Brandy Sling (Hot)
Before ice was widely available, the sling was a hot drink. Spirit, sugar, hot water, lemon, and nutmeg grated on top. That is the original format and it has not been improved upon for cold evenings, difficult days, or anyone who needs something warming and honest in their hands. The brandy sling predates the gin sling in documentation and in practice. Brandy was the spirit of choice in eighteenth century Britain and America before gin took its place in popular culture. Jerry Thomas included both hot and cold sling variations in his 1862 Bartenders Guide, and his definition remained consistent across both: the nutmeg on top is what makes it a sling rather than a toddy. A hot brandy toddy and a hot brandy sling are the same drink with one detail separating them. Do not skip the nutmeg. Simple, warming, and considerably more considered than it looks: four ingredients, one of which is hot water, and none of which can be got wrong without showing.
Glassware: Irish Coffee Mug
Garnish: Freshly Grated Nutmeg over the top and a and Lemon Slice on the rim
Ingredients
50ml
VS or VSOP with genuine dried fruit character. The warmth of the serve amplifies the oak and fruit notes considerably.
20ml
Squeezed immediately before use. The acid balance in a hot drink is more sensitive than in a cold one. Pre-squeezed juice will flatten the drink.
15ml
One part white sugar dissolved in one part warm water. Dissolves immediately in a hot build where a sugar cube would require muddling.
90ml
Just off the boil, not boiling. Water that is too hot will cause the alcohol to volatilise and the drink will lose its cognac character before it reaches the table.
Instructions
Warm the heatproof glass by filling it with hot water, allowing it to sit for 30 seconds, then discarding.
Add the sugar syrup or sugar to the warmed glass.
Add the fresh lemon juice and stir briefly.
Pour in the brandy.
Top with hot water just off the boil and stir gently to combine.
Grate fresh nutmeg directly over the surface of the drink.
Garnish with a lemon slice on the rim and serve immediately.
Expert Tip
Warm the glass before you build the drink. A cold glass drops the temperature of the hot water immediately and the drink is lukewarm before it reaches the table. Thirty seconds of hot water in the glass first makes a noticeable difference. The water should be just off the boil, not boiling. Boiling water is aggressive enough to cook off the more delicate aromatic compounds in the brandy. Let the kettle stand for thirty seconds after boiling before pouring. The nutmeg is not optional. Jerry Thomas recorded it as the single detail separating a sling from a toddy. Use a whole nutmeg and a fine grater; pre-ground adds powder without fragrance. Use a good brandy. Hot drinks are unforgiving about spirit quality, since there is nothing cold to mask a harsh finish and the heat amplifies everything in the glass.
Behind the Brandy Sling (Hot)
Flavour Profile
The Original Format
The hot sling is not an adaptation of the cold sling. It is the other way around. Before mechanical ice production made cold drinks reliably available in the mid-nineteenth century, the sling was a hot drink as a matter of practicality. Spirit, sugar, hot water, lemon, and nutmeg: that format predates every cold variation by at least a century. Jerry Thomas documented both versions in his 1862 Bartenders Guide, by which point ice was widely enough available in American cities for the cold sling to stand as a separate, equally legitimate format. But his hot sling recipes predate the cold ones in the historical record. The Brandy Sling (Hot) is not a winter novelty. It is the oldest version of one of the oldest cocktail formats in existence.
Brandy Before Gin
Brandy was the dominant spirit in British and American drinking culture throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the first slings were almost certainly brandy slings. Gin rose to prominence during the gin craze of the early eighteenth century and gradually displaced brandy in popular drinking culture, but in Thomas’s era brandy remained the spirit of choice for serious drinkers and formal occasions. The brandy sling therefore has a stronger historical claim to the sling format than the gin version, even though the gin sling is more commonly made today. This is not a gin sling with a substitution. It is the original.
The Nutmeg
Thomas defined the sling by its nutmeg. In his 1862 manual he recorded that the only difference between a sling and a toddy was the grating of nutmeg on top: the toddy did not have it, the sling did. In a hot drink, freshly grated nutmeg behaves differently than over a cold one. The heat releases the volatile oils more aggressively, sending a wave of warm spice upward as you bring the glass to your lips, so the first sip is preceded by an aromatic note that prepares the palate. Use a whole nutmeg. The oils dissipate quickly once ground, and pre-ground nutmeg has lost most of what makes it worth using. A whole nutmeg and a fine grater takes five seconds and produces a completely different result.
