Warm up with a Colorado-crafted hot beverage this winter

By Kristen Richard

You finally find a parking spot after a long day at work. The dashboard thermometer reads 30°F, but as you grab your belongings, start the trek home, and hear the crunch of snow under your boots, you think to yourself “no, it’s definitely colder.” To make matters worse, the wind simply won’t let up. It cuts through your heavy jacket and tightly wound scarf, chilling you to your core.

That’s when you decide tonight calls for something stronger than a hot chocolate or green tea to warm up and unwind. You need a stiff drink — preferably a hot one. Thankfully, there are plenty of places in and around Denver to sit back, relax, and warm up with a hot boozy concoction. Here are some of our favorite places to get warm drinks made with Colorado-centric ingredients.

Deviation Distilling, Denver

Tucked away in a private alley in LoDo’s Dairy Block you’ll find Tiago Amaral behind the bar at Deviation Distilling. There, you’ll likely see him whipping up inventive takes on the Moscow Mule, Old Fashioned, and — come fall and winter — boozy hot toddies and hot chocolates.

Along with mixing cocktails, Deviation also distills its own spirits. And the hot toddies can be made with the brand’s Spice Trade Gin or the ZinFinished Bourbon. Once you have your base, you can look forward to a warming cocktail that includes star anise, cinnamon bark and “our house sherbet,” says Amaral, Deviation’s head mixologist. “It’s a sherbet in liquid form that’s made from lemon, lime, and honey.”

Amaral explains that while these hot toddies are relatively simple, the sherbet gives them a delicious “zesty” characteristic, enabling them to stand out from similar drinks.

Of course, what winter season would be complete without hot chocolate?

“Our mixology team sat down and tried to make something that would not just be a typical powder hot chocolate,” Amaral says. “We wanted to make something really nice, high quality, and highlight the spirit.”

The result?

“We combine dark and bittersweet chocolates like Ghirardelli and Nestlé to make a balanced cocktail that’s not overly sweet,” he says. “Then we melt the chocolate with some cinnamon and cloves for some complexity.”

That chocolatey base is then mixed with one of Deviation’s Barista whiskeys, and then topped with housemade whipped cream with vanilla extract.

And while we didn’t think the hot chocolate could get much better, Deviation surprised us. Come the holidays, bargoers have the option to order a peppermint mocha boozy hot chocolate topped with crushed candy cane.

Seven Grand, Denver

“I feel like winter cocktails kind of get stuck in a rut with just Irish coffees,” says Dylan Holcomb, general manager of Seven Grand, which is also located in LoDo’s Dairy Block. Instead, Holcomb wanted to create a playful twist on the classic concoction that would highlight both a Colorado whiskey and coffee brand as well.

Enter the Seven Grand Demogorgon, made with Dorda Coffee Liqueur, Woody Creek Distiller’s Colorado Straight Rye Whiskey, Huckleberry Blue Orchid Coffee, and all topped with a coco de leche whipped cream.

The secret to creating a delicious cocktail?

“When you start off with great spirits, you are going to end up with great cocktails,” Holcomb says. “The whiskey has a very unique mash bill of about 70% corn and 30% rye, which adds some very unique flavors to the drink.” He cites how the rye gives the Demogorgon some “spicy notes’’ and allows it to “stand up and stand out in a cocktail with coffee.” On the other hand “the corn has some sweetness to it and gives some subtle hints of guava and mango.”

You can find the Demogorgon on Seven Grand’s menus until around Saint Patrick’s Day.

Primitive Beer, Longmont

When you think “hot drinks,” beer might not be top of mind. Heck, it may not even come to mind at all. But, it’s definitely time to start exploring the category. And thankfully, Primitive Beer holds several hot beer festivals from December through March.

“We held the first of these events in December 2021 and it’s been a really fun annual tradition for us,” says Lisa Boldt, co-owner of Primitive Beer.

On their event days, Primitive offers two styles of hot beer. One, according to Boldt, is similar to mulled wine or Glühwein. It uses Primitive’s grape cherry and grape spontaneous beer (meaning it’s fermented by yeast naturally occurring in the environment rather than being inoculated by a specific strain). It’s then warmed with honey, citrus and spices like cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.

“The other style of hot beer we serve at these events is typically created with guest beers from brewery friends around the state. We bring in bigger, maltier, heavier beers, typically classic “winter” styles and heat them with a red-hot metal poker heated in an open fire pit on our brewery’s patio,” Boldt says. “The poker caramelizes some of the sugars in the beer, warms it slightly, and drives off some of the carbonation. This results in a creamy, marshmallowy head to the glass.”

You can only get the beer warmed with a hot poker during the designated festival days. But you can try the brewery’s hot spiced Primitive Beer all winter at their Barrel House. Or if you’re in the mood for something on the cooler side, check out any of the other brews on their menu. According to Boldt, each one is made with “100% Colorado-grown ingredients.”

Lady Jane, Denver

Located in bustling LoHi, Lady Jane is all about creating a warm, welcoming space with a menu of seasonal cocktails.

At the time of writing this story, the team hadn’t yet developed this winter’s hot cocktails. But they were able to give some examples from years past. For instance, in 2022, they had the Master of Disquise, which featured pistachio oil and cacao butter-washed Four Roses Bourbon, Amaro Montenegro, lapsang souchong tea and a whole host of other ingredients. The year before that, there was The Change of Heart, which was made with coconut oil-washed bourbon, avuá bálsamo cachaça, hōjicha tea, maple, and topped with a hōjicha tea-infused cream.

But one drink guests can always expect on the menu when the weather starts getting cooler and the leaves start to change? The hot toddy.

“Our hot toddy is very traditionalist with no lemon juice added,” says Stuart Weaver, Lady Jane’s general manager and partner. In it you’ll find bourbon, honey, angostura bitters and hot water. And according to Weaver, they can use Colorado bourbon and honey.

“It is very photogenic and is served in a latte mug with a long lemon peel garnish,” Weaver says.

Kristen Richard is a drink and food freelance writer based in Denver. When she’s not traveling down the rabbit hole of random esoteric booze knowledge, you can usually find her camping, hiking, hanging with her dog, reading or rocking out to metal bands.