Sipping a toasty glass of mulled wine in winters is one of life’s little pleasures one should not miss out on. This Christmas, replace your chilled cocktails with this traditional holiday drink that can be prepared at home in a jiffy. There are many variations of mulled wine. Gluhwein, sipped during Christmas holidays in Germany and some parts of France, is made with red wine, spices such as cinnamon sticks, cloves, vanilla pods, orange and sugar or honey. Traditional English mulled wine uses cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon or mace. You can always play around a little with flavours and create your own recipe. Go try!
Making mulled wine at home
You don’t require a very expensive wine for preparing mulled wine. A full bodied red wine works best. Sula is an easily available option. Do not boil the wine. Boiling will burn off the alcohol content in the wine. You can leave a long cinnamon stick inside the glass which works as a stirrer. You can also float an orange slice in the glass.
mulled wine recipe
Ingredients
750 ml red wine
1 peeled and sliced orange
1/4 cup of brandy or Cointreau
6-7 cloves
2/3 cup honey or brown sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp ground ginger
Method
Mix all the ingredients in a large pot. Gently heat the ingredients on low to medium flame for 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring to fully dissolve honey or sugar. When the wine starts steaming and the ingredients blend, it is ready to serve. You can now add a little Cointreau as some of the alcohol may have evaporated. Pour the wine into mugs, leaving out seasoning. (Recipe by Ravindra Kumar, GM, F&B, The Lalit)