Mulled Wine Thoughts from Tia

Dita asked me for a recipe for mulled wine, and I promised her that I’d do my best.  Unfortunately, for me, mulled wine is less of a recipe and more of a vibe.  So, instead of writing a recipe for you, I’m going to used mulled wine as my primary example in a blog post about vibe cooking.

Mulled wine is a winter delight, but can be enjoyed at any time of the year.  Most of the same considerations go into making sangria, which is served cold in the summer.  It’s like coffee- a delicacy served either hot or iced, and for aficionados, the weather barely registers as to how they take it.

The first thing you should know about vibe cooking is that as long as you’re vibing, everything is fine!  If you wanted pizza and the best way for you to get pizza is to call up your nearest chain and order it, I will never judge you.  If you decide to be cool and clever and make a homemade pizza out of canned crust and jarred sauce, your vibe is right on.  If you rise your pizza dough and boil your fresh tomatoes down and culture your own mozzarella, get your cute butt to TikTok and enjoy that pizza with all your heart, you noble land-mermaid!

What that means for mulled wine is that if you want some spicy wine and you want it now, you can absolutely go to your local liquor store and buy their stock of pre-spiced wine (my favorite is Firebrand), pour yourself a mug, and nuke it in the microwave (15-20 seconds at a time, stir, and another 15-20 seconds) and be drinking it in minutes.  I approve this plan.

If you’ve got a little more time or are throwing a party, toss that bottle of pre-spiced wine into your crock pot and throw a couple of orange rounds on top and rake in the compliments.  One of my rules of vibe cooking is to admit nothing- nobody but you needs to know which things you bought and which things you made.  If you and your guests are vibing, you’ve done everything right.

If you want to take a baby step toward something a little more unique, you can take that exact same bottle of pre-spiced wine and do some of the things I’m about to talk about in the next few paragraphs with it.  My friends and I will sometimes take that crock pot of hot wine and just leave out the mixers for everyone to add to their glass individually like a buffet.  Everyone gets exactly the drink they want, and no extra fuss!

Before I go too much farther, I am going to acknowledge the German elephant in the room- Glühwein.  Most of us can find this stuff at the grocery store during the Christmas season.  I specifically mentioned Firebrand above because I don’t mind it unadulterated, but St. Christopher’s Glühwein is probably what you think of when you think of buying spiced wine from the store.  If you like it as is, ignore everything I’m about to say, but I think that stuff is syrupy-sweet, so if it’s all I can come by, I insist on fixing it.  For me, a 1:1 mix of the Glühwein with an inexpensive, jammy (fruit-forward) red wine is the simplest fix.  You can update that ratio however you please, but that’s what works for me.  Mulled wine is often sweeter than plain wine, so your tolerance for sweetness in your drinks should guide your decisions going forward.

 Okay, now we’re on to the bit that everyone was hoping for- mulled wine from scratch!

I made the comment before about “jammy” or fruit-forward wines.  You can do anything you like, but sweetening a wine that already has a lot of fruit notes is going to taste more natural than sweetening something with grassy, oaky, or leather notes.  Additionally, a high-tannin wine (that’s the part of wine that makes your mouth feel dry after you’ve taken a sip) is going to just be made worse by cooking in the spices, which will come with their own bitter notes.  You’ll have to do some experiments to see what works for you, but Trader Joe’s Five-Buck Chuck Cabernet Sauvignon works pretty well for this, in my experience.  My only hard-and-fast rule is to never but never spend more than $10 on a bottle of wine you intend to mull.

So you start with your bottle of inexpensive, fruit-forward red wine (can white wine be mulled?  Probably, but I haven’t done any experiments on this yet.  Watch this space!).  Step one- dump that baby into your slow cooker.

“Lynn,” I hear you say, “you mentioned the microwave earlier!  Isn’t that easier?”

“Only if your wine is pre-spiced,” I say back.  “If it isn’t and you want it to be spicy, you’ll need the crock pot and you’ll need some time.  You really don’t need any advice from me if all you want to do is drink hot, unspiced wine.  Just do you, you glorious tropical fish.”

Once your wine is in the slow cooker, you’re going to add about three tablespoons of mulling spices to a large tea ball.  Don’t have a large tea ball?  Grab a piece of fabric you’re not fussy about turning red, put the spices in the middle, wrap them up securely, and tie off the top with cord or a rubber band.  Don’t leave the spices loose!  You’ll over-spice your wine and have a terrible time trying to get them out.  Overspiced wine generally becomes either bitter or numb or, if you’re very cool, both!  Once you’ve contained your spices, drop them into the wine and turn your crock pot on low.

I mention mulling spices like that’s an ingredient, and it is (usually easy to find at your local grocery during the Christmas season, or at online spice shops all year), but if you’re feeling adventurous and want to know what goes into it, or you’re looking at your spice rack and thinking “I could probably do that without a trip to the store,” you’re probably right.

