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Mulled wine

There’s no Christmas fair without a hot cup of mulled wine that we love to warm our ice-cold hands with. The good news is, you don’t have to go to the Christmas fair if you are thirsty for this spicy delicacy. Mulled wine is the perfect choice for cold winter nights, whether by yourself with a good book or movie, or with friends.

The classic recipe does not require more than a bottle of wine, some water, a few tablespoons of sugar, a tablespoon of cloves, a teaspoon of ginger, some bars of cinnamon, and some oranges, lemons, and limes. For a more flavourful glass of mulled wine, red wine is recommended, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, or merlot, for example. Villány offers excellent cabernet sauvignon, but Balatonboglár, Sopron, Eger, and others have great options as well. Again, Villány has an amazing palette of cabernet franc as well, but so do Badacsony or Szekszárd. Villány Szekszárd, Eger, and Balatonboglár have the widest range of merlot to offer. For those who would like a lighter beverage, white wine should be perfect, such as traminite, greyhound, or Riesling. Wine of better quality is recommended to be used, but not necessarily the most expensive one can find. There are multiple ways to make mulled wine.

The simplest, classic one is to put some water on a slow fire and add 3-4 tablespoons of sugar, about a tablespoon of cloves, 1-2 bars of cinnamon, and a bit of ginger if desired. Cook these together. Then add the wine of your choice and a half / a whole lemon’s juice. Some put orange, lemon, and lime slices straight into the water, some add them after the wine. Leave it on the stove over a slow fire until everything is heated up but before it starts boiling as that would lead to the alcohol evaporating.

For a white wine version:

Follow the same process, heat everything up, but do not let it reach boiling point. Put seven tablespoons of honey, a bar of cinnamon, your preferred number of cloves, a tablespoon of ginger, lemon juice, and lemon slices into some water. After heating it all up, add the wine and let it sit on the stove, but turn off before boiling.

For an alcohol-free choice:

Make some tea – green tea, rosehip, lemon, or all three –, add cloves, a bar of cinnamon, some fresh lemon and orange juice as well as the fruit slices.

Advent punch

If you do not drink alcohol, an excellent alternative for mulled wine is the advent punch. You’ll find this in all of its variations at every Christmas fair in the country.

This is a very simple recipe with only a few ingredients, and you can drink it either hot or cold. All you need is 125 ml pineapple juice, 250 ml orange juice, 250 ml cranberry juice, 125 ml ginger ale. You can use anis and orange slices for decoration.

Hot chocolate or hot cocoa

Hot cocoa is the easiest and cheapest hot drink to make. You just mix milk and (sugared) cocoa powder together and heat up in the microwave or on the stove.

Making hot chocolate is a little more complicated. You are going to need more than two ingredients. It is very similar to hot cocoa but very different at the same time.

Combine cocoa powder, sugar, water, and salt over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly until smooth and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, and stir in the milk, do not boil. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into mugs and serve immediately.

Source: Daily News Hungary