Chacha, Tbilisi

Cheers: Gaumarjos!

Merry Christmas: Shobas Gilotsavt

Chacha is both the Georgian word for grape pomace and its distilled byproduct (pomace brandy), although it is used loosely to refer to any homemade spirit. Visit a Georgian village, where practically every family makes it, and you will be forced to down a glass or three. That’s how Georgians roll. It has long had a bad rep for being rough; however, we are witnessing a renaissance of smoother craft chachas and brandies, which are now served in Tbilisi’s finest restaurants. Chacha Time is the first and only bar in Tbilisi dedicated solely to chacha and fruit brandies. It’s in an old grocery shop in the up-and-coming Sololaki neighbourhood and offers a respectable selection of family-made and big-brand bottles. You’ll discover why Georgians love to drink this on cold winter nights.

• Chacha Time, Geronti Kikodze 5, on Facebook

Paul Rimple, Culinary Backstreets Tbilisi bureau chief

Grzane piwo, Kraków

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Camelot cafe serves excellent liqueur nalewka. Photograph: Katie Garrod/Getty Images

Cheers: Na zdrowie!

Merry Christmas: Wesołych Świąt!

One of the joys of visiting Poland is the popularity of the klubokawiarnia (cafe-club): coffee shops that servealcohol and stay open late into the evening. These are perfect places to spend hours sheltering from the cold on dark winter afternoons, where your options include everything from coffee and homemade cheesecake or apple pie to a locally brewed beer and a plate of Polish meat dumplings. Embodying this philosophy is the winter speciality of grzane piwo (mulled beer: pale lager served hot with cinnamon, honey, lemon, and cloves – and sometimes also orange). It is a welcome alternative to the regional ubiquity of mulled wine (grzane wino). You’ll find it on offer at Camelot, an exquisite cafe on a side street off Kraków’s main square. Filled with antique furniture, local art and wooden carvings, Camelot also serves hot winter versions of nalewka, a strong liqueur infused with honey, cherry or raspberry. Consider also orzechówka, a hazelnut vodka best served cold and that tastes like liquid Nutella.

• Ul Świętego Tomasza 17, lochcamelot.art.pl

Christian Davies

Gløgg, Copenhagen

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hotel D’Angleterre, which serves its own version of Christmas tipple Snow Queen’s White Gløgg. Photograph: Getty Images

Cheers: Skål!

Merry Christmas: Glædelig jul!

Many Copenhageners like to finish off their Christmas shopping with a gløgg, Danish mulled wine traditionally made with red wine, port, spices such as cloves and cinnamon, chopped almonds and raisins. Two places in the city stand out for this, both on Kongens Nytorv, a square overlooking Nyhavn and the Royal Theatre. The swish Hotel d’Angleterre has its own version: the Snow Queen’s White Gløgg, which is made with white wine, spirits – white port, rum and cognac – ginger and cardamom. The recipe is as old as the hotel, which was built in 1755, and is never tampered with, according to Andreas Bagh, head chef at Marchal, the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant. At around £20 a glass, there is little danger of having one too many. A few doors down, the historic bar Hviids Vinstue offers a more affordable option: a £5.50 glass of red gløgg. Preparations for this begin in June, when the base for the gløgg is made with red wine, port, cognac, dark rum and spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg – and one secret ingredient owner Per Møller cannot be persuaded to reveal.

• Hotel d’Angleterre, Kongens Nytorv 34, dangleterre.com. Hviids Vinstue, Kongens Nytorv 19, hviidsvinstue.dk

Andrea Bak

Mumma, Stockholm

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A serving of Aquavit and mumma (left) a Swedish Christmas tradition. Photograph: Bo Zaunders/Getty Images

Cheers: Skål

Merry Christmas: God Jul

Any Swedish Christmas smörgåsbord – julbord – worth its weight in pickled herring is incomplete without mumma. This festive alcoholic drink – a doppelganger for light Guinness – is a concoction of dark beer, sherry or port wine, soft drinks, and spices. Sometimes gin is added for extra potency. Dating back to the 16th century, its roots can be traced to the medieval Brunswick Mum – a German ale that made its way into Sweden during the 1500s from Brunswick. Considering the Swedish sweet tooth, it didn’t take long for it to morph into a sweeter concoction downed during festivities. Arguably Stockholm’s most exquisite julbord is at Gamla Riksarkivet, a restaurant in the building that once housed the Swedish National Archives. It serves its own specially spiced house mumma (£11).

• Birger Jarls Torg 2a, gamlariksarkivet.com

Lola Akinmade Åkerström, editor of slowtravelstockholm.com

Jägertee, Salzburg

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jägertee at Monkeys, Salzburg

Cheers: Prost or Zum wohl

Merry Christmas: Frohe Weihnachten

Easy, frat boys. This has nothing to do with Jägermeister. Jägertee (hunter tea) is a seasonal elixir that combines hot black tea with Inländer-Rum (“resident rum”, typically from the Stroh brand). Many mixologists will add plum brandy, orange juice, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and lemons. This is a quintessentially Austrian concoction (in fact, in the EU, the production rights are reserved exclusively for Austria), and though it’s particularly popular for après ski, you don’t need to be in the Alps to enjoy the yuletide cheer. In Salzburg, as the temperature drops and the Christkindlmärkte pop up, head to Monkeys, a cosy and budget-friendly cafe not far from Getreidegasse, the city’s main shopping drag. The bartenders there will hook you up with a ceramic mug of goodness for €6.30. This potion can have a “Pavlov effect” to trigger “a certain feeling of warmth and safety,” according to Jutta Baumgartner, a researcher at the University of Salzburg’s Zentrum für Gastrosophie.