Different mulling blends include different things.  Almost universal are cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.  Penzey’s mix has cardamom and mace.  Others have nutmeg.  I like whole peppercorns.  Some people add dried peel (I prefer to get my peel fresh from the fruit, but that’s a personal opinion).  Crystalized ginger is another popular additive.  Check out some recipes online and see what suits you- but keep in mind our watchwords here on HoltCuisine- if you want a flavor brought to the party and you don’t have it immediately to hand, substitutions are allowed!

That brings us neatly to the question of “what else.”  Wine+spices= spiced wine, so you’re already there, but most of us know that spiced wine tends to be a little sweet, and it’s traditionally a bit boozy and rather fruity (just like me!).

Now is the bit where we get to have fun.  What do you want your mulled wine to taste like?

On the topic of fruits- orange and apple are very traditional.  You can add orange and/or apple slices to the crock pot (take care with the orange, stewed orange peel can get very bitter).  I recommend doing this anyway for aesthetic reasons.  You can also add orange or apple juice to the wine (I recommend at least a half cup of each so you can taste them, or a full cup of one if you’re only adding one).  Fruit juice will dilute the alcohol of your drink, if you’re hoping for something more punch-like.  If you’re wanting something a bit harder-hitting, on the other hand, you can add hard apple cider, triple sec, Grand Marnier, or Cointreau.  I’ve found that hard apple cider (especially Angry Orchard’s cinnamon cider) is a delight in mulled wine.  I’m happy to toss in an entire bottle.

That said, you don’t need to restrict yourself to apple and orange.  Pomegranate, cranberry, or even currant are traditional holiday flavors, and you can add those in any formulation you feel comfortable with (I have a nice black currant liquor that comes out every winter just for mulled wine).  You can even get rather exotic with mango or pineapple or even jalapeño.  Whatever brings you joy!  Mulled wine is just hot sangria, so if there’s a flavor you like in sangria, add it to your mulled wine and forget the haters.

If you were looking at those mulling spices and thinking “ginger sounds delicious, but all I have is powdered right now, not crystalized or stem” that’s fine- add ginger beer or ginger ale!

We’ve found that vanilla brings a nice warm depth to mulled wine.  You can either add some cream soda, add a vanilla bean to your mulling spice blend (this is a very expensive option, but if you’re bougie enough for it, good for you!), or we’ve found that a half-cup or so of vanilla brandy is really nice.

Or maybe, you want some additional spiciness, but you can’t quite put your finger on what.  Try a dark spiced liquor (we have come to LOVE Captain Morgan’s Gingerbread rum in our mulled wine!).

Keep in mind that we’re cooking with vibes right now.  I’ve given you a couple of measurements, but honestly, you’re going to need to taste, taste again, and taste yet another time.  The wine is going to taste different cold than it does warm.  It’s also going to taste different after the spices have been in it for 30 minutes than when they’ve been there for an hour.  Keep your additions small until you’ve given them a taste, or put them in a glass of the wine to see how they marry before committing yourself to the whole pot.

Test the spiciness of the wine after 30 minutes.  If it tastes spicy enough for you, take the spices out right away- don’t let them stay in the pot all night.  If it’s not spicy enough yet, keep them in, but check every 30 minutes.  Whatever you do, don’t forget about them and leave them in the pot all night!  You will ruin your wine and your night (no, not really on the night, I promise!).

If you notice that your wine is a little bitter, either from a light over-spicing or a bit too much orange peel, you can probably save that with a teaspoon or two of salt- salt is the great bitter reducer!  You don’t want it to taste salty, but it will help cut the bitter.

Speaking of bitter, it’s now time to speak of sweet.  Mulled wine is traditionally pretty sweet.  I’m talking about this last because once you’ve added fruit juices and/or sodas and/or liquors, you will already have added a fair bit of sweet.  Now you’ll need to bring it all up to whatever sweetness standards you prefer.  You can do this with just plain sugar or brown sugar if the wine is warm enough, but I prefer liquid sweeteners.  Honey or agave nectar are obvious choices.  I, personally, haven’t tried this with molasses, but I’m thinking an experiment is in the offing because it sounds to me like an interesting idea (I always have extra molasses after the gingerbread is all made…).

Now what’s left?  Drink!  

Every time you do this, it’s going to come out a little different.  You’re going to leave the spices in for an extra 15 minutes, or you’re going to add just a splash more of this and a drop less of that, or you’re going to have something completely different in your kitchen than you did the last time.  That’s the joy and the adventure of this.  Sometimes it will work better than others, and sometimes you may discover something magical!

Go forth and cook with vibes today, you beautiful rule-breaking moths!