Cinnamon Bun Hot Buttered Rum

Everyone's favorite breakfast pastry, now in cocktail form.

Spicy Ginger Hot Toddy

When it gets cold out and my nose gets sniffly, I happily turn to the curing power of a hot toddy. My standby recipe is from an older version of a Gourmet cookbook for hot buttered rum that combines lemon juice, maple sugar, rum, boiling water and is dotted with a pat of butter. But I wanted to add a spicy element to the mix, using ginger tea as a base for the cocktail, which provides a tiny ginger burn at the back of the throat.

Salty Maple Buttered Cider

Hot buttered rum is even better with warm cider.

Brown-Butter Old Fashioned

The classic Old Fashioned cocktail gets an update with toasty, nutty browned butter, which adds richness while mellowing things out.

DIY Spiced Rum

Many commercial spiced rums use the spices to cover up inferior rum. At home, you can create a more elegant and bold version, tailored to your taste.

Hot Coffee Grog

If there's been one simple message that's come out of the Four Loko hullaballoo, it's that mixing caffeine and alcohol is a bad idea. Now that this preliminary is out of the way, let's get down to doing that very thing. There are plenty of versions of the Hot Coffee Grog floating around in the booze world. Some contain cream or butter (or, in one tiki-fied version, coconut cream), and some are laced with a range of liqueurs.

How to Make Spiced Rum From Scratch

Simply take your desired mix of spices and other ingredients, pop them in a bottle of rum for, oh, two days, then taste. Need the spice mix a bit stronger? Let it sit a day or two more, or, edit the taste profile as you go, adding more of an ingredient if you wish to push it forward.

Toffee Eggnog

A toffee-laden variation on eggnog.

Everything Nice (Spiced-Rum Coffee With Butterscotch Whipped Cream)

In this variation on a classic Irish coffee, spiced rum takes the place of whiskey, lending its sweet, spiced caramel flavor to the coffee's roasted, bitter bite.

Buttered Rum and Cranberry Popcorn

This cranberry-studded popcorn is a light enough snack to munch on without being too filling; but its combination of sweet and salty, tangy and boozy is enough to satisfy just until your holiday feast really starts.