Mulled cider and mulled wine at home

First, which “cider” do you mean?

Recipes use the word for two different drinks: sweet, unfermented apple cider and fermented hard cider. The Mississippi State University Extension recipe below calls for “naturally sweet apple cider”, the unfermented kind, so it is an alcohol-free hot drink as written.

If you start from hard cider or wine, the drink is alcoholic and stays alcoholic when warmed (see the heat section). Decide which version you are making before you shop, and label the pots if you serve both.

Spiced cider: the extension method

Mississippi State University Extension’s spiced cider makes 18 servings from 1 gallon of naturally sweet apple cider, ¼ to 1 cup of brown sugar, 4 cinnamon sticks broken in half, 1 Tbsp whole cloves, 1 Tbsp whole allspice and an optional ½ tsp mace.

Tie the spices in cheesecloth or a coffee filter, combine the cider and sugar in a large pot, add the spice bag, bring to a slow boil, then turn down and simmer for 5–10 minutes. Remove the bag and serve hot. The recipe notes it can be kept warm in a slow cooker on the low setting.

Per litre, that works out to roughly one cinnamon stick and a little under 1 tsp each of whole cloves and allspice (1 US gallon is about 3.8 L). That is BrewMyBeer arithmetic for scaling, not a separate tested recipe. Start at the low end of the sugar range: sweet cider already brings its own sugar.

Mulled wine: a German Glühwein pattern

A red Glühwein recipe published by the German consumer magazine Öko-Test uses one bottle of red wine (it suggests a Spätburgunder), one sliced organic orange or lemon, 2–3 Tbsp of sugar, honey or agave syrup, 3 cloves and 2 Ceylon cinnamon sticks. Cardamom pods, a vanilla pod, a star anise or some fresh orange juice are optional.

Warm the wine over medium heat without boiling, add the other ingredients, take it off the heat and steep for about an hour. Reheat without boiling and strain into cups. The article warns that steeping the spices too long turns the drink bitter, so taste rather than leaving the pot on all evening.

Its white version uses a bottle of white wine such as Riesling, the zest and juice of an orange and a lemon, 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 star anise and 2–3 Tbsp of sweetener. Take only the outer zest: the white pith is bitter.

Compare the two ratios and the wine is spiced far more heavily per litre: 2 cinnamon sticks in one bottle against 4 in a whole gallon of cider. Whole spices in a bag or strainer make both easy to adjust and remove.

Heat, alcohol and food-safety notes

Öko-Test’s reason for keeping mulled wine below a boil is that alcohol evaporates and aroma is lost. That does not make warmed wine alcohol-free. In the USDA nutrient retention table, alcohol stirred into a hot liquid keeps 85% of its alcohol, and a dish simmered for 15 minutes keeps 40%; after an hour the figure is still 25%. Those are figures for cooked foods, not measurements of mulled wine, but they show that heating is not a way to remove the alcohol.

If you serve guests, make a separate alcohol-free pot rather than “cooking off” a wine version, and keep the two clearly labelled. Hot drinks can scald: use a heavy pot, keep handles turned in and let mugs cool slightly before handing them to anyone.

For cider bought from a farm stand, check whether it is pasteurised. The US Food and Drug Administration says untreated juice may contain harmful bacteria, should be kept refrigerated, and poses the greatest risk to children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. This guide does not treat a home simmer as a validated pasteurisation step, so choose pasteurised juice or cider when serving those groups.

An alcohol-free version

The extension spiced cider above is already alcohol-free when made with sweet, unfermented cider. Öko-Test also gives a children’s punch (Kinderpunsch): 1 litre of grape or apple juice, 3 slices of organic lemon, 1 small diced apple, 1 Ceylon cinnamon stick and 2 cloves, warmed together and steeped for at least an hour, then reheated and strained.

Sweeten only at the end, and only if the fruit sugar is not enough. If it turns out too sweet, the recipe suggests diluting it with fruit or herbal tea.

Making your own base cider or wine

If you ferment your own cider or fruit wine for mulling, measure it rather than guessing. Estimate potential alcohol from added sugar with the ABV-from-sugar calculator, or from original and final gravity with the ABV calculator. For a mulled drink with a spirit added, the cocktail ABV calculator shows how a splash changes the strength of the whole pot.