Bonfires & Mulled Wine
Posted by Chris on October 8, 2008
This is just fun - big piles of burning wood and mulled wine. Why weren’t we invited? We’ll even bring the mulled wine!
Kids with sparklers, mulled wine.
Creek banks, mulled wine.
Lime Juice Mulled Wine & Italian Cards
Posted by Chris on October 1, 2008
I just saw this and, yeah, really. Lime juice mulled wine.
The folks in the Italian Made Social Motoring Club in Australia (not sure what part) made a lunch stop and were served some mulled wine “consisting of Lime juice, brandy and cloves.”
It’s the lime juice I just don’t get.
I like limes but never once considered adding the them to wine in any form.
Mulled Wine Prevents Hangovers
Posted by Chris on September 7, 2008
More research is needed to confirm the headline but I think it can be done. Anyone want to chime in?
Kate of “What Katy Did…” tells of her, um, research into how mulled wine might prevent or, at least, not cause hangovers. I have done research that ended with quite the opposite result but I am still exceptionally interested in what she has to say about the subject. Ok, maybe her discover should be classified as something more like accidental than researched.
Either way, it’s a good account…
I had a very weird experience on Sunday morning: I awoke without a hangover… Having supped the previous night on a concoction of champagne, white wine, red wine, mulled wine and some suspicious clear liquid that appeared in a cup by my chair sometime shortly after 2am I was prepared for the worst.
Mulled Wine in the Alps
Posted by Chris on April 6, 2008
The Canadienne en France had her first day of skiing in the Alps and her first mulled wine after a day of skiing in the Alps. I think the mulled wine is the best part since it’s really part of the main reason she went to France there anyway:
“Most importantly, I signed up to drink cheap great wine, eat fine cheeses and pastries every day, and travel throughout Europe with new found classmates.”
Bruidstranen - The Brides Tear’s
Posted by Chris on April 4, 2008
Joel of TravelBeat.Net went to Amsterdam and tried a few of the finer spirits there, including Bruidstranen, a spiced wine popular to newly weds and commonly served at weddings.
Joel sparked my interest in Bruidstranen so I looked a little further into it and found more explanation over at “Dutch recipes for the newly weds.”
This alcoholic drink is especially for weddings although it has a strange name: Tears of the Bride. The gold and silver leaves mean: the smell of roses and moonshine. It has a scent so fine, that it is comparable with the finest perfume. This drink is served at the wedding (or, as the rumour goes: when a woman is not amused with something her husband did, she poors him a glass to remind him of the weddingfauls). It can also be a gift from the married couple to their guests.
…and, what do you know? They also have a recipe for mulled wine (”Hypocras”) there Here’s the recipe. They have some interesting history about it too but you will have to visit them for that:
Hypocras - mulled wine
500 grams / 2lb 2oz. Sugar
2 lemons
2 tsp cinnamon
4 cloves
2 pieces of mace
6 white pepper corns
1 tsp coriander
5 oranges
1 tart apple such as �goudrenet�
� liter / 2 cups / 1 pint milk
2 litres / 2 qts red or white wineSplice the cloves lengthwise and crush the pepper corns. Squeeze the two lemons and keep the juice. Dice the unpeeled, non-cored apple. Peel the oranges and keep the peels.
Mix juice, spices, peels, milk and wine in a large container and set aside to steep for at least a day, preferably longer.
Soak a large piece of cheesecloth or a good quality tea towel to use as a sieve. Put that (perhaps supported by a metal sieve or clander) over a wide-mouthed container or bottle able eventually to hold 2.5 litres (a gallon), or use smaller containers and pour the contents through a funnel into a larger one.
Enjoy!
Mega-Honey Red Wine Wassail
Posted by Chris on March 19, 2008
Wow! That’s a lot of honey!
The first thing I noticed about this red wine wassail recipe from I’m in the Mood for Food is that it requires a lot of water. The second thing I noticed is that it requires a LOT OF HONEY! I only noticed the honey second because I read from the top down.
I also really like the blog’s design. Can anyone tell me where it came from?
Here’s the red wine wassail recipe:
2 cups (500 ml) water
1 cup (250 ml) honey
4 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
2 lemons, thinly sliced
1 750-ml bottle red wine (I used a cabernay and I have no idea how much 750 ml is so I dumped in the bottle)Boil the water, honey, cloves, and cinnamon for five minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemons, and allow to stand for 10 minutes.Add the wine and heat slowly until just below the boiling point. Serve hot. Serves 6.
