mulled wine option?

[darrel]

Sorry but this morning we are pretty much snowed in. as such ive started on the mulled wine. I have some Scwarz spize for it. Basically it says put a sachet in , heat the wine and serve. Has anyone used this stuff before. Does it make the wine cloudy, or just float on the top.
Also I have some red wine just finished fermenting ready for racking. Could i ad some to that now whilst its clearing?

[ms67]

i wouldnt put the spice mix into your clearing wine unless you are just feeling experimental. Some spices have an incredibly strong flavour (cloves are one) that is very easy to overdo. Having a premade mix makes it hard to gauge quantities.

for next time i'd recommend getting whole spices, the flavour is so much better than the preground mixes that have probably been hanging around for ages. They also tend to bulk up on the cheaper spices. If you have a continental/indian supermarket near you then get yourself down there for some spices. They are so much cheaper than schwarz and the like that your eyes will likely pop outta your head. And you cant fail to notice the difference once you grind them yourself.

having said all that, your packet of spice mix should make a yummy warming seasonal tipple and i hope you enjoy it. Many mulled wine recipes also call for sugar, in my experience its a must add ingredient, tho i cant say how much just try adding a bit at a time until you get what you like.

[fatbloke]

Darrel,

I don't know about the Schwartz mulled wine "T bag", but last week I got a couple of the ones by The Shropshire Spice Co from Tesco's at Holmbush....

It contained (apparently) cloves, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, orange and lemon peel. The instructions were the same i.e. heat wine with the spice bag in until a little vapour is visible. Remove from heat and allow spices to steep for approximately 10 minutes. Remove spice bag and return mulled wine to heat to the desired temperature.

It wasn't bad, and I don't recall if it said about adding sugar to taste or not, but I did as I don't enjoy unsweetened mulled wine (too many memories of the Gluhwien that's available on draft in the German and Austrian skiing resorts).

The actual reason I got them was because we where having dinner with some Australian friends (relatively newly arrived here) who hadn't tried mulled wine.

I did a search for recipes and they can be as complicated or basic as you want.

When we made it for the Aussie couple, as most of the recipes say about adding brandy or port, I just followed the instructions on the pack and ended up adding the closest spirit I had to brandy, which was Grappa.

It was just as good.

Since then, I've made it 2 more times. I tried it with ground spices (nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves @ 1/8th tsp each, and half a vanilla pod split down the length, plus the grated zest of half a lemon and half an orange) sugar and grappa. It made it a little cloudy and left some sediment in the pan.

Last wednesday, I just went through the spices in our cupboard, and used all of the flavour/aromatic ones, either whole or in the case of the cardomom and allspice, gently crushed it so it was very coarse. There was still a little cloudiness, but less sediment.

My untutored (bleedin' ignorant) palate can't really tell the difference. It's still got the sweetness of however much sugar is used (I use about 100 grammes per 750ml bottle of wine), the base wine flavour which seems to just mix up the individual spice flavours into a melee of taste and unless you use more of one than the others, it just makes it taste like a pleasant, sweet, wine based spiciness.

I won't buy the spice bags again as they're not very good value for money - the "Shropshire" ones were £1.49 a pop. I'd guess that the Schwartz ones will be something like that as well.

If you have a good range of whole spices, then just google for recipes and make up the one that you like the sound of, or have the ingredients for.

regards

jtfb

p.s. oh and in respect of the snow, I'm only a little way along the coast from you, so picture attached - taken at about quarter past midnight this morning........ it's just too weird to get snow down here, before the midlands and north......

[ms67]

totally agree with JtFB - and forgot about the citrus fruits/zests. You cant really go wrong, as JtFB says pick and choose your ingredients taking inspiration from the many recipes out there and what you like. I love mulled wine, and probably never make it the same twice, its always good stuff and good fun.

[darrel]

Hi all, thanks for the replies. In the end I ran out of time and just threw the Schwarz "tea bag" in 10 mins before I warmed the wine. I will have to say for a Red grape juice Youngs wine and pack of spice it was the nicest Mulled wine Ive ever tasted. Lovely. Not bad for £1.12 for 6 tea bags
I will be looking at doing a proper recipe next year trying the recipes above with a fuller bodied red, but for just a cheapy quick thing I was very impressed