Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1322707
93 Warm ale was considered to be medicinal—and the presentation of the drink, which was often tossed between two pitchers to create a froth, made it fun. While people who have recreated the drink since report that it tastes like warm earth, it surely imparts a snug feeling inside. Bartenders today have advanced well beyond mixing drinks with a hot poker, crafting tasty tipples with a blend of familiar and unusual flavors to keep patrons warm during outdoor happy hours huddled near heat lamps. "We start by thinking about what flavors invoke cozy, inviting feelings that folks tend to seek in the winter," says Alycia Rovner, director of marketing at Short Path Distillery in Everett, where heaters at every table will keep their "Pitcher Patio" toasty this winter. The flavors don't have to be cliché either—in the Southtown Switcheroo, a drink created for Northshore by bar manager Ryan Ford, tropical flavors like pineapple and lime play nicely with house-made spiced rum amped up with clove and cinnamon. "It incorporates juices and flavors that you would expect to be served cold, but offers subtle hints of warming spices that make it work as a hot cocktail," Rovner says, noting that the Southtown Switcheroo (named for the town in The Year Without A Santa Claus) will be served in an insulated carafe at the tasting room. "It's a drink that keeps us warm while also reminding us of a tropical escape." At Deacon Giles Distillery in Salem, where they have converted part of their warehouse into a socially distanced lodge complete with an electric fireplace, they've been working on a trio of hot cocktails, including a spin on Glühwein—a German mulled aprés ski drink— replacing grape juice with wine steeped with a mulling blend from Salem Spice. Jesse Brenneman, co-founder of Deacon Giles, says how you build the drink is important when crafting hot cocktails. "Wait till the very end to add the booze," he says. "If Cocktails Warm cocktails are as much a part of the history of Massachusetts as tea—perhaps even more so. In colonial times, every tavern served a Hot Ale Flip—one of the earliest mixed drinks around. The blend of eggs, molasses, hot ale, and rum, stirred with a glowing poker into a bubbling frenzy, was so popular that Corin Hirsch called it the Cosmopolitan of the 18th century in her book Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England: From Flips and Rattle-Skulls to Switchel and Spruce Beer. Opposite page, Glühwein ohne Wein from Deacon Giles Distillery in Salem Below, Earl Gray Hot Toddy