The Best Hot Drinks To Enjoy During The Holidays

Calorific and warming, hot buttered rum is a classic American winter drink. The Daily Gazette explains that hot buttered rum dates back to before the American Revolution, and was once an essential part of celebrations during the festive season. Its high-calorie content has made it less popular in recent years but, before modern heating and insulation, it would have been a great way to keep warm over winter. Rum was once a favorite alcoholic beverage among Americans, and it was commonly believed that a hot alcoholic drink was the fastest way to warm up after spending time outdoors in frosty weather.

At its heart, this drink is a mixture of dark rum and spices, sweetened with brown sugar and with a dollop of butter stirred in for good measure. One obvious question, however, is why people decided to include butter in their rum. The reasoning behind this is lost to time, but one hint comes from another hot drink from the other side of the world. In Tibet, a favorite drink is po cha, better known as butter tea. According to Brooklyn Tea, this is exactly what it sounds like -– tea made with butter — and the butter helps prevent chapped lips in the dry, cold Himalayan weather. It's quite possible butter was originally added to hot rum for much the same reason. Whatever the reality was, hot buttered rum is a warming winter drink and also a taste of an old American tradition.

Filled with the crisp, sweet flavor of apples, mulled cider is a lighter and more refreshing version of its famous cousin, mulled wine. Both drinks, however, have a long and proud history. The Republic of Tea explains how it all centers around mulling spices. Sweet and aromatic, these are easy to recognize, and usually include cinnamon, cloves, and allspice among other ingredients. 

Using them in hot beverages reportedly dates back to the Roman Empire, almost 2,000 years ago, and while the Romans were particularly fond of mulled wine, people around Europe began to make other mulled drinks too. Around the Middle Ages, mulled cider became widely popular in England and Germany, brewed with a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. It was also sweetened and, at the time, honey would've been the most readily available kind of sugar.

Mulled cider is still a festive favorite in many places, and it's usually quite easy to pick up a glass of it from European Christmas markets to enjoy while shopping. Outside the U.S., all ciders are hard ciders, so the drink normally contains alcohol for an extra kick, per Atlas Obscura. The sharp apple flavor, however, is the most important part, so a non-alcoholic mulled cider made from apple juice is no less enjoyable.

Mulled wines are easily one of the most famous festive drinks, enjoyed all across Europe. There are plenty of regional variations, but perhaps the best known of all is German glühwein. Germany is well-known for turning their Christmas celebrations up to 11, so much so that it's not uncommon to find a German Christmas market in cities all across Europe. Needless to say, these markets always include at least one stall selling glühwein which, as The Culture Trip explains, translates to mean "glow wine." The name is reportedly a leftover from a centuries-old tradition in which the wine was heated with a glowing red hot iron.

Glühwein also sits very conveniently alongside a few of 2022's drink trends. Per EHL Insights, boxed wines have become popular recently for being more sustainable and easier to store at home. A box of red wine is also the perfect start for a steaming hot pan of mulled wine. The spices used also play nicely with current trends, with cloves being a common ingredient in glühwein and also having been recently praised for their health benefits. It can even be made with non-alcoholic wine or red grape juice, meaning that nearly anyone can enjoy a soothing mug of hot glühwein over the festive season.

During the New Year, temples across Japan serve cups of smooth, sweet amazake. Rich and flavorsome, it's a traditional Japanese hot beverage made from fermented rice. Its origins date back to Japan's Kofun period over a millennium-and-a-half ago, and it's been praised as a healthy winter drink ever since. Fermented drinks have recently seen a revival in popularity in western countries for their health benefits, making amazake an attractive drink to try. It's created in a similar way to sake, known in Japan as nihonshu, the famous Japanese rice wine. The name amazake literally translates as "sweet sake" but don't let this fool you. This drink is not alcoholic.

Per Timeout, amazake is readily available at winter festivals in Japan, where it's usually served in paper cups. It has a sweet taste with the wholesome fragrance of rice, and is often served with a little grated ginger stirred in. While it may not be available at any festivals outside Japan, pre-made amazake can be easily bought from online vendors and some East Asian supermarkets. Alternatively, starter cultures are also available, and it's quite easy to ferment a batch at home. A steaming hot pan of amazake can make for a light and interesting alternative to the mulled wine and egg nog usually enjoyed over the festive season.

The idea of winter in the Netherlands calls forth idyllic scenes with snowy landscapes, woolen hats with ear flaps, and ice skating on frozen canals. One thing that fits snugly into this picture is anijsmelk, a warming beverage that's perfect for those who want to warm up after an afternoon on the ice. Centuries ago, as Enchanted Living Magazine explains, street vendors in the Netherlands would set up stalls to give people a reprieve from the bitter winter winds and serve this sweet aromatic drink to people taking a break from skating. Still as popular as ever, the Dutch drink anijsmelk offers a subtle spiced flavor and smooth creamy texture.

A non-alcoholic winter warmer, Lonely Planet describes this as an infusion of earthy-tasting star anise in piping hot milk, sweetened with a little sugar or honey. Often served to children, a steaming mug of anijsmelk gives a taste of old-fashioned Dutch homeliness, making for a great way to relax on a cold winter afternoon.

For many Americans, particularly in the Midwest, a Tom & Jerry is a firm favorite hot drink during the festive season. As rich and wholesome as egg nog, the usual way to prepare Tom & Jerrys is to pre-make a batch of batter from beaten eggs and spices. This is then kept in the fridge and used as and when needed, served with hot water, rum or brandy, and a pinch of grated nutmeg. Interestingly though, while it's a distinctly American drink in modern times, the inventor of the Tom & Jerry wasn't actually American himself.

Atlas Obscura tells the story of how this beverage's inventor was reportedly a 19th-century British writer. A journalist by the name of Pierce Egan created the beverage as a publicity stunt in 1821. His intent was to create a signature cocktail to market his new book, so he invented a hot cocktail by varying the recipe of egg nog with the addition of brandy. Some consider this story apocryphal, however, and there's a chance it could simply be a myth. All the same, Egan's writing was the source of the phrase "Tom and Jerrying," which once referred to bawdy inebriated merriment. It's uncertain when the drink arrived in the U.S. or how it became such an essential part of a midwestern Christmas, but it's still an excellent way to fight off the cold during the holiday season.