Inspired by Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s tonic syrup recipe, which I’ve made and enjoyed on several occasions, I created some flavorful syrup suitable for winter mixing.  To me, the spices of Thanksgiving and Christmas speak of cold snow and warm fires.  A few years ago, they also invoked hot cocoa and warm apple cider, but these days my tastes run a bit stiffer.

Here, then, I present a recipe for “winter syrup”, as well as a few ways to use it.  If you have other recipes, please leave them in the comments.

2C water

0.25C whole allspice berries

0.25C whole cloves

2 whole cinnamon sticks

1T whole cardamon pods

2 nugmeg seeds, crushed

Freshly extracted seeds of one whole vanilla bean

1T dried orange peel

0.25C fresh lemongrass, chopped

Combine all spices and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat, and strain – I use a french press but feel free to substitute some other fairly fine strainer that you have available.

Return to heat in a clean pan and stir in 1.5C raw agave nectar.  Remove from heat, and refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

It took a while to find the right mix for this strongly-scented and flavored syrup, but the following two seem to be working well:

4:2:1 brandy:irish cream:winter syrup, hot

4:1 brandy:winter syrup, hot

Presidente brandy seems to blend well with the flavors of the syrup.  Enjoy!