibiscus flowers with 1 cup of tequila in a jar and let sit overnight, shaking occasionally. Strain out the flowers before using.

**For hibiscus-chili salt, crush some hibiscus flowers with a mortar and pestle. Add kosher salt and chili powder (I completely eyeballed the amounts, but maybe 1:2:3 chili:hibiscus:salt). Crush a little more with the pestle to break up the salt and combine the ingredients.

Recipe Round-Up: Hot Cocktails

There's honestly nothing better than being curled up inside with a mug of something hot and boozy while the snow falls. It's been a bit of a weird winter - in Boston our January temperatures ranged from sub-zero to 60 degrees - but that fact still stands. If you're looking for something to drink during the next cold spell, here are ten hot cocktail recipes to warm you up!

1. Hot Toddy. A simple mix of spirit, lemon, sweetener, and hot water, the Hot Toddy is a versatile template. My traditional recipe uses bourbon and honey.

2. Irish Coffee. There's a reason this is a classic. I use Dead Rabbit's recipe: 1.5 oz. Irish Whiskey, 1/2 oz. Demerara syrup, and 4 oz. coffee topped with lightly whipped heavy cream.

3. Hot Buttered Rum. I made this for the first time this winter, and it is fantastic. I thought adding butter to a drink seemed a bit weird, but trust me: butter makes everything better.

4. Mulled Wine. I used to not be a fan of Mulled Wine, and now I can't get enough of it around the holidays. It's so easy to make, especially in a batch for company, and it warms you up to your core.

5. Icky-Poo Tonic. This is a recipe I got from Joy the Baker that my husband and I have come to rely on when we get colds. A mixture of orange juice, bourbon, honey, and hot water, it soothes your throat and your aches and just makes you feel better. The name is ridiculous, but it stuck.

6. Warm Spiced Vanilla. By now you've probably noticed that I don't really own a wide variety of glassware for hot cocktails. ;-) This delicious mixture of bourbon, Bailey's, milk, and lots of other good stuff is a long-time favorite for cold weather.

7. Vert Chaud. If you're looking for something a bit more unique, mix some hot chocolate with Green Chartreuse, top it with a bit of whipped cream, and enjoy. My favorite part is lighting the Chartreuse on fire in the mug to warm it up.

8. Mexican Hot Chocolate with Mezcal Whipped Cream. This one is probably my favorite recipe on this list. It's ridiculously decadent and delicious. Ancho Reyes gives rich hot chocolate some spice, and whipping Mezcal into the cream adds a dreamy bit of smoke to the mix.

9. Montenegro Toddy. I mentioned how versatile a Hot Toddy recipe can be - here's the perfect example. Amaro Montenegro is a great addition for some complexity and bitterness. Try it with your favorite amaro.

10. Ursa Major. This hot tea cocktail is made with honey-bourbon liqueur that is sooo good in a hot drink. You can substitute bourbon and honey if you don't have it. Some Allspice Dram adds a perfect seasonal touch.

Widow's Touch

A few weeks ago, I featured a classic cocktail called the Widow's Kiss made with apple brandy, Benedictine, and Yellow Chartreuse. It's a good drink, but not really something I'd like to make again and again. A lot of older cocktails just aren't quite balanced for modern tastes, and even with PDT's adjusted recipe, the Widow's Kiss tastes like something from another time. To me that's part of the appeal.

The Widow's Touch, however, is another matter. I love this drink. It's an updated version of the classic that swaps out the Yellow Chartreuse for St. Germain, and the switch makes all the difference. In Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, Ted Haigh calls the Widow's Kiss "a cocktail of fall turning towards winter." In that case, the Widow's Touch is a cocktail of fall meeting spring. It's bright, sweet, and floral with flavors of apple and pear.

History: The Widow's Touch sprang from Boston's fantastic bar scene. It was created by John Gertsen when he was at No. 9 Park. He went on to open Drink, one of Boston's best-known cocktail bars.

Widow's Touch

1 1/4 oz. Laird's Applejack or Apple Brandy
3/4 oz. St. Germain
1/4 oz. Benedictine
1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until well chilled and strain into a coupe glass.

Recipe from Bon Appetit.

Bottle Swap: Swedish Punsch

It's time for part two of my latest Bottle Swap with Mr. Muddle! Last month we traded half a bottle of St. George Spiced Pear liqueur and it's become one of my favorite ingredients since then. Today we have a bottle I've been curious about for a long time: Swedish Punsch.

Punch was a big thing back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Individual cocktails were not the norm - if you wanted to go drinking with your friends, you'd get a big bowl of punch to share. This was usually made with rum or arrack and flavored with sugar, fruit juice, and spices. Swedish Punsch was a particular recipe that originated in - you guessed it - Sweden, when the Swedish East India Company began importing arrack from Southeast Asia in 1733. It was often served hot, which is a bit unique for a punch (but understandable given the climate in Sweden).

Punch was popular enough across Europe that many distilleries began bottling pre-mixed punches. Swedish Punsch was no exception, and the first bottled Swedish Punsch was created in the 1840's. It was popular enough that bottles of it ended up in the US and England, where enterprising bartenders began using it in cocktails. Prohibition and World War II limited its availability and, like many unique spirits from this time, it all but disappeared on the international stage. With the revived interest in classic cocktails, Kronan began bottling and exporting Swedish Punsch in 2012.

So what's in a bottle of Swedish Punsch? It's a blend of both arrack (a Southeast Asian spirit made from red rice and/or sugarcane) and Caribbean rum, along with citrus, spices, and sugar. It's essentially a bottled cocktail that you can enjoy on the rocks as-is. The label boasts "notes of rich toffee, smoke, molasses, and leather." These flavors are definitely all there, but I'd say the smoke and leather take a backseat to the bright toffee sweetness, spice, and classic "funk" you'd expect from a Jamaican rum.

Swedish Punsch

Alcohol Content: 26%
Price: $30
Popular Cocktails: Doctor Cocktail, Havana, Waldorf

After reading about Swedish Punsch I was intrigued by the Doctor Cocktail, one of the simplest and best-known Swedish Punsch drinks. It's essentially a Daiquiri that uses Swedish Punsch instead of a sweetener. I also enjoyed reading Fred Yarm's writeup on Cocktail Virgin Slut, which includes some advice on what other flavors work well with Swedish Punsch. I decided to mash-up the Doctor Cocktail with a well-known Tiki drink, the Jungle Bird, to make a Doctor Bird. This is the local name of the national bird of Jamaica, a beautiful hummingbird with an incredibly long tail (and the subject of my undergraduate thesis research). I love the way this drink came out. It's bright and tropical with a hint of bitterness. It's also a lovely shade of orange!

Don't forget to head over to Mr. Muddle's blog and check out his Swedish Punsch drink, the Field Promotion!

Doctor Bird

1 1/2 oz. Plantation Pineapple Rum
1 oz. Swedish Punsch
1/2 oz. Aperol
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/4 oz. Demerara syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe and garnish with a slice of pineapple.

Historical information came from Cocktail Virgin Slut and Punch.