There are few things that hit the spot on a cold day or night like a hot drink.

Shane Anderson and his crew have been brewing caffeinated hot drinks for a little more than a year at Ghostlight Coffee, 1201 Wayne Avenue, Dayton.

(See Kentucky Hot Toddy recipe below from Ghostlight’s Evan Danielson, also a bartender at Coco’s Bistro.)

Anderson initially thought that his customers would be his neighbors from the Historic South Park District.

“I was really surprised,” he said. “Right away, I didn’t know a lot of the people walking through our doors.”

The laid back business’ clientele is a mix of University of Dayton students and employees and residents of Dayton’s historic and downtown neighborhoods.

Ghostlight — the overwhelming 2012 Best of Dayton ‘Best Cup of Coffee’ winner — also has a fare share of suburban fans that drive in for coffee, espresso drinks, teas and baked goods.

The coffee is the true start.

Ghostlight features micro roasters like Cincinnati’s Deeper Roots Coffee, Los Angeles’ Handsome Coffee, MapCap Coffee Company of Grand Rapid, Mich. and Sightglass Coffee of San Francisco, Imbibe magazine’s coffee bar of the year for 2013.

For speciality drinks like the honey nut latte demonstrated in the video, the shop uses Chicago’s Jo Snow Syrups, Honey from White Mountain Honey Farm in Xenia and milk from Snowville Creamery Athens.

Anderson said a coffee’s flavor comes from the roasting process. Beans from the same farm can be transformed into completely different products by different roasters.

“A lot of the comparison is to wine, ” Anderson said. “There is a different flavor profile with every coffee.”

Many Americans prefer dark roast, but he said coffee’s nature flavor tendencies are burned out the deeper the roast. You can end up tasting the roast more than the coffee.

“Our micro roasters try to let the coffee speak for itself,” he said.

Contact this columnist at arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth