It’s starting to get a bit chilly here in Pittsburgh! The leaves are finally starting to fall and mid-terms are right around the corner – fall has arrived. So to celebrate and warm up a little, today we have a really simple drink recipe for those of you who are at least 21 years old – Hot Caramel Apple Cider!
We got our apple cider for this recipe from the Amish country in Lancaster, PA. We took a little “mini-moon” after the wedding and drove up to Lancaster for a few nights. As for the caramel vodka, we got that at the wine and spirits store. We’re not sure of any other brands other than Smirnoff that make caramel vodka, but if you know of any please leave a comment. We also want to give credit to Erica’s friend Megan for introducing us to this drink!
On another note, happy 225th birthday to Pitt! This past weekend was homecoming and we got to go onto Heinz Field to help celebrate. The band formed an outline of a “P” and students holding balloons filled inside of it. Then, we sang “Happy Birthday” and released the balloons. It was so much fun! Here are a few pics:
We’re on Heinz Field!
We stood in the bottom right portion of the “P”
Hot Caramel Apple Cider
Nothing says fall is here like hot apple cider (with alcohol!)
- Servings – 4
- Prep time – 1 minute
Ingredients
- 4 mug’s worth of apple cider
- 1 mug’s worth of caramel vodka
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Protocol
1. Mix all of the ingredients above in a large pot.
2. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until liquid just begins to steam (don’t over heat or else the alcohol will burn off).
3. While cider is warming up, take your mugs or glasses and rim them with brown sugar.
4. Pour cider into your rimmed glasses, serve and enjoy!
-D&E
Cooking in College 
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FYI, Van Gogh Vodka makes a caramel flavour, and Effen Vodka makes a salted caramel flavour. I have used both to spike apple cider and both taste great.
I’m going to hopefully find some caramel vodka and make this tonight!
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I want to make a gallon of the cider but not hot how much vodka should I use …. And should I add the brown sugar to the mix if I do it that way and do I still heat it up
To get the same ratio that we had, you would use 4 cups of vodka. That’s a little more than a standard 750ml bottle of vodka, so it’d probably be easiest to just use the whole bottle (the caramel flavor isn’t as strong as normal vodka)! If you’re serving it cold, you don’t need to heat it up at all first. Taste it without any sugar and see if you think it’s sweet enough. Add a little at a time if it needs it.
Let us know how it goes! 🙂
I am really looking forward to making this in the next couple of days but I have a question. What kind of mugs are you talking about? Small coffee mugs or large beverage mugs. It only matters because I worry about using too much or too little brown sugar.
We used regular coffee mugs, probably around 12oz. The amount of sugar also depends on how sweet your cider is to start with! I would start with the cider and vodka and then add sugar to sweeten as you see fit. Some of the sugar called for is also used to rim the glasses/mugs.
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I was excited to see this on Pinterest, especially since I live about 5 minutes from where this cider is made/sold. Hope you enjoyed your visit here in Lancaster 🙂
ur apple cider… is that alcoholic on its own? or it just like apple juice?? sorry – im australian, and here apple cider is alcoholic and carbonated – is this what you mean?
Ah, sorry for the confusion! Normally apple cider here is pretty much unfiltered and non-pasteurized apple juice. We have had alcoholic cider before though, which is carbonated. That’s not what this recipe calls for, though. If you can’t find the right thing, maybe apple juice would work? It would definitely work cold, but we’re not sure about hot. Let us know!
I had a lot of leftovers when I made this. How long do you think it will keep if stored in jars in the fridge? I don’t know that they’ll last the whole week before being consumed though so it might not matter.
It should definitely last in the fridge! I wouldn’t anymore than a week or so, though, just because you already heated it up. Also, if you reheat it, just know that some of the alcohol might burn off some, depending on how you heat it up.
You just made my day! I have been so bummed seeing caramel apples popping up in the stores because this is my first autumn having braces. No caramel apples for me but I will for sure be trying this! (and I love the fact that it is accompanied by a picture of my favorite sports field in the whole world)
Glad we could help out 🙂 this really is one of our favorite fall drinks! It’s so nice to warm up on a chilly fall evening with a nice hot mug of apple cider! Let us know if this curbs those caramel apple cravings!
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Oh wow…. this looks incredible!! I love hot ciders, and the addition of the caramel sounds amazing. It’s just heading into winter here in Australia so I’ll definitely bookmark this recipe for the cold nights ahead! Thanks xx
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This was really, really good! Stoli also makes a caramel vodka. We liked a little less vodka (we’re old now) and cinnamon and I heated the cider and cinnamon in the microwave, then stirred in the vodka.
Could you put regular vodka in and caramel syrup? I have regular vodka in my house and would rather use it up than get some caramel vodka.
You probably could, but we just aren’t sure how much vodka and how much caramel syrup you need to add. If you try it out let us know!
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Can you put this in crock pot to let it warm up??
Definitely! Just don’t let it get too hot and start to simmer a lot, or else all the alcohol will burn off!
Silly question – but do you add the brown sugar to the pan with the other liquids? or is it only for rimmer? Thanks!
It depends on how sweet you want it. We put a little bit in the pot and also rimmed the glasses, but some people might not like it with too much sugar. It’s really up to your taste buds!
I pinned this on Pinterest and almost immediately it was re-pinned 80 times!! Love it. Can’t wait to try it today. 🙂
Haha yes we have been getting a lot of views from pinterest lately! Thanks for pinning!
I was going to make this tomorrow evening as a relaxing drink after the big Thanksgiving meal but we couldn’t wait! So I made a pot for us tonight and its delicious!! We will all sleep great now! Thanks for the recipe
Somethings just can’t wait! Hope you enjoyed it 🙂
can u just mix this cold? i’d like to take to a party…
By all means! We had this cold and it was really refreshing. Hope you enjoy it!
Looks amazing. I got the stuff today to have at Thanksgiving. thanks.
Thanks for commenting! We hope you enjoy it 🙂
Ooh super cool! I’d add some cream or milk but it may curdle…Hmm. First world problems -_-