Spice up your hot chocolate with some tequila and cayenne pepper

An essential drink of any holiday season is hot chocolate: sweet, warm and the perfect accompaniment to nights curled by the fire, classic films like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Story” playing in the background.

But this time of year can also be a little stressful — so why not spike that mug of hot chocolate with a little bit of booze? To that end, try this Spiked Mexican Hot Chocolate recipe. It’s also been spiced up with the addition of just a pinch of cayenne pepper and the always necessary cinnamon. Try brewing up the hot chocolate in a single-serve machine like iCoffee, which launched this year with mechanisms that release coffee’s (or another beverage like hot chocolate’s) most alluring aromas and flavors.