Mulled wine is traditionally something done around Yule, when it's cold and there's snow on the ground. I can easily see this being served at holiday gatherings for people who don't like to drink or those not old enough to do so or even just during the winter season as a whole for something nice and warm to keep away the winter cold.
From Sigilmancy, My Roommate and Master of Recipes.
Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine
You'll Need
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups juice of choice
- 1 sliced orange
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tablespoon whole cloves
- 2 anise stars
- 1 vanilla pod or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Make & Drink Directions
- Combine your water and juice and bring to a boil
- Take your spices and add them to a fillable tea bag or coffee filter tied off with twine
- Take the orange and slice it, then cut the slices into quarters
- Put the spices and orange quarters into the boiling liquid and leave for 1 minute
- Remove the spice bag and serve warm with a few orange quarters in each cup
- Add additional sweetener to taste like honey or sugar
My Review
I wasn't particular to this recipe due to the juice choice and the strength of the herbs. I would however like to try again using apple, cherry or other berry based juices and a longer steep/boil on the spices and oranges in addition to some honey or sugar to sweeten it up.
Sigilmancy's Section
This is what I call a 'crowd sourced' recipe. A version came across my tumblr dash and I decided to look up similar recipes on Google. I compiled the top dozen or so results and compared them to each other and the tumblr recipe, found what was common and what was the outlier between them all and then put my own version together from those and my nearly a decade of experience being a home cook.
For example some called for sugar and honey to be put directly in to the pot with everything else, but in my experience people have their own preferences for sweetener so if serving for more than one person it's better to leave them out and allow each individual to sweeten at their discretion. Various spices were called for across the recipes from nutmeg to allspice and cardamom to ginger. The trio of cinnamon, cloves and anise was present in most of them, however, or at least 2 of the 3 were used so I chose those to make the recipe since they seemed to be the common theme between every one I looked at more or less.
The end result of the recipe above using the cranberry/raspberry juice is a little too bitter because of the cranberry, but that's easily fixed with a bit of sugar and honey and otherwise it's great. I love the way this tastes, with hints of all the spices mixed in with the juice and the 1:1 ratio of juice with water helps make it not so overwhelmingly strong.
FAQ
- Any sort of red or dark juice will work. Straight up cranberry, grape or whatever else you feel like.
- The spices should be whole instead of milled/processed/powdered, but if that's all you have access to they'll work just be aware it'll make the wine muddy looking instead of clear like in the picture.
- If a vanilla pod is too expensive (the one pictured was a gift from my uncle) you can just use the vanilla extract instead.
If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you right quick. Thank you so much for having a look-see!