Spice and all things nice make a warming winter cocktail

When the weather changes and the colder months settle in, seasonal cocktails feature richer, more warming flavour profiles. It’s a moment when spice – not just the heat-giving kind, but the aromatic sort too – really comes into its own. And while pumpkin spice and mulled wine tend to dominate menus, there is much more to explore.

How to build flavour

Take the approach of a chef, layering flavour in a sauce. As well as considering how to create depth, look at how you might pre-treat your spices, such as by toasting, which can create very different results. 

The goal when blending spices is to build not just complexity, but length of flavour, so the experience evolves across both nose and palate. Pay close attention to how the spices interact with one another, as it’s easy for one element to mask another. Clove, for example, will pierce through other flavours, so removing some rather than adding more of something else will be more helpful to the final flavour of the cocktail.

Perfumery is another area worth exploring. A cologne, for example, might contain citrus notes and a number of different spices that are highly transferable to cocktails. A perfumer builds complexity in a fragrance using base (the scent that lingers), mid (core scents) and top notes (the initial scent), which is a useful framework when writing recipes and considering the function of each spice. Once you have your inspiration and a selection of spices ready to work with, establish which will become your base, mid and top notes.

How to extract spices

Flavours can be added to liquids either through cold or hot extraction methods, using water, vinegar or alcohol as a base. 

Flavoured syrups are a cost-effective way to work with spice in drinks and can be made from spices soaked in hot or cold water, then strained and sugar added.

Alcohol will extract spice flavours more quickly and often with greater clarity than water. Sous vide extraction at a temperature between 60°C and 70°C works well, but I also enjoy the results of cold extraction – it requires more time, but the flavours are typically very crisp and clear. Tinctures, which are extractions with a typically higher alcohol content, should be dosed into drinks with precision.

Shelf life should be considered when using alcohol. While your creation won’t technically spoil, delicate aromatics will evolve or ‘blow off’ from the liquid, sometimes within just a few days. For this reason, I prefer to prep smaller quantities more frequently, keeping them refrigerated when not in the speed rail.

When using chillies, I recommend pre-soaking them in white wine vinegar, which acts like a wash as well as removing some of the heat-giving capsaicin. The resulting vinegar is still intensely spicy, but the heat is reduced and far more of the chilli flavour comes through.

Zoe Burgess is the founder of drinks consultancy Atelier Pip and lead beverage consultant at the Standard hotel in London

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