Water Temperature
Just off the boil, not boiling. Boiling water is aggressive enough to cook off the more delicate aromatic compounds in the brandy before they reach your nose. The ideal temperature is around 90 to 95 degrees Celsius, which in practice means letting the kettle sit for thirty seconds after boiling. It is the same principle as brewing tea: temperature affects extraction and aroma, and in a hot spirit drink where the spirit provides most of the flavour, protecting its aromatics is worth a moment’s attention.
Spirit Quality
Hot drinks are unforgiving about the quality of the spirit. Cold service suppresses some of the harsher elements in a poor spirit; heat amplifies everything, including flaws. A rough, harsh brandy tastes rougher and harsher when hot water is added; a good brandy rewards the heat by opening up and becoming more expressive. Use a brandy you would drink neat. The simplicity of the format means the brandy carries most of the flavour load.
When to Drink It
The Brandy Sling (Hot) has a specific occasion. It is a cold evening drink, an after-dinner drink, a drink for when the temperature has dropped and something warming is what the moment requires. It is not a session drink and it is not a party drink. It is a drink for quiet occasions and deliberate consumption. The cold version covers the warmer months and the social occasions. This version covers everything else.
Make it at home
The Spirit
CognacGrape brandy from the Cognac region of western France, twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged in French oak. Ugni Blanc does nearly all the work, a thin acidic wine that makes poor drinking and excellent spirit, and the age classifications on the label are legally defined minimums.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a hot Brandy Sling?
What separates a sling from a toddy?
How hot should the water be?
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Brandy Sling (Cold)
The cold brandy sling became possible when ice became widely available in American cities in the mid-nineteenth century. Before that, the sling was served hot. The arrival of reliable ice changed the format permanently and produced two distinct but closely related drinks that share everything except temperature and the way they are built. Where the hot version is warming and contemplative, the cold version is refreshing and light. Brandy over ice with fresh lemon, sugar syrup, soda water, and nutmeg grated on top. The same five essential components, rearranged for a different season and a different mood. The brandy brings warmth and depth that gin does not. It is a richer base spirit with vanilla, dried fruit, and oak character from barrel ageing that sits differently against lemon and soda than London Dry botanicals do. The cold brandy sling is the gin sling's more serious older sibling, and the warm-weather half of a format that has survived three centuries.
Gin Sling
The Gin Sling is one of the oldest cocktail formats in existence. Jerry Thomas documented it in his 1862 Bartenders Guide, but the sling predates him by at least a century, with references appearing in American newspapers as early as the 1750s. At its core it is a simple thing: gin, citrus, sweetener, soda water, and nutmeg, built long and served over ice. Honest, unfussy, and completely satisfying when made with care. The sling sits at the intersection of the highball and the sour, with the length and refreshment of the former and the citrus backbone of the latter. It rewards good ingredients and correct proportion rather than technique or obscure components. The gin should be present. The lemon should be fresh. The soda should be cold and poured last. The nutmeg should be fresh and grated directly over the glass. Thomas was specific on that last point. In his manual he defined the sling by a single distinguishing detail: it had nutmeg on top. The toddy did not. That is the entire difference between the two formats as he recorded it. The nutmeg has largely disappeared from modern versions. It should not have.
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Buttered Rum is one of the oldest documented American drinks, appearing in colonial records from the seventeenth century as a winter drink built around the rum arriving in New England ports from the Caribbean trade. It predates the cocktail as a formal category by more than a century, and it sits alongside the toddy and the flip as evidence that spirit, sweetness and warmth in one vessel is as old as distillation. The batter is what separates a properly made one from a glass of rum with butter melted into it. Softened butter, brown sugar, warm spices and a little vanilla, prepared in advance and stored cold, produce a richness and an integrated spice that adding each element separately cannot reach, and the butter emulsifies into the liquid as the batter dissolves. This is a drink for deep winter and genuine cold. It does not pretend to be refreshing or complex. It is warm, rich, direct and entirely honest about what it is.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits