Winter nights are well upon us now in England. Bitter nights followed by frosty mornings and getting home from work in the dark. So I don’t think we need any more excuses to warm ourselves with a hot glass of mulled wine. Here’s my take on it using spiced rum and orange liqueur, the extra alcohol and flavours give the mulled wine a luxurious thickness. I used Morgan’s spice rum but something like Sailor Jerry’s would work really well. The orange liqueur I used was La Grande Josiane which is not as sweet as something like Cointreau or Grand Marnier but has a really deep and in my opinion a better flavour. Choose a fruity un-oaked red wine for this recipe, it doesn’t have to be an expensive bottle but please not a very cheap one that you wouldn’t drink on its own.
Ingredients
1 bottle of red wine
80g of Demerara sugar
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
3 allspice berries
2 slices of clementine (orange will do)
1 bay leaf
Half a split vanilla pod
About 10 grates of nutmeg
70ml (2 measures) spiced rum
35ml (1 measure) Orange liqueur
Method
Put all ingredients in a pan and start to cook on a very low heat, stirring to help the sugar dissolve. I put it on a low heat so that the all the ingredients have time to infuse. After about 20 minutes the flavours should have developed and the mulled wine will be a nice hot drinking temperature. Pour into a glass and garnish with half a slice of clementine and a star anise.
The beauty with mulled wine recipes is that you can add lots of different spices to it and change quantities to suit your preference. Here are some other things to try in your mulled wine:
Mace
Cardamon
Damson Gin
Peppercorns
Crushed chilli
Corriander
Orange
Lemon