Why leave your cozy (read: tiny) apartment in the blistering New York winter to get a drink when you can achieve the same results (getting drunk) while staying at home? These six drinks can all be prepared at home with relative ease and, for the most part, ingredients you already have on hand. If you don’t have them, the walk to a liquor store and a bodega can’t be that far, and it will be well worth getting to stay inside for the rest of the evening.

Hot Toddy –
hot water or tea, whiskey, honey
The best cold remedy of the winter, the hot toddy is as easy to make as it is to drink. Just brew up some tea or heat up some water, add a shot (or more) of your favorite whiskey to a big, ol’ mug, and pour in some honey. Top it off with a lemon slice and some cloves. To get fancy, stick the cloves in a circular formation into your circular lemon slice and let it float.

Irish Coffee –
coffee, Irish whiskey, Irish cream (optional)
Possibly one of the easiest, yet tastiest, drinks you can make at home, Irish coffee requires just a splash or two of whiskey and/or some Bailey's Irish Cream. This is a great way to wake up on the weekend when your building's heating system decides to take a break.

Hot Buttered Rum –
dark rum, hot water, spiced butter
Though it's understandable to have a mental block about putting butter in a beverage, you will not regret doing it for the sake of this wintertime drink. To make it good, however, you have to be precise. We actually started using a Martha Stewart inspired recipe for this one. It involves making a spiced butter mixture first and mixing it with dark rum and hot water. To one stick of unsalted butter, add about half a cup of dark brown sugar, some grated orange zest, a little under a teaspoon of both ginger and cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg. Use a mixer, if you have one, to beat that together (if not, just make sure it’s thoroughly mixed), and add two tablespoons plus a shot of dark rum to a mug of boiling water.

Kahlua Hot Chocolate –
hot chocolate, Kahlua, whipped cream (optional)
Literally just put Kahlua in your hot chocolate. If you have guests, add whipped cream and tiny chocolate flakes. You also won’t go wrong with an extra half shot of peppermint schnapps.

Eggnog –
eggs, milk, cream, bourbon, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, sugar
Just because Christmas has come and gone, doesn’t mean your craving for eggnog has to be put on hold until next year. If you’re looking to serve around six people, start your easy (aka, cold) version of the drink by separating the yolks from the whites of four eggs, and then beating the yolks while slowly adding one third of a cup of sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, you can mix in your three cups milk, one cup of cream, two shots of bourbon, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Lastly, use an electric mixer on the egg whites, adding a tablespoon of sugar as you do so. When this last mixture becomes stiff, add it to what you’ve already got and put it in the fridge before serving.

Hot Gin Punch –
gin, red wine, lemon juice, orange slices, pineapple, spices
Feel free to call this one the Sangria of winter. Using equal parts gin and red wine (say, three cups each), add in some lemon juice, orange slices, and a handful or so of pineapple. Put in the requisite winter drink spices (cinnamon, cloves, and a pinch of nutmeg) and some honey (a couple shot glasses worth). You’ll want this to be pretty sweet, so throw in a couple teaspoons of brown sugar. Heat all of this together over a low flame until it’s as warm as you’d like it, 20 to 25 minutes should do.

Photo by The Drink Nation