How do I make a hot drink for a cold day that is not just tea?
Six warming drinks worth knowing, the spice base that underpins most of them, and why milk needs different treatment from water.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 20 min
- Read
- 4 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Learn one spiced base — cinnamon, star anise, cloves and ginger simmered in water or milk — and it gives you chai, spiced apple, hot chocolate and a mulled non-alcoholic drink from the same pan. Heat milk gently and never boil it; heat spiced water hard to extract the flavour.
Most warming drinks are the same technique with a different liquid, and once the base is understood the rest are variations rather than separate recipes.
Safety
Step by step
- Build a spice base you can reuse.A cinnamon stick, two or three cloves, a star anise, a few slices of fresh ginger and a strip of orange peel. That combination underpins spiced apple, chai, hot chocolate and non-alcoholic mulled drinks.
- Simmer spices in water hard, milk gently.Water can be simmered to extract flavour from whole spices. Milk cannot — it catches on the base and boils over. Extract in water first, then add milk, is the reliable order.
- Make proper hot chocolate with real chocolate.Warm milk, then whisk in chopped dark chocolate off the heat until smooth. A pinch of salt and a little cocoa alongside deepens it. It is a completely different drink from powder and takes two minutes longer.
- Make spiced apple rather than mulled wine.Apple juice with the spice base, warmed gently for fifteen minutes and strained. It is the best non-alcoholic warming drink there is, and it suits everybody at a gathering.
- Make chai properly.Simmer crushed cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper in water for five minutes, add strong black tea, then milk and sugar, and bring back to a simmer. Straining at the end is what makes it drinkable.
- Try a hot lemon and ginger.Fresh ginger sliced and simmered, lemon juice added off the heat, honey to taste. Adding lemon and honey to boiling water dulls both — off the heat keeps them bright.
- Consider a golden milk.Turmeric, ginger, black pepper and a little fat in warm milk. The pepper and fat matter to how the turmeric behaves, and it is a genuinely warming drink rather than a wellness claim.
- Use whole spices, not ground.Ground spices make a drink gritty and cloudy and taste dusty. Whole spices infuse cleanly and strain out. This is the difference between a good spiced drink and a disappointing one.
- Strain everything before serving.A fine sieve. Nobody wants a clove in a mouthful, and whole spices are a choking risk for children.
- Sweeten at the end and lightly.Honey, maple syrup or sugar, added off the heat and tasted. Most warming drinks are made too sweet, which flattens the spice.
- Make a batch for a group.Spiced apple or non-alcoholic mulled drinks hold well in a slow cooker on low for a couple of hours. Add the citrus late so it does not turn bitter.
- Warm the mugs.A hot drink in a cold mug loses several degrees immediately. Fill them with hot water while the drink finishes.
Tips
- Buy whole spices in small quantities and store them airtight. Ground spices lose their aromatics within months and are what make spiced drinks taste dull.
- A strip of orange peel — the zest without the white pith — does more for a spiced drink than a slice of orange, which adds bitterness.
- Make double the spice infusion and keep half in the fridge. It reheats with milk or apple juice in two minutes.
Common mistakes
- Boiling milk to infuse spices — It catches on the base and boils over, and scorched milk taints the whole pan. Infuse in water first, then add the milk and heat gently.
- Using ground spices — They make the drink gritty and cloudy and taste dusty rather than aromatic. Whole spices infuse and strain out cleanly.
If it doesn't work
Milk caught on the pan
Cause: Heated too fast, or a thin pan — Fix: Rinse the pan with cold water before adding milk, use a heavy base, and heat gently while stirring.
Spiced drink tastes bitter
Cause: Citrus pith, or spices simmered too long — Fix: Use peel without pith, add citrus late, and infuse spices for fifteen minutes rather than an hour.
Hot chocolate grainy
Cause: Chocolate added to liquid that was too hot — Fix: Take the milk off the heat before whisking the chocolate in, and add it in small amounts.
Drink cloudy and gritty
Cause: Ground spices rather than whole — Fix: Strain through a fine sieve or muslin, and use whole spices next time.
Questions people ask
What can I make instead of tea on a cold day?
Spiced apple, proper hot chocolate made with real chocolate, chai, hot lemon and ginger, or golden milk. Most share the same spice base — cinnamon, cloves, star anise and ginger — infused in water or milk.
Why does my spiced drink taste gritty?
Ground spices rather than whole ones. Whole spices infuse cleanly and strain out; ground ones stay suspended and taste dusty as well as feeling gritty.