8 Ways To Celebrate Wet Feb™️

It's like Dry January, only the opposite

So you survived Dry January. Congratulations! Now get ready for Wet February. It’s a month-long challenge we invented yesterday over Slack. Consider this your get out of jail free card. Anytime one of your newly-minted health nut friends who sounds like the Surgeon General scolds you for indulging in a drink or three, simply say, “relax, man, I’m doing Wet Feb.”

Dry January is a post-holiday detox, and for some, laying off the booze at the start of the year is a great way to reboot and refresh. But it’s still the dead of winter, and you deserve a couple drinky-poos. Maybe a tipple after work with your work spouse, or a long Mimosa-fueled brunch with the besties? Relax, text the chat. Wet February is a life-affirming movable feast of spiked coffees and piles of pasta, a low-key celebration of cocktails, human connections, and pancakes for the table. Next stop: Moderation March, and then spring. Here are eight ways to jump on this (soon-to-be) hot new trend.

1. First thing: order a Hot Toddy

   There are few beverages that warm the cockles of the heart more thoroughly than the Hot Toddy. What is a cockle? No one knows, it's a mystery. A hot toddy is a simple drink: whiskey, honey, lemon juice, and hot water. Also known as Irish Robitussin, hot toddies are supposed to cure all manner of ills, from stuffy noses to sore throats and basic ennui.
   

2. One martini and a dozen raw oysters, please
   Fight the cold with cold. Specifically, two to three ounces of glacial vodka. Wet Feb is the perfect time for a dry martini, extra icy, and twelve plump oysters plucked from the near-frozen ocean. This pair is best enjoyed somewhere a little fancy, a little old school.
   

3. Put a Hawaiian shirt on (over your sweater)
   If you can't go to the beach, make the beach come to you. The classic piña colada, ideally served in a festive vessel sprouting all manner of absurd tropical garnishes, is one of the great lazy August boat drinks, a simple mix of coconut milk, rum, and pineapple, served frosty. It's also a must-drink during the dark days of winter. Trust us.
   

4. End a meal with a digestif

   End a long, raucous dinner with class: a slug of digestif, which, famously, aids in digestion. Some are bitter, others are herbal. Italian Sambuca and Greek ouzo both have a licorice-like bite. Fortified wines like Port and Sherry burn, sweetly. All of these post-feast buzz enablers have one thing in common, though, and that's they're served in tiny glasses. Love a tiny glass.

5. Play darts!
   Go forth into the tundra and find a nice dark bar with a glowing jukebox and play some darts with your besties or some stranger at the bar. But before tossing pointy things for small amounts of money, toss back a boilermaker, the dive bar classic. What's a boilermaker? A bottle of beer and a shot of something brown. This is the anti-cocktail, a simple, working man's pick-me-up. Be careful, though, more than two and the dart board starts to move.
   

6. Pop the champagne
   Fight the wind chill with bubbles. When was the last time you poured yourself and your significant other a flute of fizzy, punchy, sparkling wine? Champagne is the official drink of Valentine's Day, which happens in the middle of February, the middle of cabin fever season. Here's the truth: Champagne can be enjoyed on any given Tuesday night. Celebrate Wet Feb by killing a bottle of cheap champers, the drama queen of libations.
   

7. Spike everything, for fun

   Spike everything with Kahlúa or Bailey's. Yeah, they're cloying. Yeah, they're for amateurs. But, dammit, they're delicious when generously dumped into, oh, whatever's hot. Coffee? Tea? Mugs are underrated alcohol delivery vehicles. Hot chocolate? Enjoy an adult cocoa, it's Wet Feb. Anyway, a strong cup o' Joe and a jolt of liquor is like Liquid hygge.
   

8. Have a beer
   Nothing says summer like a pilsner, but drinking a can of garbage-quality beer in a snowy field has its own pleasures. This Wet Feb, crack some brewskis with your people outside, and fill your lungs with winter. Talk about stuff. Sigh. Switch to hazies to match your mindset (but not too many, those things pack a punch). Chug but be chill.