Your best mulled wine/punch recipe

[Whoozit]

For a bit of seasonal fun, share your go-to recipe for festive hot drinks

My mulled wine:

Bottle of half decent red
1 glass sweet sherry or a good glug of brandy
50g sugar or to taste
Cinnamon stick
A few cloves
Orange

Squeeze the orange. Stick the cloves into the orange as best you can. Add all together and warm slowly to a simmer. You're allowing flavours to mingle and some of the alcohol to burn off which won't happen if you blitz it on full heat. For fun, set light to the fumes once it's simmering. When the fumes no longer burn, it's ready.

If you happen to have any left over and are keeping for the next day, take the orange out. It'll make the taste overly bitter if it soaks too long.

[ReverendCounter]

Re: the oranges, poke plenty of cloves into them, place in a tray and gently oven them for a bit. When they're golden, get them in a pan and crush them with a potato masher or something, just to split the skin, get some juices out, get the cloves crunched up.

Do your preferred mullering procedure from that point on.

[Jambo85]

I’ve been working through some variable home brewed wine/mead/cyser recently by making it more drinkable through mulling. I’d therefore suggest really no need to use something decent.

- bottle of wine or mead or cyser or cider
- sweeten to taste with sugar or honey
- half a cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 2 star anise
- bay leaf
- 1 cardamom pod, bruised
- a few peppercorns
- a slice of orange zest

Heat gently - I wouldn’t simmer it and certainly wouldn’t set light to alcohol, I want to drinks it!

ETA - for non drinkers, as above using apple juice and leave out the sugar.

[sherman]

The secret to a good mulled wine is to start with a red wine you would drink neat.

Studding the orange with the cloves is best as you dont want to be choking on a clove. The orange can be wedged or whole for cooking in the wine.
A bit of lemon zest can work nicely too.
A carton of decent orange juice xan help sweetness too.

I am a bit more used to industrial quantities though.
Went through 3 tea urn of mulled wine at work today. Served not drank on shift.

[UTH]

Thread revival!

It's that time of year......I've not actually made much mulled wine in my life, thinking I might do some tonight though as we are starting to do a bit of decorating of the house.

First question, what's the difference between using a 'plain' bottle of red, or the bottled of 'mulled wine' you can buy in shops?

[sherman]

Mulled wine in the bottle is pre spiced.
All you need to add is a cinamon stick, slice of orange and a few cloves.

[seefarr]

I find mulled wine too acidic for my tastes so we do mulled apple juice and sloe gin. And it's bloody delicious!

Simmer cloudy apple juice and mulled wine spices for 5-10 minutes. At this stage you can serve to any kids. The adults get a shot or two of slow gin in the bottom of their mugs before adding the apple juice.