#fall drink

Put a mug's worth of apple cider in a pot and add some orange slices (I always wash the orange before cutting it, but leave the peel on, you you want them oils).

Add spices to your taste, I have mulling spice bags that I use but if I didn't I would use some combo of the following, and whole spices are better for this if you have them: cinnamon stick, clove, allspice, ginger (fresh peeled ginger preferred), anise, nutmeg.

Add a splash of cranberry juice. Pomegranate juice also works. If you don't have juice on hand you can also use a teabag of a similar flavor palette. I used pomegranate raspberry recently and it was fantastic. Remember to cut any strings off of teabags going on the stove.

Optional to add: lemon slice(s), apple slices. You can sub juice for the orange and/or lemon if you like or if it's easier.

Heat the pot over the stove to drinking temperature then pour it into a mug, filtering the add-ins out.

If the drink doesn't fill my mug when it's done, usually because I forgot and it boiled and it is also now too hot, I add cold cider on top, which also helps to bring it to the right temperature.

I mean think about it. This drink comes in unlimited free refills, is available at most restaurants, is socially acceptable to order all year round and at most times of the day or night.

I am warm drink enjoyer (all warm drinks) and none of the others get a teeny tiny bit of that treatment.

Hot chocolate? expensive, one cup per purchase, comes over sugared with whip cream, made with water mostly (never with milk), only socially acceptable to order during the fall and winter.

Tea? here in america, even at Tea Shops or whatever, the best you can get is hot leave juice, and the worst you can get is a disgrace. went to a Chinese restaurant yesterday and what I got when I ordered green tea and my sister ordered Jasmine was just... bad.

Most people don't even know what Wassail is, so good like finding that and ordering it.

Apple cider or any other fruit cider probably isn't available either, not even in the fall. the best you might get is apple juice, in a small class, one cup per purchase and oddly expensive per cup too.

And if one does like coffee, but a bit doctored up with sugar and cream, all you get are tiny sugar bags and small cream cups, and it takes like six of one and half a dozen of the other to fix a single cup, so even with unlimited refills you spend half of you meal time opening containers and mixing them in your coffee. and then there is the caffeine thing, which many other warm drinks do not have.

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte

It's been in the 90s (°F) all week where I live, but catch me drinking hot drinks.

1 shot of espresso

1 tbsp Pumpkin spice syrup

1 - 1 1/2 cup steamed milk

Milk foam

Servings: 1 - 83 kcal/1 g protein

8 ounces brewed coffee, or 1-2 shots of espresso

1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

3 Tablespoons pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons maple syrup, or sweetener of choice

sprinkle of cinnamon

With a handheld frother or blender: In a cup or sauce pan, mix together almond milk and pumpkin. Cook on medium heat on the stove top or microwave for 30-45 seconds. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, spices and sweetener, place in a cup and use a frother to foam the milk. You can also use a blender — just process for 30 seconds or until foamy. Pour coffee into a large mug, add the foamy milk mixture on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy!