Mulled wine’s a pretty personal thing. Some people will swear by adding cloves into the mix, to give it that festive feeling, others will stick to different spices like nutmeg or allspice, or will throw every Christmassy ingredient they can find in there and hope for the best!

Mulled wine needs two things: sugar and spice. Our recipe brings it right back to the basics of how to make mulled wine, then adds one big twist. We’ve used honey for the sugar, but in place of the more traditional festive spices we’ve gone for some actual hot spice in the form of chillies!

One important thing to remember when making your mulled wine – don’t boil or heat it for too long! You’ll cook off all the alcohol and be left with tasty but boozeless mulled grape juice.

Trust us, chillies can help make some amazing spiced and spicy mulled wine – and if you’re a little wary or you’re not a big fan of spicy food (or drinks!) then just go easy and add less than we recommend. (We’ve also listed some optional ingredients below as alternatives if it’s not your thing and you’re not feeling too adventurous!)

You’ll Need (for 4 servings):

• 1 bottle red wine
• 4 tbsp honey
• 2 oranges
• 2 chillies
• a large, thumb-sized knob of ginger

Optional Ingredients:

• 1 lemon
• 8 cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 star anise
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp allspice
• mulled wine syrup
• 75ml brandy or 250ml port

Method:

1. Slice the oranges into quarters, halve the chillies, peel the ginger (scrape the skin off with a teaspoon) and cut it into a few large pieces

2. Add the wine, honey, orange quarters, chilly halves, ginger pieces and any optional spices in a large pot and stir to mix in the honey

3. Cover with a lid and heat gently on the stove for 5 minutes or until hot
Tip: The mulled wine will lose some of its alcohol content when heated, so add brandy or port once it’s been heated if you like your mulled wine nice and strong!

4. Remove from the heat and ladle into heatproof glasses

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What spices do you use when you make mulled wine? Let us know in the comments!

If you’re on the lookout for some other mulled drinks, take a look at our Mulled Cider Recipe, or for another warming wintry drink have a go at making our Irish Hot Chocolate.