Hot Drinks - Cider, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, Spiced Punch, Spirits

* A festive collection of 50 hot drink recipes for fall and winter holiday entertaining. * Features more than 30 full-color photographs. * Includes alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks.

MARY LOU HEISS and ROBERT J. HEISS are the authors of The Story of Tea A Cultural History and Drinking Guide and The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook A Guide to Enjoying the World's Best Tea. They own and operate Cooks Shop Here & Tea Trekker, an established purveyor of fine specialty foods and premium tea, and their online stores, teatrekker.com and cooksshophere.com. When not traveling to source teas, they make their home in western Massachusetts, where Robert's lively food radio program can be heard each week. The Heisses's deep respect for and passionate interest in artisan food products, traditional foods, and the history and evolution of world cuisines bring a global perspective to their work.

Whether you're looking for a delicious coffee or chocolate drink, a variation on the usual teas, a spiced punch, or some creative uses for spirits, you'll find something in here to serve at your holiday parties. Every drink we tried from this book was wholly delicious, such as Winter Twilight, which includes pomegranate juice and Chambord. I wouldn't particularly recommend this book for folks who don't like alcohol, however, as many of the recipes, even those found outside of the obviously spirit-based chapter ("merry-making cocktails") include a fair amount of alcohol.

Other chapters include chocolates and coffees, teas tonics and tisanes, welcome cups and party punches, and winter warmers and sweet dreamers. Thankfully since this isn't a huge book it doesn't spend much space on tried-and-true recipes; instead it dives straight into some nifty and unusual temptations. One of my favorites was 'tres leches'---a concoction that includes banana, orange juice, the traditional three types of milk referred to in the title, and several other surprising ingredients. I was slightly dubious at the combination, but it was amazing! Another fantastic drink, called 'toasted caramel,' involves the sublime dulche de leche, as well as the wonderful combination of Frangelico and Amaretto.

The table of contents lists each drink by name, and the index allows you to search for drinks by ingredient. The book is small and attractive, definitely a contender if you're looking for a delicious little gift cookbook for someone. The photos are beautiful, the layout is clean and easy to use, and the recipes seem well-tested.