Mulled wine

Here’s how this whole thing started.

I decided I needed to find an alcoholic drink for winter (meaning something warm) because as much as I love kombucha, I can’t drink a cold beverage without it causing my body temp to drop to sub 80 temps. I already have a cup of tea every afternoon and then again every evening. Most of the time it purely to warm myself up. Am I a lizard? I know humans are supposed to maintain homeostasis on their own, but I think my body has missed the memo. Or I have Reynaud’s. Or my preferred temperature range is just exceptionally too narrow. Or I’m meant to live in Hawaii. Who knows…I got off track. In the chance that I don’t feel like tea, however, I feel like I don’t have many (non-cold) beverage options that appeal to me.

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Which is what lead me down the google rabbit hole of warm alcoholic drinks. And the result was this mulled wine!

Ingredients

• 1 750 ml bottle of red wine (I used a cabernet)
• 1/3 cup brandy
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 orange, juiced and zested
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cloves nutmeg
• 1 star anise

Directions:

Simmer everything together (on low – so you don’t burn off the alcohol) for a few hours.

To make it my own, I combined equal parts mulled wine with hot tea. It was divine. You could also use hot apple cider in place of tea. Or you could drink it straight up! I’m still tweaking it and trying it different ways. I’ve done both ginger tea and pomegranate white tea.