Finding a good winter drink isn’t too hard. Plenty of seasonal beers can be refreshing on a cold day. Any spirit, served neat, can help warm a body on a cold day. But finding a warm winter drink… that’s a bit harder, if only because we’re so predisposed to serving drinks on ice (and ice cold) these days.
There are a few hot drinks out there (the hot toddy, the Tom and Jerry, the blue blazer.) There are any number of punches that can be served warm (Esquire cocktail writer David Wondrich has done plenty of research on punches, and wrote this book.) But the list ends soon after that… and except for the toddy, most of those drinks have a high degree of difficulty.
Not so with mulled wine. I have a recipe below, and it’s not a bad one. But it’s more of a starting point than anything else. Mulled wine is nothing but a warm, mildly boozy winter concoction meant to be gulped — well-flavored, yes, but weak enough that it can be gulped with impunity. Mulled wine can warm you up, but it will be very hard to drink enough to mess you up… unless you’re very dedicated. Again, here’s a recipe. You can alter it as you like.
Mulled wine
- 1 bottle wine (preferably something dry and complex — a cab? a malbec?)
- 2 cups apple cider (any fruit juice would work here, but I wouldn’t use citrus, and grape would be redundant.)
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 cloves, ground (and/or 1 tsp. nutmeg, and/or 1 tsp. allspice, and/or even 1/2 tsp. ginger, if you’re feeling frisky.)
- 1 orange, sliced. (For an extra-sweet flavor, roast the orange slices in a casserole dish for 15 minutes, then dump the slices and the resulting juice into the mix.)
Combine all ingredients in a medium- or large-size saucepan, and warm under low heat until hot, but not scalding. Serve in a large mug. Grate extra nutmeg on top to garnish, if desired.
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