Cinnamon is our ingredient of the season. You can find more cinnamon posts here.

This cocktail was 100% inspired by Mexican hot chocolate. It has the cocoa, the spices, and some milk, but I wasn’t sure what to call it because it’s served over ice. Does it count has hot chocolate when it’s not hot?! Whatever we call it, this is delicious and perfect for when you’re gathered around the fireplace this season.

Mexican (Hot) Chocolate Cocktail

This recipe calls for a couple of homemade ingredients, a cinnamon simple syrup and a chocolate + cardamom bitters.

The cinnamon simple syrup is super easy to make. Unlike other simple syrups, I’ve found that this one keeps for a long time in the fridge. I’m guessing that its due to cinnamon’s antimicrobial properties.

The bitters requires more ingredients and time. Our blend has notes of cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon, and cardamom, and I include a little bit more info below as well as some options if you don’t want to make your own. I really think that you shouldn’t skip the bitters in a drink like this. It adds so many spice notes to the final drink.

• 2 oz vodka
• 1 oz creme de cacao
• 1 oz cinnamon simple syrup
• whole milk or creme
• dash of chocolate cardamom bitters

Place the vodka, creme de cacao, and simple syrup in a glass with ice. Give it a nice stir, then add some milk or creme to your taste. Finish off with a few drops or spray of the bitters and garnish with a toasted marshmallow and/or cinnamon stick.

I like to keep my bitters in a spray bottle. A couple of spritzes gives you a nice even spread of the bitters.

Cinnamon Simple Syrup

Place 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and 3 cinnamon sticks in a pot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and stir to help the sugar dissolve. Once the sugar has dissolved completely, remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Transfer the mixture, including cinnamon sticks, to a covered container and store in the fridge. At this point some recipes recommend that you let the cinnamon infuse overnight and then remove the sticks. I’ve had my syrup for a couple of weeks now and haven’t removed the cinnamon sticks. You do you.

Chocolate + Cardamom Bitters

Mixing your own bitters is definitely a fun and creative project, and we may write about it in a future post. If you want to get started on your own, there are a few different books (like this one or this one) that will guide you through the process. It’s as simple as soaking your flavoring and bitter ingredients in vodka, then blending those flavored vodkas is the fun part.

Using a base recipe that we had for a chocolate bitters, Sarah was the genius that added the cardamom punch. It’s so delicious and really perfect for this cocktail.

To make the bitters, we soak each of the ingredients separately in vodka. That way it’s easy to blend the flavored vodkas bit by bit to get the exact bitters blend that we want. Here are the ratios of flavored vodkas for this bitters:

• 1 part cocoa nibs
• 1.5 vanilla
• 1/2 part cinnamon
• 1/2 part cardamom
• touch of maple syrup to round out the flavors

Blend the bitters ingredients in a bottle and enjoy. This is particularly great in an old fashioned.

If you don’t want to make your own bitters, this spiced cocoa bitters looks like it’d be an amazing option for our drink. You can find a variety of bitters on Amazon, including this chocolate and this cardamom variety.

Cheers!