5 Winter Warmer Drinks Perfect For Sipping Around a Campfire

We’re serving up our five unique and delightful winter drinks that’ll boost your camping game!

Tell us if we’re wrong, but the best things about winter are the campfires on those chilly nights and delicious hot drinks to sip on.

Whether you’ve completed a long day of hiking, climbed too many walls, covered a long distance on the road or any adventure that leads you to wanting to put your feet up and wind down; these drinks work wonders for you.

We love our cool weather concoctions. Most of us often gravitate towards grabbing the booze straight off the shelf, or some of you might even be participating in dry July for good reasons. Nevertheless, these recipes don’t require alcohol, which means they’re goodies for the young ones too! So, skip the bottle-o on the way home, save some dollars and get excited for these reinvigorated spins on your traditional winter bevvies.

HAPPY HOUR STARTS NOW!

Apple & Grapefruit Infused With Aromatics

One for the small and big kids! A no mess or fuss kind of drink. Remember those days when you went on school camps, lining up at the canteen or sitting by the campfire holding one of those Golden Circle fruit juices? Picture that, but with aromatics and bright coloured exotic fruits; it’s the next level fruit juice! We love our citrus fruits because they’re fresh and zesty – grapefruit is one of those that has the sour-sweet bitterness to it, a great fruit to use for this drink.

Serve: 2

Time: 8 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of apple juice
2. 2 grapefruits (1 juiced, 1 quartered)
3. ¼ apple julienned (match sticks)
4. 2 cinnamon sticks
5. 4 cloves

Method:

1. In a pot, combine apple juice, grapefruit juice from one grapefruit, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Simmer until nice and warm, but not too hot to drink!
2. Serve into your favourite mugs.
3. Garnish with sliced apple and grapefruit.

Ginger & Lemon Tea With Charred Sugar Cane

Tea is often underrated, and we’re here to change your mind about it.

This recipe is easy and a little more extravagant than your regular tea in a bag. It’s a little unconventional – a handful of you might not be familiar with sugar cane – but it was a big thing for me in my childhood and it’s still used a lot around the world in food and drinks.

For this recipe, we’ll be charring the sugar cane over fire at the end for a smokey/burnt sweet sensation to compliment the delicate tea. All you need is a pot, campfire and a couple ingredients to create this healthy herbal tea.

Serve: 2

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 1 knob of ginger (2-3cm thinly sliced)
2. 1 lemon
3. 2 small sprigs of thyme
4. 1 tbsp of sugar
5. 2 cups of water
6. 2 small sticks of sugar cane (optional but recommended!)

Method:

1. To prepare the sugar cane, cut into 10cm pieces and remove skin. Then cut into batons and set aside (each 10cm log should give you 4 pieces).
2. Bring 2 cups of water to the boil.
3. Divide the juice of half a lemon into two mugs.
4. Slice up the other lemon half and added to both mugs.
5. Add hot water, ginger, and thyme to mugs and let it infuse for 3 minutes.
6. If you have a fire going, char the sugar cane for 5 seconds on each side and serve with drink as a side. (This can also be done with a kitchen blow torch)

Hot tip! Chew sugar cane for juice, but do not swallow and eat. It has an awesome flavour!

American Pumpkin Spiced Latte

Don’t knock this one off before you try it! Who’d think to put pumpkin and coffee in the same drink?

Brandi, like many Americans, loves her pumpkin spice lattes every time the weather turns cold. With a taste that literally matches the feel of cool autumn days, it’s a crowd favourite and soon you’ll be entertaining your mates with this one.

Coffee comes down to personal preference – if you’re up for a long night go for the caffeinated route. We tend to go with the decaffeinated option as we’re early birds and love waking up to the sounds of nature.

Serve: 2

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 1 tbsp of pumpkin puree
2. 2 shots of espresso
3. ½ vanilla pod (or ½ tsp vanilla extract)
4. 2 cups of milk
5. ¼ cup of whipped cream
6. Pinch of nutmeg
7. Pinch of cinnamon
8. 1 tbsp of sugar

Method:

1. Pour pumpkin puree, vanilla pod, milk, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a pot and heat until it starts simmering. Be careful not to burn the milk.
2. Prepare your shot of espresso, with whichever bush barista method you use.
3. Grab your mug, combine milk mixture and coffee.
4. Top with whipped cream and dust with cinnamon.

Hot tip! You can purchase American pumpkin puree online or some supermarkets stock international goods, you might be lucky to find some there.

Miso Caramel Banoffee Brew

Yum right? This recipe was inspired by one of the previous kitchens I worked in, we experimented with all sorts of sweet and savoury flavours. Often, desserts are underrated and not the star of the show. Today, we’re seeing more kitchens push limits to create unique flavours and sensations for us lucky customers.

Here we’re using white miso paste to replace sea salt as it gives the drink a more rich and creamy hint. It’s a bit like making a custard but without the egg. On a side note, this mocktail would be perfect if you have extra miso paste and cereal leftover in your camp kitchen pantry.

Serve: 2

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 1 banana thinly sliced
2. 2 cups of milk
3. 1 tsp of white miso paste
4. 3 tbsp of white chocolate powder
5. ¼ cup of caramel sauce
6. ½ cup of whipped cream
7. Pinch of sugar
8. Handful of crunchy nut cereal crushed (can substitute with salted caramel popcorn)
9. Handful of dark chocolate shaved

Method:

1. Combine miso paste and caramel sauce, mix well so there are no lumps.
2. In a pot, warm up the milk, white chocolate powder, and miso caramel sauce, whisking well. Once combined, take off heat. Do not boil!
3. Sprinkle sugar over the bananas and brulee (torch) them until caramalised.
4. Pour drink in mug and top with cream, banana, chocolate, and cereal. Yum Yum!

Mulled Wine

Looking for something a little more indulgent? This well-known winter drink takes us back to our time in Europe, during the Christmas markets in Nuremberg, Germany. The little town was magical, thriving with food stalls serving hot food and drinks, as well as little gift shops and much more! We miss this place so much that we want to recreate the memories here back at home.

This recipe is completely non-alcoholic and can be made for the kids as well! Though, if you can’t resist, go ahead and use alcoholic wine.

Serve: 2

Time: 8 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of non-alcoholic red wine
2. 1 orange halved
3. 1 cinnamon stick
4. 1 star anise
5. 1 bay leaf
6. 1 small sprig of rosemary
7. 2 tbsp of sugar (or to taste)

Method:

1. Juice half of the orange and slice the cinnamon, star anise, bay leaf, and rosemary.
2. Add all ingredients into a pot and heat until simmered, then set aside for three minutes to infuse.

Hot tip! Serve it with a cheese platter.

Reduce Your Waste

1. Recycle bottles/cans/plastic – Many of you might be aware of the multiple resources in Australia like Containers for a Change and RedCycle. We can utilise these resources to lessen our carbon footprint and become more sustainable.
2. Reusable straw – There are many outlets to purchase reusable straws, insulated mugs, tumblers, and accessories for your hot beverages. Help us phase out of single-use products.

Read more: Leave no trace!

What travel mug should I buy?

Our list of things to consider when choosing a travel mug includes;

1. Double wall insulation – this keeps drinks hot for roughly 4-6 hours. Camelbak and Yeti are both over-engineered and renowned for quality and durability.
2. Magnetic lid – keeps you from losing your lid.
3. Ease of use and transportation – some have screw tops, so you may find it harder to drink on the go. However, the leak-proof option does come in handy when hiking, biking, and travelling.
4. Sea to Summit collapsible mugs are perfect for throwing in backpacks and tight spaces. Tumblers are a go-to as well if you need to save some space.