Glögg (or mulled wine) is one of my favourite Swedish traditions and one of the highlights when we take our winter trip back to Europe. I love the cosiness it gives. Sipping warm wine in front of the fireplace is the ultimate winter Christmas feeling and we think good things should be shared so here is my favourite mulled wine recipe.
Where did Glögg come from?
Glögg or mulled wine originated in the 2nd century by the Romans. They would heat up wine to keep their bodies warm against the cold winters. Its popularity grew across Europe in the next centuries and countries created their own recipes, adding herbs, spices and even flowers. It wasn’t until the 1890s though that glögg was associated with Christmas and it became popular around the world.
In the warm weather of Singapore, glögg is not that popular. Luckily, in the last few years, more and more restaurants have started serving glögg during the month of December. We couldn’t be happier about this!
There are lots of recipes out there on how to make Glögg but this is our favourite so far!
Tips
- Try to make glögg a week or more in advance to allow the flavours to mature. If you don’t have this time no worries, you can still make it. However, the longer you infuse the vodka the more the spice flavours come out!
- For a less alcoholic version, don’t include the vodka and just add the spices to the wine in step 2.
- We prefer a less sweet version of glögg, hence we only use a little bit of honey. If you prefer it to be sweeter, just add more honey while warming up the mixture.
Ingredients:
- 75 ml (5 tbsp) vodka
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 10-20 cloves
- 1 tsp cardamom pods
- 3-4 pieces of dried Seville orange (bitter orange) peel or regular orange
- 1 bottle of red wine, any will do
- 1/4 cup of honey
- raisins
- almonds, blanched and peeled
Method:
- Pour the vodka into a small jar. Add the cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and cardamom. Cover and leave to infuse for at least a day, preferably a week.
- Pour the vodka and spices into a saucepan and add the wine and honey. Stir and heat slowly until the honey is dissolved and the mixture is hot but not boiling, about 80ºC (175ºF).
- Leave to cool and then sieve, to remove the spices, pour into bottles and keep until required. (It will keep for 2 or 3 weeks.)
- Heat gently before serving, but don’t let it boil.
- Place 2 or 3 raisins and 2 or 3 almonds in the bottom of each glass and top up with glögg.
Skoll! (Cheers :))
This was provided by Karin from thetabletales.com
Also, check out the beautiful little green treat plate used as a prop in our photos from Byros Ceramics, one of Table Tales Brand Partners
Recipe is adapted from swedishfood.com.