• Imbergstrasse 2a, monkeys-salzburg.at

Ross Kenneth Urken

Rakomelo, Athens

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A glass of rakomelo made with pomace brandy and honey. Photograph: Stratos Giannikos/Getty Images

Cheers: Stin egia mas

Merry Christmas: Kala Christougenna

When winter arrives in Greece, locals turn to rakomelo, a mix of tsipouro (a pomace brandy that’s similar to grappa, but fruitier), spices and honey. To make it, the tsipouro is gently warmed with cloves and cinnamon – orange peel is often also added – and then mixed with a little honey. The resulting drink – its alcoholic kick mellowed by the sweetness – is served in small ceramic or glass pitchers and poured into miniature cups (a Mediterranean version of those used for sake) or shot glasses; it is meant to be sipped and enjoyed in good company. One of the most iconic places to enjoy rakomelo is Psyrra, a “disco cafe” as they jokingly describe themselves, in reality a tiny, convivial bar in the Psyrri neighbourhood, with tables out on the street, and heating lamps and blankets to keep you warm during winter.

• Miaouli 19, Psyrri

Carolina Doriti, Culinary Backstreets Athens bureau chief

Cola de mono, Santiago de Chile

Cheers: ¡Salud!

Merry Christmas: ¡Feliz navidad!

Translating as “monkey’s tail” (or, more crudely, “arse”), cola de mono is Chile’s quintessential Christmas and new year aperitif. While one theory suggests it was created by thirsty president Pedro Montt, who’d run out of conventional booze at a party, this eggless nog concoction is made by boiling up coffee, condensed milk, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. The vital kick, however, comes from Chile’s favourite tipple, pisco, although any aguardiente (liquor) will suffice. Taken chilled – Christmas spells summer in the southern hemisphere, after all – Chileans whip up litres of cola de mono (also a 2018 film) to share with friends and family. Sample it year-round at Bar Nacional 1, a traditional soda fountain whose decor has barely been touched since it opened in 1955, that’s frequented by office workers and suits looking for a speedy refuel.

• Huérfanos 1151, barnacional.cl

Sorrel Moseley-Williams

Hirezake, Tokyo

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sake flavoured with grilled blowfish fins. Photograph: Kyoko Uchida/Alamy

Cheers: Kanpai

Merry Christmas: Merīkurisumasu



A Japanese winter drink that borders on a light broth, hirezake originated in the postwar period as a way to improve cheap sake: a charred fish fin – usually pufferfish or sea bream – is added to a covered cup of hot sake. After a minute or so, the lid is lifted and the drink set alight – partly to burn some ethanol, partly as performance. Although some think of hirezake as an old man’s drink, it’s served in high-end pufferfish cuisine as well as modern bars. A great place to try it is Kimimachizaka, a stylish izakaya tucked away only five minutes from the mayhem of Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. Here, sake is paired with exquisite small plates; the hirezake, lightly smoky, warm and comforting.

• 1-15-10 Dogenzaka

Phoebe Amoroso, Culinary Backstreets Tokyo correspondent

Jólaglögg, Iceland

Cheers: Skál

Merry Christmas: Gleðileg jól!

Inspired by Scandinavian Glögg, aromatic, spiced warm jólaglögg (pronounced yo-la-glug) is the star warming drink of the festive season in Iceland and enjoyed at home and in pubs and restaurants. Recipes for jólaglögg vary in Iceland but they are usually on the more boozy side and made with typically Icelandic ingredients such as Brennivin or Aquavit, and sometimes flavoured with blueberries, caraway or liquorice. For an excellent sample of jólaglögg with a robust, savoury flavour, head to Vedurbarinn (The Weather Bar) – a Nordic-inspired, craft cocktail bar on Klapparstígur 33. Its impressive version (£12 a glass) is made with red wine, dill aquavit, Cherry Heering (a brandy liqueur brand), port wine, Fernet-Branca (a brand of amaro liqueur), orange and lemon peel, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, honey, liquorice and coffee grounds.

Lisa Shannen

Mulled cider, Devon

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Lamb Inn, Sandford

Wassail is one of those ye olde words people throw around with only the vaguest idea of its meaning, pronunciation (“wass-ale” or the more natural “wass-ul” are both OK) or roots. Derived from Anglo-Saxon – some dictionaries claim an Old Norse etymology – it’s a greeting, Wæs þu hæl, sounding something like “Wass thou hal”, meaning “Be in good health.” Traditionally, wassailing involved going door-to-door, exchanging a drink from a bowl of hot mulled cider – made with spices, and a rival for mulled wine in the West Country – a ritual meant to ensure a good cider harvest in the coming year. Wassailing can also mean visiting apple orchards intoning rather genteel-sounding folk songs, notably Here We Come a-Wassailing. Cider has diversified and become almost cool alongside craft beer but the mulled variety demands open fires and comfy sofas, as found at the 16th-century Lamb Inn at Sandford near Crediton. It serves a mean mulled cider and has roasts and rooms. Tuesday is folk music night and it’s on the official wassail route that hits Sandford (famous for its cider orchards) on 12 January, 2019.

Chris Moss