Mulled wine is our most popular hot drink during the Christmas season

Soon the time will come and we will light the first candle on the Advent wreath. Christmas is getting closer and closer and we are all impatiently counting the days until then. Preparations for the festival are already underway and small wooden houses are currently being built in many marketplaces. The Christmas market will take place there in a few days. The children are already looking forward to delicious cookies and gingerbread, the parents to a glass of aromatic mulled wine. What would a Christmas market be without the spiced wine? For a long time, various legends and myths have grown up around the most popular hot drink among Germans. You are not sure since when has mulled wine been drunk in Germany? Is this just a typical German drink in winter and Christmas time or is it popular in other countries as well? How can you prepare the aromatic, fragrant wine at home and which wine goes best with it? We want to find the answer to these questions together.

In the following we report interesting facts about the mulled wine.

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Photo 4: We’ll also give you a classic recipe for the spicy drink.

In the modern world, people like to look back on old traditions and customs. The spiced wine is also part of it, because it is the traditional hot drink of the Germans. It is especially popular during Advent and its benefits are appreciated. On the one hand, the mulled wine warms our cold hands on winter days and ice-cold evenings, on the other hand, it improves our mood. After the first sip you feel relieved of all stress and worry less about the problems in everyday life. The mulled wine is traditionally made from a dry to semi-dry red wine, to which a little water and lots of spices are then added. This gives you a fine-smelling and spicy-tasting wine that you prefer to consume warm. The alcohol content of the hot beverage is 7.5 percent, but must not exceed 12 percent. If you like it stronger, you can add a shot of rum to your wine glass.

There is something for every taste!

Mulled wine has been drunk since ancient times

Spiced wine is not an invention of our time. The popular hot drink looks back on centuries of history, the roots of which can be traced back to antiquity. Historians assume that mulled wine is just as old as viticulture itself. It has been scientifically proven that the ancient Romans already cultivated wine and appreciated the properties of wine. They were the first to make mulled wine according to an old recipe from the 1st century BC. The Roman drink was actually a mixture of wine, honey and spices. Numerous spices were used in its preparation, including cinnamon, clove, bay leaf and aniseed. Medicinal healing properties have even been ascribed to this wine, for example it is said to be particularly effective against colds. However, the Romans mostly drank their mulled wine lukewarm and only at room temperature.

The mulled wine has traditionally been a strongly flavored drink since ancient times.

In the Middle Ages and in the centuries thereafter, the flavored wine was spread across Europe. The first German recipe comes from Saxony and is from 1843. According to this recipe, you should mix wine with cinnamon, ginger, anise, saffron, cardamom and pomegranate, add some nutmeg to the mixture, then add honey or sugar to taste and finally warm it up . The pleasure should be unique!

Well-seasoned and warmed up, the mulled wine is good for body and soul.

Where is the spiced wine also a popular drink in winter?

If you think the mulled wine is a German phenomenon, then you are wrong. In many other countries it is also served at Christmas time, for example in Italy, France, Sweden and Belgium. In Scandinavia he is as Glögg known. If desired, the spicy taste can be enhanced with a dash of vodka. In Canada it is fond of winter Caribou drank. This is a sweet French-Canadian red wine of Indian origin. The fortified wine is particularly popular in Quebec. There it is made from red wine and whiskey and sweetened with maple syrup or sugar. Caribou is usually drunk hot.

The spiced wine drink is also known in other countries, but under different names.

The Russians drink their mulled wine in the winter cold, which they do Sbiten to name. The drink is made from honey, water and cloves, plus cinnamon, bay leaf and nutmeg. A shot of vodka is also included. In Croatia you do kuhano vino, but which is made from white wine, while in Bulgaria and other Slavic countries grejano vino drinks, a hot drink made from red wine.

This aromatic hot drink relaxes the mood and warms cold fingers.

How do you choose the most suitable wine for the aromatic hot drink?

The wine experts recommend: Choose a dry to semi-dry wine with a strong, fruity note. It can also be a heavy wine with an alcohol content of no more than 12.5 percent. You can have a red or a white wine, although the red one is preferred. In northern Germany people also like to drink mulled wine based on white wine. Since we have also been able to buy the aromatic drink in bottles since 1956, we just want to emphasize that these products cannot be compared with home-made mulled wine. The magic of the preparation is just as fascinating as the taste itself. The good thing about bought mulled wine is that you can find it in organic quality and also vegan.

Most Germans prefer to prepare a spicy, fragrant mulled wine themselves at home.

A classic recipe for the spicy wine

Preparing mulled wine at home is a great experience that you want to give free rein to your creativity. Our recipe is a good example of the rich variety. You can have the selected red wine ready and then vary it with the spices. The most popular ones include cinnamon, lemon peel, star anise and cloves. Depending on taste and preference, vanilla pods, cardamom, nutmeg and orange peel are also often used. It is sweetened with sugar or honey, possibly with maple syrup. A shot of vodka, grain or whiskey is a powerful bonus for many!

And now to the recipe!

You need following ingredients: 70 cl red wine, 30 cl water, 1 orange, 6 cloves, a cinnamon stick, 9 tbsp sugar.

Are you ready to prepare your mulled wine yourself?

And this is how it is done!

• Cut the orange into 1 cm thin slices. Lard it with cloves.
• Put red wine, water, cinnamon sticks and sugar in a large saucepan and place on the stove. Warm up slowly and don’t let it boil, just steep! Stir regularly!
• Remove from heat after 10 minutes, strain and pour into glasses. Serve warm and enjoy!

All spices can be put in a tea bag and cooked that way. Removing it is much easier after cooking!

We wish you a cozy Christmas with mulled wine and everything that goes with it!