One of the best things to do in the winter if you are an adult and you have no mixed feelings about fermentation is to go to your favorite local imbibery and see what they might have in the way of Christmassy drinks.  

Many of the area watering holes that I contacted in early November did not have their Christmassy drink menus prepared yet.  

But Copper Spoon had some exciting news to share, as did Night Train.  

If you are lucky, your preferred grogshop will be serving hot drinks, which usually aren’t available under the blazing heat of summer for reasons that are as mysterious as the sea is vast.  

One of the oldest hot drinks is known as the hot toddy. It is basically just liquor (whiskey or brandy) and hot water with lemon and some sort of sweetener, usually honey.  

One of the many origin stories for the hot toddy (this one from Chilled Magazine) involves an Irish doctor named Robert Bentley Todd, who prescribed his version of this drink for his patients’ ills.  

We don’t know what he wrote on the prescription form, but we can imagine it was something along the lines of “Drink lots of this right before you open my bill.”  

Long ago, before people realized that alcohol has no medicinal purposes, it was used for medicinal purposes. Now that people know it has no medicinal purposes, they still use it for medicinal purposes and it works about as well as any over-the-counter medication, so leave them alone.  

An offshoot of the hot toddy is hot-buttered rum. Hot-buttered rum is like a hot toddy with the addition of lots of butter.  

This drink was popular in colonial America, and if our forefathers weren’t at least arguing for making butter an inalienable human right, I don’t want to live in this country anymore.  

National Hot Buttered Rum Day (January 17) happens the same day as National Bootlegger’s Day, National Classy Day and Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day. And January is also National Bath Safety Month, International Creativity Month and Get a Balanced Life Month.  

I think Hot Buttered Rum Day can be celebrated jointly and concurrently with all of those except National Bath Safety Month. You probably shouldn’t combine your celebrations of National Hot Buttered Rum Day and National Bath Safety Month. Just saying.  

Wassail – which refers to spiced or mulled wine, but also to a celebration involving spiced or mulled wine and to celebrating with spiced or mulled wine – has one of the more interesting origin stories.  

At a party at a castle in fifth century Britain (according to the non-profit organization, Tales of the Cocktail Foundation), a young woman drank some spiced wine and cried out “Wæs hæl,” which was Old English for “be whole” or “be healthy.” A king was so moved by this toast to win his favor that he took the woman up to his bedroom (so he could show her his collection of Crambeck Ware jars, probably).  

Not only was the word “wassail” coined on this day, but so was the phrase “wassail goggles.”  

Farmers in Medieval Britain actually wassailed – as in, drank toasts to – their crops and animals in the hopes that it would encourage fertility and fecundity. 

There was (according to the website for Colonial Williamsburg) even a folk tradition called “the toasting of the trees” that involved farmers stuffing wine- or cider-soaked bread in the nooks and crannies of fruit trees in the spring to help them “go do that voodoo that they do so well,” to quote Hedy Lamarr.  

I mean, Hedley.  

I can’t really claim to empathize with trees, but I think I know how I would feel if a farmer showed up and filled my cracks and crevices with damp bread.  

Just to be safe, a farmer should show up and do that. I want to be absolutely certain.  

There is a version of mulled wine called Smoking Bishop that is mentioned in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”  

Dickens allegedly wrote “A Christmas Carol” in his head while walking around London. I am not suggesting that he got the idea for this mulled wine after seeing a Catholic dignitary drop a lit pipe down his cassock, but neither am I suggesting that I am not suggesting it.  

Eggnog is a holiday beverage that sure stirs up memories, although some people might wish they’d done a better job repressing them. 

I love eggnog, but I do understand that there are many people who are determined never to acquire a taste for it. It is sweet and thick but some of your loved ones who cherish eggnog are also sweet and thick, so you should be more broad-minded.  

Eggnog has its roots in something called posset (according to the National Library of Medicine), which was an alcoholic punch made by 13th century monks from curdled milk.  

I am not sure what my mindset would have to be for me to go into the kitchen and try to make an alcoholic punch out of curdled milk, but after my wife found out what I had done, she would doubtless demand that I pack my things and pursue a new lifestyle, perhaps monkhood.  

Everything comes full circle.  

Eggnog is at the center of many great historical tales, including a riot at West Point in 1846 (the student rioters were denied eggnog).  

In 1843 (according to Atlas Obscura), imprisoned members of the Army of the Texas Republic got drunk with their Mexican guards on an eggnog made from smuggled-in mezcal, sugar, eggs and donkey’s milk.  

Everyone enjoyed it except, presumably, the donkey.  

During WWII, Canadian soldiers made a version of eggnog with moose milk. After they finished drinking it, I hope they put up a sign that said, “Sorry, folks. Eggnog’s gone. The moose out front shoulda told you.  

In truth, the eggnog-like concoction known in Canada as moose milk has likely never contained any donations from that titular land mammal. The Canadians are just being impish.  

Most recipes for eggnog only feature a single spirit, usually brandy or rum.  

But George Washington (according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac) liked four spirits in his: rye whiskey, brandy, sherry, and rum.  

After he drank all that, I hope he went out and cut down a cherry tree for spite.  

You, on the other hand, should do nothing out of spite this holiday season.  

Treat yourself (and curb any spite that might be building up within you) by visiting Copper Spoon.   

At Copper Spoon, Beverage Director Chandler Vanous and her seven-member team recently revamped the Bar Menu and came up with a bunch of new cocktails that they grouped under the heading of Family Dinner.  

Copper Spoon has long been at the forefront of Fort Wayne’s cocktail scene.  

Texan Vanous, who has been with Copper Spoon for about a year and a half, said the team decided it was high time that they found the next level for Copper Spoon cocktailry and then took things to that level.  

“We just kind of decided that we needed a specific direction to go in,” she said. “We’ve always done as close as we can to high-end cocktails. That’s always the focus for us. But we just wanted to do something a little more comprehensive, and I sort of led the team in a direction that made sense.”  

You really have to see this new Bar Menu for yourself. You can find it at copperspoonfw.com/menu.  

Some of the ingredients in these extraordinary cocktails include Baijiu (a Chinese liquor), gulab jamun (an Indian dessert), Scotch vinegar, raclette and gruyere cheeses, whiskey infused with duck fat, whisky finished in tabasco barrels, ramen-broth vermouth and Salisbury steak gravy.  

Vanous said the gravy is made in-house (sorry, Swanson) and the Baijiu is more special than most people might appreciate at first glance.  

“That one is actually not available anywhere else in the state,” she said. “We have that imported just for this menu.”  

Savory cocktails are all the rage right now, she said.  

Right outside of Copper Spoon throughout the month of December is Miracle on Jefferson. Miracle on Jefferson is an annual tented and Christmas-themed pop-up bar featuring a dozen special cocktails, served (should you so desire) in collectible glasses.  

You can find hours and the drink menu here: copperspoonfw.com/miracle  

And Night Train, which is downtown Fort Wayne’s only basement bar (as far as I know), will be hosting a Christmas-themed-yet-tropical pop-up bar this year called Sippin’ Santa.

You can find more information here: sippinsantapopup.com Copper Spoon and Miracle on Jefferson are located at 301 W. Jefferson Boulevard and Night Train is located at 135 W Columbia Street.  

Looking for part two of this story? It can be found here.  

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