Cold Weather, Phariseans and Dead Aunts

Actually it has been cold for over a week again instead of spring coming. If you have been out for a while under this circumstances and come in again you might like a hot drink, maybe with some kind of fire in it. That was what I met yesterday and so I made up my mind to make what people in the north of Germany call a "Tote Tante" and what I got to know when I was sailing the Baltic Sea in winter. The word means "dead aunt" and it seems nobody really knows where it comes from. However, it is'nt disputed what a Tote Tante is: It´s much like a Pharisäer (pharisean), another hot alcoholic drink from Northern Germany which means a cup of coffee with an ample shot of rum, topped with a nice dollop of whipped cream.

If you want to mix a Tote Tante instead of a Pharisäer, you just have to replace the coffee by hot chocolate. If you want you can decorate the whipped cream with some  chocolate sprinkles. So basically a Tote Tante is nothing else than a hot Lumumba too.

I can tell you it tastes really great, especially when coming in from the cold. But be careful: Like sweet alcoholic drinks generally do, Tote Tante tends to make you drink much and fast and than finally knock you to your knees! And dont drink it or any other alcohol if you still have to stay in the cold! The warmth of alcohol is deceiving. It just makes you not notice that you chill out much more than you do without alcohol.