First mentioned by the Romans in the 2nd century, mulled wine has become extremely popular all around Europe. We drink it to “taste” Christmas and put ourselves in the festive mood. There are countless recipes available online so choosing the perfect one may give you a headache. No matter how lost you feel, never go for the ready-made product, it’s going to kill all the magic.

The good thing about mulled wine is that there aren’t too many things that could go wrong. You take some wine, spices, sugar, fruit and just heat it up.

Let me give you a recipe for my Polish twist on it.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• a bottle of dry, full bodied, fruity wine, not to tannic, it doesn’t have to be expensive, but look for something big and strong
• 50 ml of potato vodka
• 80-100g of brown sugar
• handful of frozen mixed berries
• two big oranges
• two clementines
• one lemon
• one vanilla pod
• two tbsp of ground cinnamon
• one tbsp of ground nutmeg
• 10-15 whole cloves
• one red chilli (optional)

Method:

1. Peel the oranges making sure you separate the white part from the skin.
2. Cut the clementines in 8 pieces.
3. Cut the vanilla pod all the way through in the middle to access the seeds.
4. Put the orange peel, clementines, half of the sugar, berries, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla pod and gloves in to a saucepan.
5. Pour just enough wine to cover the spices and start heating the mixture. Bring to boil and wait for the liquid to reduce and become more syrupy.
6. (optional) If you want your mulled to wine to have a little kick, chop the chilli and add to the saucepan.
7. Juice the peeled oranges and lemon and add to the mix.
8. Add the rest of the wine and vodka.
9. Reduce the heat, cover the saucepan an leave for 15 minutes, ensuring that you don’t bring it to boil.
10. Taste and add some more spices or sugar if needed.
11. Strain before serving to ensure no sediment is poured into a glass.
12. Serve in a cup or glass with a piece of orange and some ground cinnamon on top.

Mulled wine is great on its own but can be paired with various deserts. I like it especially with chocolate brownie or Julia’s Vegan snickers bars.

Enjoy!

Tomek