The Ingredients That Make Nordic Mulled Wine Special

When winter days hit, wine is enjoyable served warm and spiced. While most of us toss red wine into a pot with a handful spices and sliced fruit and hope for the best, the Scandinavians have perfected mulled wine through time-honored recipes. For centuries, glögg or glühwein have emerged during darker, cold months to keep bodies warm and morale high. 

Mulling spices to make these boozy recipes include cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, star anise, and allspice. Mulled wine recipes typically include several of these ingredients. Glögg can also include vanilla pods and oranges, and raisins and almonds can be added as a final garnish to glasses of Swedish mulled wine just prior to serving. Dried fruit and nuts can also be plopped into pots as the boozy concoction heats, yielding a nuttier, sweeter tasting profile that is poured into each glass. Not only do cups of glögg include nuts and dried fruit, the taste of these recipes are often sweeter than other kinds of mulled wine, and the alcohol content of glögg can run higher than other warmed wine recipes. 

Sweeter dessert wines like port can be added to glögg recipes that are made with dry red wines. Simmering pots of glögg can also feature vodka, brandy, rum, or Scandinavian aquavit splashed into the mix. In some countries, the red wine used to make the beverage can be diluted with fruit juices or cordial, and non-alcoholic versions of mulled wine, focused on juices, extracts, or syrups can be made sans booze. 

Toasting spices before adding them to the steaming concoction can add depth of flavor to glögg recipes. Some iterations call for the ingredients to simmer over an extended period of time, and sugar is stirred into the mix to turn the drink into a sweeter form. Though Greeks drank spiced wine after meals for digestive purposes, the Europeans' reliance on warmed wine for heat has been welcomed worldwide. In the 19th century, the presence of almonds and raisins in these warm boozy concoctions helped the recipe establish lasting associations with holiday festivities. Presented with a pretty platter of gingerbread cookies, this is the kind of treat that is guaranteed to warm party guests and perk up moods, even during the darkest days of the year.