Thinking of Drinking: The Perfect Cocktail to Keep You Warm

Legal Sea Foods recently launched a new Raising the Bar cocktail menu at their D.C. area restaurants, including three signature drinks that promise to keep you warm as the temperature outside starts to drop. Capital Cooking has teamed up with Legal Sea Foods to bring these great recipes directly to you.

Honey Apple Warmer

The first featured drink is the Honey Apple Warmer, a Brandy-based drink that boasts fall flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon. The addition of honey makes this the sweetest of the hot drinks on the menu.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. Laird’s Applejack Brandy
• 1 oz. Barenjager Honey Liqueur
• 1 oz. Spice Box Syrup
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
• Hot Water

*Spice box syrup: Simple syrup flavored with orange peel, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Combine all ingredients and garnish with a clove studded lemon (half wheel).

Hot Buttered Rum

If rum is your spirit of choice, the Hot Buttered Rum includes two types of rum, Appleton Estate Jamaica and Meyer Dark. This drink is a little stronger than the Honey Apple Warmer and has a distinctive richness from the addition of butter.

1 oz. Myers’s Dark Rum

1 oz. Appleton V/X Rum

1 oz. Spice Box Syrup*

½ oz. Butter (1 pat)

Hot Water

*Spice box syrup: Simple syrup flavored with orange peel, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Combine all ingredients. Stir until butter is fully melted. Garnish with a dash of Allspice.

Hot Toddy

The pièce de résistance of the drink menu was the Hot Toddy. A simple mix of honey, hot water and Eagle Reserve Bourbon creates a stiff drink that will definitely get your blood flowing.

Ingredients:

½ oz. Honey (1 packet)

2 oz. Eagle Rare 10 yr. Bourbon

Hot Water

Combine all ingredients. Stir until honey is fully dissolved. Garnish with a clove studded lemon (half wheel)

Along with the great fall cocktails on the menu, the restaurant offers a wide range of fun and interesting cocktails as well including their signature Sangrias. There are three different Sangrias: Apple Sangria, White Sangria and the Legal Sangria which resembles your typical Red Sangria. The Apple Sangria is the perfect combination of apple and cinnamon, without either flavor overpowering the other. After one sip you are quickly reminded of fall. The White Sangria is more like a lemonade cocktail than a typical white Sangria that you find at other restaurants. Still refreshing and perfectly light this would be a great drink for pre-dinner cocktail. Last but not least was their Legal Sangria which seemed to be a staff and customer favorite. Although a little on the sweeter side, this Sangria included citrus and stone fruit liquors to give it an interesting twist.

The new Raising the Bar menu is available at the four Legal Sea Foods locations in the Washington, DC area including 704 7th Street NW, Washington, D.C. (202) 347–0007; 2301 Jefferson Davis Hwy in Crystal City, Arlington, VA (703) 415-1200; Tysons Galleria in McLean, VA (703) 827-8900; and Westfield Shopping Mall in Bethesda, MD (301) 469-5900.

By: Ashley Murray and Lauren Rittermann

Capital Cooking Contributors