Categories: Spice Blends, Salt-Free Blends

Cuisines: Canadian/American, English

This blend of mulling spices is just the thing to help you get though a cold Canadian winter. We blend Indonesian cinnamon pieces, allspice berries, cloves, mace, cardamom pods and dried orange peel, giving you the perfect spice blend for mulled wine. Or for an alcohol-free drink, use this blend to flavour hot apple cider. You can also toss a spoonful into a small pot of simmering water to make your home smell warm and inviting.

To make your own mulled wine or cider, you'll need to put your mulling spices in a muslin bag or tie them up in cheesecloth sachets. We also have six-inch cinnamon sticks, which make ideal stir-sticks for hot drinks!

For mulling, use 1-2 tablespoons of mulling spices per bottle of red wine or litre of cider. Here's a trick, though: spices need to simmer for a little while to begin releasing their flavour. But you don't want to simmer your wine too long, or you'll lose all the alcohol. So simmer the spices in water for 10 minutes, then pour out the water and add your wine to the pot. Most people add a couple tablespoons of sugar or honey to the pot at this point to give the mulled wine some sweetness. You can also add a couple glugs of brandy if you'd like.

Heat the wine or cider on the stove until it is hot but don't allow it to boil. The longer you keep the spices in the more intense the flavour will be, but it's usually ready in 5-15 minutes. Once it tastes the way you want it, discard the spices and laddle into mugs or glasses. You can also pour the finished drink into a crock pot and keep it warm and ready-to-serve for hours – great for holiday parties!

Ingredients: cinnamon, allspice, cloves, orange peel, cardamom, mace.