Mulled Cider and Mulled Wine

I have failed at posting anything in a while, and for that I am very sorry.  However, feel free to blame my job and working 18-20 hour days for while, which put everything else in my life on hold.  I am now caught up and you will be getting at least 3 posts today.  You should feel special.

If you are like most of America (I think there are some non-American readers out there, so I need to explain these things), it became autumn very quickly.  Also, random aside note - autumn is such a better word than fall, it is a little bit more classy and makes the season seem more friendly in general.  I went to the amazing Wake Forest tailgate that my friends throw every home game this past Saturday.  I realized that I might be cold, therefore I made hot mulled cider and hot mulled wine to keep warm while grilling, dancing to the tunes, heckling people with the microphone to the stereo-system and generally hanging out.  The cider was a hit, the mulled wine did not get touched.  Granted it ended up being a very male dominated tailgate, so this might explain it.  I enjoy both.

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures, so I will leave it up to your imagination.

Mulled Cider

1 gallon of cider

1 bottle of spiced rum

a little (about 1/2 cup) of bourbon

mulling spice mix*

For my mulling spice mix I use the following

- cinnamon

- nutmeg

- cloves

- star anise

- all spice

- a couple of juniper berries

(you can also normally just by this in a lot of stores)

Pour cider and liquor into a saucepot.  Put all mulling spices into either a spice bag, tea difuser if you are using whole spices, or piece of fabric and very tightly wrap a rubber band around it to prevent the spices from leaking out.  Simmer for a couple of hours.  I also put a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg directly into the saucepot, but I really like cinnamon and nutmeg.

Mulled Wine

(Note - similar to sangria everyone's recipe for this is very different)

1 bottle of a red wine

1 cup of triple sec

1 cup of sugar

mulling spice mix

Pour red wine, triple sec and sugar into saucepot.  Put all mulling spices into either a spice bag, tea difuser if you are using whole spices, or piece of fabric and very tightly wrap a rubber band around it to prevent the spices from leaking out.  Simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, then continue to simmer for a few hours.

Garnish both of these with a cinnamon stick.  I did not bring these to the tailgate, because well it was a tailgate.