This is an article from my previous blog Hyperbrain.me that I’ve decided to move to this domain.

Here are three recipes of mulled wine that I have developed through experimenting with different types of wine and spices over the years. It’s the perfect winter drink for evenings in front of the fireplace. I used to sell these three types in my previous project Quinta da Mandrágora in Portugal. Quite a lot of people liked them and have been asking me for the recipes, so here they are all in one place.

Mulled wine, or glögg (you pronounce it more like ”glegg” than like ”glogg” as many do) as it is called in Swedish, is a drink with a very old history. Spiced wine was drunk already by the old Greeks and Romans. In the middle ages it was named Hypocras (with a variety of different spellings) and during the early modern period you were not a proper king or queen if you didn’t have a designated chef for spicing the wine!

You usually drink it warm, but I happen to like it cold too. Try it out if you haven’t already.

Red mulled wine with chocolate

• 1 bottle of dry red wine (no need for a fancy one)
• 1 dl of sugar (preferably cane sugar) or honey
• 1 piece of dried peel of bitter orange (ca 4-5 cm)
• 6-7 cloves
• 1 chunk of dried or fresh ginger (ca 2-3 cm thick)
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks
• 1-2 pods of cardamom (or a few cardamom seeds)
• A few raisins
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)

If you like you can also add a bit of ordinary orange and lemon peel slices as is common in the German drink Glühwein, their name for mulled wine.

Rosé mulled wine with vanilla

• 1 bottle of rosé wine
• 1/2 dl of sugar (in case the wine is semi-dry or sweet, else 1 dl)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 5-6 drops of vanilla essence or half a vanilla pod
• 3-4 cloves
• 1 pod of cardamom (or a few cardamom seeds)

(The preparation for this version differs in that you should leave the spices in over night. When bottling it, leave one cinnamon stick in the bottle.)

White mulled wine with Muscat wine

• 1 bottle of white wine
• 2 dl of muscat/moscato wine
• 1 dl of sugar
• 1 piece of dried peel of bitter orange (ca 4-5 cm)
• 6-7 cloves
• 1 chunk of dried or fresh ginger (ca 2-3 cm thick)
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks
• 1-2 pods of cardamom (or a few cardamom seeds)
• A few raisins

Preparation for all types:

Heat up a pan with the spices and sugar in the bottom. Stir constantly so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Once heated up for a couple of minutes, pour in a small amount of wine and turn down the heat. Once it stops boiling, pour in the rest of the wine and heat up almost to the boiling point but not boiling unless you wish to make it non-alcoholic.

Turn off the heat and leave the spices in for at least one hour or preferably over night. Filter off the spices through a sieve or muslin cloth. Pour into clean bottles, seal them and store cool until serving.

When heating up the glögg, don’t boil it or else the alcohol vaporizes. If you or one of your guests want it non-alcoholic, boiling it is all you need to do.

Enjoy!