Glühwein is a warm spicy mulled wine traditionally served après ski or at Christmas markets across Germany. I first tried it a little closer to home at the Vancouver Christmas market – I remember it was a miserable rainy night and a few sips of this lovely drink warmed us up right away. Glühwein translates to glow-wine which explains exactly how you feel after a glass, warm and glowing.
Typical glühwein contains cinnamon sticks, oranges and cloves. I like to add cardamom, star anise and a little amber rum to notch things up. A few tips:
- Use a dry full-bodied red wine for this recipe. It doesn’t need to be pricey.
- Don’t bring the wine to a boil, it will burn the alcohol off. Gently simmer.
- This recipe will yield 4-6 servings. For a larger crowd, you can easily double the recipe.
Glühwein
German-style mulled wine that will warm you up on cold winter nights.
Ingredients
- 1 750ml bottle dry red wine cabernet sauvignon or malbec
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 whole star anise
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 whole cardamom pods
- 12 whole cloves
- 1 medium navel orange sliced into 4 rounds
- amber rum, for serving
Instructions
- Add sugar and water to large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat to low.
- Take 3 rounds of orange and stud each one with 4 cloves. Cut the remaining round into 4-6 wedges and set aside. Add wine, clove studded oranges, star anise, cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods to pot. Simmer gently for 30 minutes up to an hour or longer. At this point you can strain the spices and oranges out of the wine.
- To serve add 1/2 oz of rum to small heat proof mugs and pour mulled wine over top. Garnish with reserved orange wedge and a cinnamon stick, if desired.
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