Warming winter serves: avoiding the cold with cocktails

It's cold, it's grey, and it's wet. In short, it's that time of the year when people need a good warm hug - in a glass!

It is also the busiest time of year for those of us in hospitality. People are flocking to bars in droves, wearing Christmas jumpers and drinking like the boss is paying (which means they probably are). So, now is not the time to be making fiddly serves that take ages to prepare.

Which bring us to the question: how can you serve hot cocktails without turning your service into a hot mess?

We asked some seasoned hospitality professionals for their tips on making three of our favourite warm serves, without disrupting normal service. Let's have a look...

1) Tully XO Caribbean Coffee 

Ingredients:  35ml Tully XO  10ml demerara syrup 120ml espresso coffee  Double cream (to top) Mix the Tully XO and the sugar syrup together in a latte glass. Top with espresso and stir well. Whip the double cream until stiff, and pour carefully onto the top of the coffee mix.

Sam's tips for a speedy serve

The guys at Swift (currently at #41 on The World's Best Bars list) probably sell more Irish coffee than anyone else in London, making it their signature cocktail. So, we asked bartender Sam Ameye to tell us how they do it. 

"The Irish coffee at Swift was made to disprove the idea that Irish coffees take a long time to make," he says. "With the proper preparation, you can get production time down to about 30 seconds per drink - thank god, because we make a lot of them!"

"The trick to a good Irish coffee is, a) the dry-sweet balance, and b) the heat of the drink. The former is done by sweetening our coffee beforehand, so we can get it to a level that works for us. The latter is achieved with a sous-vide. We simply keep the coffee and glasses at a constant temperature to ensure a hot Irish coffee is served every time."

"Lastly, our cream is hand-whipped double cream that's kept chilled, already shipped. Nothing fancy here, just really good cream."

2) Hot Buttered Monkey

Ingredients: 50ml Monkey Shoulder 2 pieces of fudge  100ml hot water Cinnamon stick Pour the hot water into a rocks glass. Break up the fudge and melt in hot water, then add the Monkey Shoulder. Stir well with a cinnamon stick until all the fudge is dissolved, and serve.

Christina's tips for a speedy serve

Hot, buttered rum has always been my go-to when it comes to hot boozy drinks. Being a Scotch lover, this Hot Buttered Monkey sounds like a damn good idea to me!

• Using fudge instead of butter and sugar saves you an ingredient
• If the fudge takes too long to dissolve, prepare the fudge water in advance and heat it up with your espresso machine steamer or a microwave.

The fudge also gives you the opportunity to play with flavours by using different kinds of fudge (think caramel, vanilla, chocolate...)

3) Reyka's Arctic Screwdriver

Ingredients: 30ml Reyka Icelandic Vodka 30ml English mead 3 clementines  15ml gingerbread syrup  50ml cold water Cut the clementines and blowtorch the pulp until lightly charred. Squeeze the juice into a pan. Mix all ingredients together with the juice and heat gently. Pour into a rocks glass and garnish with a cinnamon stick and star anise.

Fabiano's tips for a speedy serve

Being our showstopper, this one is a bit trickier to put together, so I asked the creator of the drink, Reyka brand ambassador Fabiano Alberto Pestana Latham, to tell us how he makes this work on a busy night. His solution is pretty savvy, and makes the Arctic Screwdriver easy as pie!

• Pre-batch the entire cocktail
• Heat up single serves using a milk frother

"It's unrealistic to put any hot serves other than mulled wine or cider in big soup kettles, since very few places have the space," Fabiano says. "So these are ideal for quick, consistent single hot-serves.