If you make this one, please let us know how you like it. I am really curious about how this tastes but I don’t have enough honey around to make it. I am not sure anyone has that much honey around. I guess it’s time for a trip to one of the farmers’ markets around here.
Mulled Wine in the Alps
Posted by Chris on March 16, 2008
Ahhhhh, skiing in the French Alps… and drinking vin chaud at the top of the slopes. Having a drink at the top of the slopes is one of my favorite things to do when snowboarding, especially on a sunny day. Rachel of Crafty Rachel and her gang enjoyed their day of snowboarding in the Alps and even enjoyed some mulled wine during their break at the top.
Gluhwein moments rule. 
Mulled Wine and a Hungarian Restaurant
Posted by Chris on March 10, 2008
Mulled wine is naturally international, crossing numerous borders and languages. Belladonna’s trip across Europe includes an evening in a Hungarian restaurant sipping mulled wine to fight back the cold.
We managed to find our hostel thanks to Maddy’s compass and my hastily scrawled directions from the website, dropped our bags, showered, and set off to see the city. We ate delicious Hungarian food and I sipped hot, mulled wine to guard against the grey chill of the rainy weather and Maddy and I explored the historic center and made insider archival jokes and talked about too many funny things to write down and generally had a marvelous time.
Moments like this one are fantastic. Traveling is always fun - the good, the bad, all of it. Well, almost all of it. Either way, there is a great chance that the next train stop on your trip will have restaurant with a warm mug of mulled wine to keep you toasty.
Sticking the Pig and Drinking the Mulled Wine
Posted by Chris on March 7, 2008
Joe of Egészségére! wrote about his multiple experiences with mulled wine while they took part in a little pigsticking, which is apparently illegal except for in “heritage” places. I am not sure I understand why bull fighting is ok and pigsticking is not but, well, I digress… About the day of pigsticking and mulled wine:
We arrived at 9:30 in the morning, and were greeted with shots of palinka. Palinka is a honey-apricot brandy sort of liquor. So we had two shots of that, then watched the pig die, it’s hair was burnt off, and then they cleaned the skin. While watching this, we got mulled wine. Then we went inside for breakfast, and had more mulled wine. The breakfast was interesting. They fried pigs blood and pig fat together, until it turns into little black lumps, and we were served this, and then more pigs blood is mixed with eggs and onions. This and bread rolls was breakfast. We went on a walk to see the animals, and played around with the electric fence, and then came back to watch the pig’s head come off. We got more mulled wine to celebrate this. After this, we stood around and watched the pig be dismembered. I was not as bothered by this as I thought I would be. We were served mulled wine throughout. we then had a three course lunch. First we were served soup made with noodles and the spine of the pig. Next was the entree, which was blood sausage, liver sausage, and simple sausage with paprika potatoes. Dessert was a Hungarian style custard pie with marmalade topping. It was alright, but after hearing all of the things that went into the foods, I couldn’t bring myself to get that excited about the foods.
It sounds like the day was more about drinking than about anything to do with pig skin but so is American football, right?
My understanding is that pigsticking is a traditional event about the enjoyment of the feast. The blood is enjoyed along with many of the usually-less-desired parts. hmmmm.
It’s National Mulled Wine Day
Posted by Chris on March 3, 2008
It’s March 3rd! Today is National Mulled Wine Day - the biggest wine event of them all!
Unfortunately, it has yet to become a bank holiday but we are working on that. Ideally, it would be a day when children still have to go to school but grown-ups can stay home and enjoy mulled wine.
Share a mug of the warm spicy stuff with a friend or loved one this evening. It just makes you feel good - too much might have the opposite effect, though.
If you want to learn more about National Mulled Wine Day…
The Nibble’s take on National Mulled Wine Day includes a little mulled wine history.
Cooking by the Seat of My Pants brings up the fact that mulled wine was requested by George’s Guardian Angel, Clarence, when they were at the bar - good moment for mulled wine.
This is a list of American Food and Drink Holidays - just interesting.
If you want to celebrate National Mulled Wine Day a day or two late, you can always buy mulled wine mix online. We offer overnight shipping.
