What's a cozy, preferably non-alcoholic drink to enjoy for cozy wintery nights?

cheese_greater@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 53 points –

No cinnamon, or overly spicy, chocolate drinks (did I just rule out everything?) :/

65

Apple cider (especially with a cinnamon donut).

Eggnog.

Is there a much lower sugar version? They're always so sugary...

Like, can you buy apple dehydrate or something and spice to taste, every cider I come across is absolutley laden with it and my tastes are dryer these days

They’re always so sugary…

Apple juice is pretty much sugar water to begin with.

Winter comfort drinks are a mix of three things, fat (eggnog etc), sugar (cider etc) or booze (mulled wine etc) as they are what warms you on a cold night... a shit load calories.

Its funny cuz I love ONE poptart in milk with added whipping cream (the creamer stuff) before bedtime. Knocks me the fuck out, errytime😊

Sugar and fat gives your digestion a double whammy.

You seem very particular about what you drink. You should maybe look into mixing a custom loose leaf tea that fits your tastes.

Actually did 😂 Lemon-ginger + "sleepy" tea also wine and chicken soup ;)

Lottsa "hot" liquids

Here's me thinking you put all of those items in the same container and drank them at once like a madman

I mean, what is the stomach if not a big grab-bag-holder of all this nonsense?

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Try a squeeze of lemon, half an orange, a little honey, a half-pinch of salt (it's really that little salt, it is just the tiniest bit to bring out the flavour) and about 2 drops of lysergic acid diethylamide. You'll thank me later.

I have all of those ingredients except for the 10 syllable word with which you ended it.

I always make hot lemon-and-honey "tea" when it's fuck-off cold out. It's what my mom did for sore throats (which I did get, and still got, frequently in the winter) so it's super comforting.

Just squeeze about 1/2 of a lemon into a mug of hot water, then drizzle in honey to taste. Best done with a highly flavored local clover honey imo. And you can use a teaspoon or two of the storebought squeeze bottle lemon concentrate if its all you have.

Ginger and honey drink. You can buy it prepackaged from Asian grocers (and probably amazon). Gold Kili is the brand I like.

Hot Apple cider

For confused non-Americans: Americans call an apple juice cider. It's not alcoholic over there.

Cider is two things. Hot cider is specifically a spiced apple juice, served hot. Cider also refers to alcoholic cider made from fruits, usual apples. If you go to a bar and ask for a cider in the States you will not receive hot cider.

I think you read that backwards. They're not saying there's no alcoholic cider in America, they're saying it's an American thing to say cider when refering to non-alcoholic apple juice. If you look for cider elsewhere you will get a fruit-based alcohol, you will not get apple juice.

Apple juice is not cider though. Apple juice is clear and flat. Cider (alcoholic) is clear and bubbly. Cider (nonalcoholic) is brown and served hot or cold and spiced or unspiced.

Any of these can be made with other fruit, but apple is the most common.

Pure apple juice is not clear, it has to be specifically processed to be that way

When I make it by putting an apple in my juicer it’s pretty clear. Maybe translucent is a better word? I don’t do any special processing.

Interesting, whenever I would make it it would always come out kind of thicker and brownish, especially as it stood around (oxidation I guess). Probably varies by the kind of apple, but the more 'natural' kinds I have found at the store also tend to be pretty brown, certainly not clear.

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You Guys, I settled on Ginger Lemon tea and Chunky™️ Chicken Noodle 😁. Also a king-sized glass of wine...

Lots to try throughout rest of season tho!

I've grown fond of these little chats we have :)

Mulled wine. You can go as heavy or as light on the spices you like. I'm a fan of mulled mead. Great cold weather drink.


Just caught N / A. In that case, hot apple cider or a big mug of Earl Grey. Can't go wrong with black tea.

🇭🇺 Sült tea / 🇨🇿 Pečený čaj

The name means “baked tea” and it is just as popular on Christmas markets in the Visegrád countries as Glühwein (mulled wine) is in Germany. It probably isn’t sold where you live but you can make it at home.

  • Sterilize some jam jars.
  • Take all sorts of warm wintery fruit (apples, pears, oranges, plums, raisins, grapes, strawberries, cherries, mandarines, blackberries, blueberries, currant, raspberries, figs, anise, lemons) and chop it into small pieces, like 8x8x8 mm at most. Remains from juicers are OK. Add sugar (300 g/fruit kg) and cinnamon (1 tsp/fruit kg), perhaps some spices (such as clove).
  • Preheat your oven to 180-220 °C.
  • Bake in an open roasting pan for 30 minutes. Stir every 5-10 minutes.
  • (Optional) add 100 ml/fruit kg rum and mix it in while the fruit is still hot.
  • Fill the jars, wipe their edges, screw on the lids and leave them to cool upside down.

To make the tea, put 1-2 tablespoons of the mix into a mug with 250 ml of hot water. Once you've drunk the fruity tea, use a teaspoon to eat the fruit.

You may argue that it is actually food, and point taken. However, for some reason this is the thing I think of when someone says “beverage”.

I'm fond of wassail. It's usually made with cinnamon, but you could exclude it and it should turn out alright.

Simple hot chocolate without any spices is my favourite hot cozy drink

Hot milk with a little bit of honey. Herbal tea is also excellent.

Hot milk with honey will put you to sleep. Especially if you drink it quickly.

Yorkshire Gold, a drop of milk 1 sugar, and a hobnob.

Inka Polish grain beverage. Hard to find in US stores but can be ordered. Add the powder to fully boiling water then add what you like. My preference is honey and soy milk to end up like a love child of coffee and hot chocolate.

A like a mug of broth. But there is a TON of sodium so that's a once in a blue moon drink.

That just sounds like soup, and delicious.

Ponche, Latin American hot fruit drink with chunks of fruit in it. Usually has cinnamon but there's no reason you can't leave it out.

Korean Yuja tea is really nice during cold winter months. It's one of my favorite drinks when it's cold. It's sweet and it warms you right up. You can buy the marmalade at Asian grocery stores.

edit: It's not really tea, but marmalade dissolved in hot water. Sweet, thick and heartwarming. Also the rinds are nice to chew on :)

Eggnog? Often with cinnamon, but there are endless varieties, and I'm sure some have no cinnamon. No chocolate. Rarely spicy.

Try a home recipe; it's not complicated. It's great cold and hot, and it's not bad with a shot of espresso in the morning, either.

Have you ever made eggnog yourself? It’s not that hard and it’s fucking wonderful

Are you looking to relax and willing to shell out $$? Kin Dream Light with pear juice and a little bit of lemon is a lovely non alcoholic nightcap.

Milk kefir is also good, or water kefir from tibicos.

None of these are literally warm, as I live where it's hot. But they are relaxing and non alcoholic. If you aren't sensitive to caffeine, do like the Spanish and have a coffee at night.

Hot camomile tea; can add a spoonful of honey. I buy a pound at a time and lasts a long while.

Hot Sake. From what I understand, the expensive stuff is what is generally served cold. The cheap stuff is served hot.