It’s a Hard Spice Life

The health values of hard spices are manifold, and their flavors should rightfully extend far beyond the holiday season that they’re typically confined to. Clove is antifungal and provides relief for oral pain, nutmeg reduces insomnia, and black pepper helps you to better absorb the nutrients of whatever else you consume, just to name a few benefits.

This chapter features simple pantry staples that last for years, can be grated on the fly, and look supercool left whole in drinks. They are accoutrements à la Martha Stewart, only completely attainable and simple! It does take some focused creating to ensure that the cocktails made with hard spices don’t taste generically like the holidays; if you combine too many spices at once, the likelihood is that the drink will end up with a gingerbread flavor and lose all individual notes. Because of that, care has been taken to use just one or two spices for many of these drinks, lest you feel like you’re drinking a Christmas potpourri candle.