Winter just around the corner and all of us need to look for some quiet, friendly and cozy places. Mulled Wine, also well-known as a Spiced Wine can be your best friend. Moreover, serving in a proper way can help you to fully enjoy it by yourself or with your family and friends.
Which wine to choose?
When heating and adding various spices, the wine loses its taste and aroma โ you have to accept this. But it is still extremely useful for the taste and aroma of mulled wine to choose not litre tetra packs with wine drinks, but decent varieties, even if not in the most expensive version: Syrah, Zinfandel, Tempranillo, and Cabernet is quite suitable.
How to choose spices for your Mulled Wine?
This is the case when you don’t need to limit yourself. Of the mandatory-a stick of cinnamon, star anise or allspice, cloves. Less obvious, but no less interesting: peppercorns, saffron, and bay leaves. The rest-to your taste; if it seems that some of the unnamed spice is very “yours” and with it, the mulled wine will only be better-feel free to add.
When choosing cinnamon, it is important to know there is cinnamon Ceylon-cinnamon. Our supermarkets also sell Chinese cinnamon, also known as Cassia. At the same time, both Ceylon and Chinese look very similar, and they belong to the same genus โ cinnamon (Laurel family). Which of these spices is best suited for mulled wine? It is a matter of taste preferences only.
Instead of sugar โ honey
Many recipes suggest replacing sugar in mulled wine with honey. You also do this: honey is healthier, more flavorful, and there are a great many varieties of it. It is very important to add it at the very end of the process when the mulled wine is almost ready. At high temperatures, the enzymes contained in honey could be simply destroyed. Consequently, both the antimicrobial and antibacterial properties that it has been lost. In addition, I don’t recommend heating up the honey more than 60ยฐC. The taste and smell of honey are provided by essential oils of plant nectar. They themselves are very volatile substances that instantly evaporate when heated.
Do not bring to a boil
Heating spices together with wine is a balance of two processes: diffusion and evaporation. What exactly should not be done with mulled wine-boil it. Just warm it up to seventy degrees so that the spices open in hot wine. It is important not to let the alcohol completely evaporate, so when heating the container should be covered with a lid. If after the first tasting it seems that the mulled wine is too strong, dilute it with orange or apple juice.
How to serve your Mulled Wine
Here the choice is yours โ you can strain it through a strainer, or you can leave it with all the husk from the spices to continue to infuse. The mulled wine is served very hot. But if it is cold โ for example, your guests are late-it is not afraid to warm it up. Garnish as you like and enjoy responsibly.