Friday, January 6, 2012

Mulled Cider

What better way to bring in the new year than by sipping some warm, spicy cider and reflecting on the year gone by. This is an easy and fast drink to concoct, and it is very soothing and warm on a cold winter evening.


Ingredients (subject to your preferences. I just put together spices that I thought would go well)
  1. 1/2 gallon of (organic) apple cider (serves 5-6)
  2. 2 teaspoons of honey
  3. 1 teaspoon of orange zest
  4. 1/2 teaspoon of whole cloves
  5. 1/2 teaspoon of whole cardamom pods, slightly crushed
  6. 2 cinnamon sticks
  7. 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
  8. 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
  9. 1/4 teaspoon allspice
Preparation
  1. Pour the apple cider into a big enough sauce pan. Add honey, and heat the cider on medium-high heat until the honey is dissolved. 
  2. Combine all the spices in the cider and simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes.
Take mulled cider off the heat and pour it through a strainer to remove the whole spices. Serve.

 
I personally don't like to load the cider with a lot of powdered spices, especially with ground cinnamon, although cinnamon is touted as a classic holiday spice. So, it's entirely dependent on your preferences to adjust the spices and the measurements.

2 comments:

  1. Is this an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink Neeru?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Non-alcoholic. Cider is just apple juice that goes through an extra process to remove all the pulp etc. You can make mulled wine too - as I am sure, you know :). I tried it out the exact same manner as this one. Was lovely!

    ReplyDelete

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