The Winter of Mixed Drinks is the third studio album by Scottish indie rock band Frightened Rabbit, released on 1 March 2010 through independent label FatCat Records.

[4] The album's title comes from a line in the song "Living in Colour", with Hutchison stating, "I think we've all had odd, lonely, fallow periods in life, where you find yourself detached from everything, drifting and lost.

[6] The Winter of Mixed Drinks was written over seven weeks, in the coastal town of Crail, Fife, following heavy touring in support of the band's second album, The Midnight Organ Fight.

[13] Alongside the announcement of the album's title on Scottish music blog, The Pop Cop, the band unveiled a fifth member, Gordon Skene, formerly of Make Model.

[13] The band embarked upon a UK tour in support of the album, beginning at The Duchess in York on 4 March 2010 and ending at Norwich Arts Centre ten days later.

The b-side of "The Loneliness and the Scream" featured Scott Hutchinson duetting with The Hold Steady's Craig Finn on a cover version of Elton John and Kiki Dee's 1976 hit "Don't Go Breaking My Heart".

[19] All four singles from the album were collected as a seven-inch vinyl box set, limited to 500 copies, that was released in November 2010 to coincide with the band's UK winter tour.

Heather Phares wrote, "On Winter of Mixed Drinks, they focus and polish Organ Fight’s epics — and add a healthy dose of optimism.

He praised frontman Scott Hutchison in particular, describing his performance as still having the "same tremble in the voice, the same elegance in the guitar tone, the same march of the Military Tattoo in the rhythm – but a renewed purpose".

"[25] Dave Simpson of The Guardian praised the album's "sharp" songwriting, stating, "most of their songs – with themes of escape, freedom and reinvention – have huge impassioned choruses that are made to be shouted from the nearest available mountain".

Praising the band's progression from previous releases, they wrote; "For every song of heartache (‘Yes, I Would’) and self-loathing (‘The Loneliness & The Scream’), there's one of redemption (‘Foot Shooter’) or hope ('Swim Until You Can't See Land’).

The album deviates from their previous alt-folkish sensibilities: the fuzzed-up shoegazing of ‘Things’ and the anthemic chorus of ‘Living In Colour’ herald an exciting new bullshit-free dawn.

Awarding a score of nine out of ten, he wrote, "As its predecessor was a unified whole (an unflinchingly honest breakup record), so too is Mixed Drinks, though this time around its themes are regret, rebirth, and change.

Darren Carle stated, "For those who have journeyed with Frightened Rabbit to this point The Winter of Mixed Drinks is as good an album as could be hoped, as the newly-expanded quintet teeter on the edge of mainstream success.