Glögg is a term for Nordic mulled wine and is amazing. If you have read A Game of Thrones of the Song of Ice and Fire series, then you may have craved the spiced wine they consume on the wall. This is an excellent drink to warm yourself during the holidays since it is sweet, spicy, and has some liquor added in.
The style of glögg that we’ll be working with is a dry, red wine with a liquor added in (specifically brandy). Typical spices include cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and cardamom (and never in ground form, always in whole form). Sweeteners include fruit (mainly oranges), honey, orange juice, and sugar (white or brown). Then you can add some subtle accessory flavors with blanched almonds or maybe nutmeg (I haven’t tried nutmeg). The amount and type of spices and sweeteners are totally up to you and your taste preference.
You should be able to find a 1.5L bottle of wine for $10 or less at a grocery store. I’ve been told that wines that are about 13.5% alcohol ensure at least a base line of quality (since they were allowed to ferment longer than a lower percent wine). Don’t worry about high quality wine since you’re going to completely alter the flavor anyway. The same goes for brandy; you’re going to use it as an ingredient so don’t spend a lot of doll hairs. The spices should be 3 or 4 doll hairs each. Remember to avoid ground stuff: get cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and allspice pods. I haven’t used cardamom but have seen it in various recipes.
The cooking is pretty simple: put all of that stuff in a pot and let it simmer. Don’t simmer it too warm, because then some of the liquid and alcohol will evaporate off (my first attempt had a good simmer, and I lost a bit of the volume). Use the “just a little” approach; use just a little spice, just a little sweetener, and just a little heat because you can always add more when you need to. Below is a good base recipe from my friend Kat who introduced me to glögg (by the way, her husband’s name is Conan…no shit). Kat constantly tinkers with recipes, but I suggest starting with this and tweaking it to your own taste.
A base recipe from Kat
750 mL of a robust, dry red wine
150 mL of inexpensive brandy
1/4 cup pulp free orange juice
4 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon of whole allspice pods
15 blanched almonds
1 drop of vanilla extract
1 dozen whole cloves
1 orange, thick sliced
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 brown sugar (or less, as desired)
Combine wine, brandy, orange juice, cinnamon sticks, allspice, almonds, and vanilla extract into a large pot. Poke cloves into orange slices and add to mixture. Stir in honey and brown sugar to accommodate taste preference. Simmer approximately 45 minutes. Strain and serve warm.
The primary variables to tweak are spiciness and sweetness. If it was too sweet, then reduce one or all of the sweeteners for a subtle effect, or completely remove it for a significant effect. Just like in programming for lifting, I suggest subtle changes instead of large changes; change too much and you won’t know which ingredient had the most impact.
I didn’t poke the cloves in the orange like Kat said because I’m lazy. My first batch didn’t have allspice in it and I noted that I wanted it to be spicier. The second batch (in the vid) did have allspice, and I didn’t use brown sugar or orange juice, but I did use honey. It was quite spicy and will probably benefit from a little bit of sweetener added in (probably in the form of sugar, but more honey would work).