Alcademics

Here is a hot drink that will both warm up your body and make your mouth tingle with added spiciness from black pepper and Tabasco. 

I tried a lot of versions of this drink before settling on the below recipe. My first thought was to skip the water and use regular wine rather than vermouth, letting the mulling spices work their magic on it. However that didn't work for me, possibly because I bought a really terrible bottle of red wine. 

I also went back and forth on using ground spices versus whole, but found there was just too much gunk in the bottom of the glass when using ground cinnamon and pepper. As a result I let it simmer longer than with ground spices. (A fine strainer didn't work well to keep them out of the glass and a coffee filter gummed up, likely because of all the sugar/honey.)

I'm guessing this recipe would work just find with pre-packaged mulling spices you can buy in stores. Just add black pepper and Tabasco to the mix if you want it spicy.

I was surprised that despite the sweetened vermouth and Campari, it could still take that much honey syrup, but I found that using orange blossom honey really paired nicely with the Negroni and honey is always great in hot drinks. 

Anyway, here goes. 

Spicy Mulled Negroni
By Camper English

1.5 ouces Gin
1.5 ounces Campari
1.5 ounces Sweet Vermouth
1.5 ounces Orange Blossom Honey Syrup (equal parts honey and water)
2 ounces Water
2-3 dashes Tabasco Pepper Sauce
1 stick Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Black Peppercorns
1/8 tsp Fresh Ground Nutmeg
Orange peel, for garnish 

Simmer all ingredients except gin and orange peel over low heat for about 15 minutes. Add gin and pour into a heat-proof glass. Zest orange peel and drop into glass. 

This recipe was developed with support from Tabasco.