When we go skiing, we usually bring a couple cans of beer with us. Last time, Wes got the bright idea to bury them in the snow so they’d get super cold for when we were ready to take a break. He found the perfect spot in the woods near the top of the mountain, and started digging a hole. Well, guess what he found- somebody else’s beer! I guess it was the perfect spot after all.

Later, when Wes decided it was time, he went to dig our beers back up. He chose his ski pole as the perfect digging tool, and ended up stabbing one of the cans. So of course, he had to shotgun it immediately (he’s a zero waste kinda guy).

In conclusion, beer is good, but having a hot cocktail like this Mexican Hot Cocoa is even better. If you are among the millions who received a Hydro Flask for Christmas, this is the perfect thing to use it on. These bottles do the best job I’ve seen of holding the heat in.

Mexican Hot Cocoa is warm and spicy, which is perfect for a cold day in the snow. You’ll get some necessary calories to keep you playing longer, and a jolt from the cocoa cafe flavored tequila. Take advantage of the winter if you’ve got it!

Have you ever tried Kombucha? It is supposed to be extremely healthy, (claiming to cure all sorts of illnesses and even reverse gray hair, according to it’s Wikipedia page), but it’s a rough one flavor-wise. It pretty much tastes like flavored vinegar to me.

So when Aimee suggested making a cocktail out of it over the holidays, I was skeptical. She left the job in the hands of our resident bartender, Wes, though, who made up this truly fabulous drink.

If you’ve ever had a shrub, this is very similar. It’s only slightly sweet, and a little sparkly. It’s a refreshing daytime type of drink. Perfect for an afternoon picnic or an afternoon relaxing in your hammock at camp. It’s a great drink to include in your January activities. You know- because January is when we’re all out there getting healthier.

Cheers! We’ll see you in 2016!

While trying to decide which overwhelmingly sweet flavored alcohol I was going to buy a whole bottle of, I realized they make airplane bottles of most of the flavors! I narrowed my experimentation down to five, and landed on vanilla vodka as the best choice for this cocktail. I expected to like the honey flavored whisky or orange vodka better, but vanilla warmed the whole thing up just one more level. It also made sense when I dolloped a scoop of freshly made mason-jar whipped cream on top.

Sun tea is simply made by adding tea bags to cold water, and placing the container in the sun for a few hours to steep it. This process takes longer than boiling water, but if you’re out playing all day, that’s perfectly fine. We created a cocktail with our sun tea to enjoy the longer daylight hours outside.

This is a versatile recipe that can be adjusted depending on your preferences and needs. You can make a traditional black tea with lemon, as seen here, or you can create an herbal or fruity tea instead.

Bourbon is our favorite choice for mixing with black tea, but I think gin would pair nicely with a lighter herbal blend. We’d love to test out any of your ideas, though! Send them over and we’ll get down to business.

Memorial Day weekend is the gateway to summer, so sit back in the sun, put this drink in your hand, and start dreaming up the best season of your life. Cheers!

A few months ago, Emily and Wes hosted a picnic in their backyard and they served sangria in jars. With all the mason jar madness going on in the world, I don’t know why I never thought of putting drinks in jars for a camping trip. You just pack the partially filled jars in your cooler and then top them off with ice at camp. If you drink the sangria on the first night, you can use the jars as your drinking glasses for the rest of your trip. The jars are admittedly heavy and fragile, but they won’t leak and they’re nice to drink out of. Great for glamping.

This Rosé Sangria is spiked with a touch of tequila and some tangy grapefruit juice. Combined with the sweet fruit, it’s a winner. Even if you’re not camping, make this and sip it on your porch.

I had decided that I wanted to make a ginger peach cocktail for a 4th of July picnic. I didn’t know what kind of alcohol to use, but I suspected it would be something frou-frou like rum – the kind of alcohol you normally find in a girly spritzer. Instead, I found this recipe for Ginger Peach Juleps. It is a hilarious recipe requiring morning dew on the mint, and ice the size of “April corn snow in Northern Vermont.” Plus, I loved the idea of bourbon. It took some of the girliness out of the drink, and a lot of men ended up happily drinking the cocktail at the party (even demanding that I post the drink on my blog immediately!). I substituted ginger ale for ginger syrup, hoping its sparkling nature would be able to replace the “morning dew” on the mint for freshness. The mint in my yard won’t have much dew left on it past about 6 am, which is when I won’t be drinking this. I also think that ginger ale is easily carried separate to a picnic, making it easy to make a virgin version.

The recipe would be great camping too, of course. Whiskey is always a popular lightweight choice for an overnight, and it won’t be a problem if you bruise up the peaches in your backpack, since you have to do just that eventually anyway.

Luckily, it’s late afternoon by now. I have some leftover ratatouille that came from the tomatoes and squash in my garden, and I have the ingredients for this cocktail. I’m gonna head over to my big shady tree.

My memory of that first trip is spotty, but when I think about what I do remember, it always makes me smile. I remember crying when a ranger came to where we were camped and told us to move farther away from a nearby pond or we would get a ticket. I remember making it to the top of the mountain and sitting next to the stone wind shelters, eating a sandwich. But mostly, I remember Jello.

My dad always brings what he calls a “secret weapon” when he’s backpacking. A “secret weapon” is some sort of unexpected surprise that might come in handy or just make you happy on a backpacking trip. Once it was a big fur hat, sometimes it’s a bar of chocolate, and often it’s a flask of alcohol. This time it was Jello.

Before we went to bed that night, my dad brought out his “secret weapon”. We made the Jello but instead of just waiting for it to thicken like normal, we sat in the tent and sipped the hot, sweet jello from a bottle. I wanted to finish it all, but he told me we had to save some for the morning. So, after warming our hands on the bottle, we left it tied up in a tree with the rest of our food for the night. When we woke up the next morning, like magic, the Jello was solid. For a six year old, it was magic. The best part was that we got to eat Jello for breakfast!

I suggested to Emily that she try the Jello trick on her recent Yosemite backpacking trip. I wasn’t sure whether it was something that only a kid would like, or if it would be just as great as I remembered. She came back raving about it. Emily describes it as, “so much better than hot cocoa. Being gelatin, it felt thick when you drank it, which just made it seem like it was warming you more.” So, even though it’s just a box of jello, we decided this easy camping recipe was definitely worth sharing with you. Sometimes the simplest things make the best memories.

If there’s anything left to do in 2009, its feed our friends one more time. And we must add a warm winter cocktail to the menu. Each drink we tested before this had too strong a flavor and smell of hard alcohol (usually bourbon) and required specific ingredients to make them work. This drink is very easy to improvise. If you have any of these ingredients on hand, it will make your cheap bottle (or box) of wine into a pleasant warming treat at the end of a long adventure.