So many drinks taste better when it gets a little colder outside, and thankfully Boise’s skilled bartenders are more than willing to provide us with delicious autumnal cocktails. Here are three favorites, with one each made with vodka, whiskey, and rum.
🎃 Default Autumn Cocktail, Art Haus
Vodka, coffee, pumpkin juice, pumpkin spice syrup, and chocolate bitters are the marriage you don’t expect to last, but have enough quirks going on that somehow it all works. For fans of Java’s Bowl of Soul (basically a Mexican mocha), this tastes like a cocktail version of that if some of the sweetness was cut with a vegetal pumpkin flavor.
- An alcohol free comp: The Chamomile Cordial is bright without being too poppy, and makes a nice nightcap.
- Honorable mention: The Hot For Chocolate is…a lot, but delicious. Just read the description: melted dark chocolate, oat milk, gochugaru, cinnamon, orange expression, served hot. Whipped cream and vodka optional.
🍎 Apple Trap, Water Bear Bar
I don’t need my whiskey to be hot, but this spin on the Hot Toddy from the Water Bear is — as everything they stir up — just about perfect. Maybe it’s the unexpected addition of lime and capel pisco (a Chilean grape spirit) that makes the cold medicine of it all a little more interesting, or maybe it’s just the bar.
- For a non-alcoholic pick: The Snow Angel!
- For the whiskey averse: If you prefer vodka I’d recommend an Aqueduct.
🍺 Hot Buttered Rum, Press and Pony
This manages to taste even richer than it sounds without being too sweet. Buttered rum feels like a required experience at least once a winter, and this is the best I’ve found in town.
- A runner-up: The Dublin Sour is a textural delight with both a shaken egg white and a Guinness float, and the whiskey and nutmeg bring it into hearty winter territory.
