Awesome Apple Cider for the Cold Weather
It’s Not Just the Temperature of the Drink
I am the child of the winter.
No, really, I am. My birthday is in February and it snows every year on my birthday. I kid you not. My very nature by default according to the horoscopes and wandering psychologists is just cold. However, I am not anywhere remotely cold as my wife’s hands – which I will swear, can cool beer.
We cold people are constantly looking to warm ourselves up. Normally, I do this by drinking America’s favorite hot beverage, coffee. This is a good caffeinated drink as you can get a cup of decent coffee practically anywhere and add the normal additives that people put into their cups of joe.
There are times, though, where a cup of coffee won’t do the job. Sometimes, when it’s late and a coffee is the exact wrong thing to drink, you need to get that chill out of your bones without the extra bit of chemical energy that comes with high test caffeine. These are the times where you need something hot and warming.
I have a drink that is a good alternative to coffee without caffeine.
If you need something that will give you a bit of warmth that will get that chilly ache out of your bone, you might want to give it a try.
Hot Apple Cider from a Slow Cooker
This one is always at the top of my list.
This drink is perfect for that December through February season. There’s the power of apples. They are “apple-icious”. Seriously though, they’re really good for you. Nutritionally speaking, apples have been known to reduce the risk of colon cancer, prostate cancer, and lung cancer. Not that there’s a whole lot of apple peels within apple cider, you should know that the skin of an apple is unusually good for you and has been known to help increase skeletal muscle and brown fat while helping reduce white fat, obesity, glucose intolerance, and fatty liver disease.
In addition to the apple itself, a good hot apple cider has cinnamon in it – which if you’re going to have any kind of spice, cinnamon should be at the top of your list.
Cinnamon is a warming spice. This means that in addition to the heat of the hot cider, the chemicals within the cinnamon will give your body that bit of warmth that it’s craving while keeping a bit more for later. Cinnamon has such great therapeutic value in helping people who have type 2 diabetes in helping them with their glucose and lipids. According to the Japanese, it helps fight viruses. And, according to a 2011 study, cinnamon helps inhibit Alzheimer’s Disease (in mice).
Here is one of my favorite hot apple cider recipes:
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 quarts apple cider
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 orange, sliced
To be used with a crock pot or slow cooker:
- Mix together and put in crockpot for 2-4 hours. Ladle to each cup. Those of you who are looking to remove any kind of nutritional value should add a shot of dark rum to each cup. The beauty of this is that once it’s cooked, you can store and reheat it for a one cup drink.