Hot toddies and cinnamon-infused drinks to help you survive the colder months .

If you could have anyone in the world fix you a drink, that person might be Mr Jim Meehan – owner of Please Don’t Tell – aka PDT – one of New York’s best-respected cocktail joints (named best bar in the world in 2011), author of The Please Don’t Tell Cocktail Book, and a keen drinks editor and journalist. But with his new book – Meehan’s Bartender Manual, which is out now – he wants to teach you how to do it yourself. To celebrate his latest release (plus the opening of his new Chicago-based bar Prairie School), we asked him for his favourite cocktails to take you through winter. And how to make them.

Mr Jim Meehan Bartender, Journalist and Author

“When I visited Ireland for the first time in 1997, I saw a patron sipping this toddy the locals called ‘hot whiskey’ in a pub in Galway on a chilly rainy day, and I ordered one without hesitation,” says Mr Meehan. “As a native Midwesterner weaned as a bartender in Wisconsin, I was no stranger to hot toddies, but I’d never tasted one served with a clove-studded lemon wedge, which serves the same steam and heat-mitigating function as the creamy head on an Irish coffee. Since alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, if you combine boiling hot water with alcohol, heady fumes will evaporate from the glass, repelling all but the most intrepid imbibers. The lemon floats to the surface, blocking the steam from billowing up, and the heat from the water enhances the cloves’ aromatics. I prefer a pure pot-stilled Irish whiskey in this drink, but some of the more flavourful blends work well, too. Just about any pot-stilled spirit mixes well as a toddy; you’re welcome to sweeten with sugar or agave or maple syrup and use tea in place of hot water, if you please. Toddies from [19th-century US bartender Mr Jerry] Thomas’ time were garnished with nutmeg, but clove and cinnamon are superb substitutes.”

Ingredients 120ml hot water 45ml Powers Irish whiskey 30ml honey syrup 1 lemon wedge studded with 3 cloves, to garnish

Method Build in a preheated tempered mug. Garnish with a clove-studded lemon wedge.

“Between the days of the Revolutionary War and Thomas’ time, bourbon whiskey made headway in America as cider fell from favour. Ever the diplomat, [US drinks historian Mr David] Wondrich gives Thomas points for his ‘suave and smooth’ version, but takes him to task for it being a ‘feeble’ relative of the ‘liquid courage’ that inspired our liberators a century before. Given the recipe’s flexibility, it all depends on your perception of the fence. Thomas’ is genteel, with the recipe manifesting as something you’d sip on a Southern veranda while looking out at the stone fence surrounding your property, whereas the rum-based version conjures images of a band of soldiers in a colonial tavern plotting to ascend a fortress’ stone wall. Thankfully, hard cider from heirloom apples has made a comeback along with hogo-rich pot-stilled rums, so you have plenty of alternatives to the elegant bourbon-based cooler if you’re feeling bellicose. I added maple syrup for depth of flavour in Thomas’ recipe, and I restrained myself from adding Angostura bitters, but that doesn’t mean you should show similar discipline. If you do add bitters, and substitute rich rum for bourbon, you’ll be making a long version of Dick Bradsell’s classic treacle cocktail.”

Ingredients 90ml unfiltered hard apple cider 60ml Old Grand-Dad bonded bourbon whiskey 7.5ml Grade A dark amber maple syrup 1 apple fan, to garnish

Method Build in a chilled Collins glass, then fill with ice. Garnish with an apple fan.

“One of my favourite vendors at the Tompkins Square Park Sunday Greenmarket down the street from PDT was Red Jacket Orchards, which sold an apple butter that reminded me of childhood trips to Michigan, where we spread it on our toast for breakfast. While tequila shines brightest in a summer margarita, the aged bottlings mix beautifully with fall fruits and vegetables such as apples, pears, pumpkin and squash. Using the margarita recipe as my template, I substituted apple butter and Strega, which means ‘witch’ in Italian, for Cointreau and lemon juice for lime. The name alludes to the Widow’s Kiss cocktail, which combines Strega’s French sibling, yellow Chartreuse, and Bénédictine with apple brandy. When a bar-back [bartender’s assistant] mistakenly infused a whole case of tequila with cinnamon, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try it in this recipe. I’ve served it with cinnamon-infused tequila ever since. Just add a 3in [10cm] stick to a bottle for 24 hours, then remove it.”

Ingredients 60ml Siete Leguas reposado tequila 22.5ml lemon juice 15ml Strega 1/2 tsp agave syrup 1/2 tsp Red Jacket Orchards apple butter 1 lemon twist, to garnish

Method Shake with ice, then fine-strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Meehan’s Bartender Manual (Ten Speed Press) by Mr Jim Meehan is out on 17 October