How do I make mulled wine and hot punches?

Mulled drinks fail in one specific way: they get boiled. The volatile compounds that make them smell good, and the alcohol, both leave above a certain temperature. Everything else is a matter of taste.

What you'll need

• Red wine or cider
• Whole spices
• Citrus
• Sugar or honey (optional)
• Large pan (optional)

Step by step

1. Use whole spices, not ground.Cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, cardamom. Ground spices make it cloudy and gritty and lose their aroma quickly.
2. Make a spiced syrup base first.Sugar, a splash of the wine, citrus peel and the spices, simmered briefly until the sugar dissolves. It extracts the spice before the wine goes in.
3. Add the wine and warm gently.Never above a bare steam — around 70°C. The moment it simmers you are losing both alcohol and aroma.
4. Steep for at least 20 minutes at low heat.Time rather than temperature does the extraction. Longer and gentler gives a better result than hotter and faster.
5. Use citrus peel rather than slices with pith.Pith is bitter, and it becomes more so the longer it sits. Peel gives the aroma without the bitterness.
6. Add any spirit at the very end.Brandy, rum or port, off the heat. Added early it simply evaporates.
7. Taste and adjust before serving.Sweetness varies with the wine. Adjust at the end rather than committing at the start.
8. Make a non-alcoholic version alongside.Apple juice, cranberry or black tea with the same spices works genuinely well and takes no extra effort.

Tips

• Use inexpensive but drinkable wine. Very cheap wine stays unpleasant and expensive wine is wasted, since the spices dominate either way.
• A slow cooker on low is ideal — it holds a steady temperature below simmering for hours without attention.
• Strain it before serving, or use a spice bag. Nobody wants a clove in their mouth.

Common mistakes

• Letting it boil — It drives off the alcohol and the aromatic compounds together, leaving a flat stewed drink.
• Using ground spices — They make it cloudy and gritty, and their aroma dissipates fast. Whole spices are cleaner and last through the steeping.
• Adding citrus slices with the pith — Pith turns bitter as it steeps and gets worse the longer the drink sits. Use peel only.

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