Glühwein

A German variety of mulled wine (see also Glögg, the Skandinavian equivalent). One recipe I've seen includes sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon peel (identical to ccunning's recipe for Glögg, except for the vodka). It's heated up and drunk warm; I first ran into this stuff at the Christkindlesmarkt at Christmastime in Nuremberg. The Christkindlesmarkt is an open-air market thing during Advent in the old center of town, where you can buy tchotchkes, goodies, and hot cups of glüwein to keep you warm. In among the shops there's religious stuff, too. It's serious fun.

It's also sold by the bottle; a week before Christmas, bottles of the stuff were just about everywhere, at four or five marks apiece (more at the duty free shops in the airport, naturally). The exchange rate then was about $0.60/mark. Not bad. I've still got a bottle right here. The label depicts rosy-cheeked happy eighteenth-century Franconians drinking wine in the snow in front of a cheerily-lit tchotchke shop. It says "9,5% vol" on it, too; if that refers to the alcohol content, we can easily imagine why those people are so happy.

I guess you could spell this without the umlaut or diaresis as "Gluehwein", but that doesn't look so appetizing, does it?

The title of this node is spelled with ü, as it should be.

A German warm, spiced wine. It is called Glogg in Scandinavia, mulled wine in England and those crazy Americans call it hot spiced wine. Extremely useful when standing around outside in cold countries – good for Christmas cheer at German outdoor markets. But let the thing speak for itself! There is quite a few recipes and the best is to concoct according to what you feel is good (tm) Here is a recipe/guideline:

Gluhwein:

• 1 bottle red table wine
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 strips lemon/orange peel (or just use 3 lemon/orange slices)

Mix all the stuff, excluding the wine, together in a saucepan and heat. After it has boiled (and all the sugar dissolved) strain the mix and add the wine. Heat the stuff up again until close to boil - do not boil.
Serve hot...
You can also add more lemon/orange peel/juice, vanilla, nutmeg, ginger, rum/brandy, old socks... (If you like - TIMTOWTDI).

Boiling the mix after the wine was added will make some of the alcohol evaporate and thus taking some bite out of the thing - again if you like.

Try this at home.

See also: Wassail.

This is the national drink during the wintertime in Germany. You will be able to find this brew on practically ANY Weihnachtsmarkt or Christkindlmarkt in Germany. New Year's is also a popular time for drinking Glühwein literwise. It is usually sold out of little stalls in mugs or plastic cups. The mugs often bear the name of the Markt and the year and for a few euros can be kept as a souvenir.

Glühwein can be traced all the way back to Roman times. Apicius' cookbook from the turn of the millenium details a "conditum paradoxum" or "Wine of Spice and Surprise" which's ingredients include wine, honey, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, laurel, koriander and thymian. The honey was added as a preservative.

Back in that day, this form of spiced wine was only available to the upper classes. Only the wealthy could afford the (at that time exotic) spices in the recipe. Peasants often resorted to "simple" peppermint for spicing.

A majorly good thing about Glühwein is that you can easily create it yourself, even in the good old US of A (or your corresponding country). It's always good during the wintertime and a natural for parties. The only negative side would be the heightened headache risk the next morning. Here I give you the original and a few variations of classic Glühwein. Prost!

Glühwein Classic

1000ml red wine
3-4 cloves (yes, you heard me)
half a stick 'o cinnamon
1-2 slices of lemon
3 large spoons of sugar (around 50-60 grams)

There are now two ways to do this; either take a fraction of the wine and add the other ingredients, bring it to a boil and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before mixing it with the rest of the wine and warming it up, OR simply throw everything into one pot and bring it almost to the boiling point, then serve. The latter method's taste isn't quite as strong as the beforementioned.

Feuerzangenbowle

One of the more popular variations of Glühwein, there is also an old German movie of the same name (Die Feuerzangenbowle).

3 bottles of red wine
1 orange peel
1 lemon peel
5 cloves
1 small sugar hat
1 bottle of golden rum (at least 108 proof)

Now this recipe involves a little more work. Insert the fruit peels into a tea filter bag and tie it shut with some undyed string. Hang it into a copper kettle (if at hand), pour in wine and heat up to a simmer but NOT a boil. Put a barbecue grill on top of the kettle and set the sugar hat above that. Pour rum into the hat using a ladle and light it. Apply rum as necessary until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove all accessories (including the spice bag) and serve. Yummy!

Jagertee

Drunk often in the Alpine regions, preferably after a long skiing trek.

¼ Liter black tea
¼ Liter red wine
¼ orange juice
¼ stick of cinnamon
60-80 grams sugar
2 cloves
2 slices of lemon
4cl rum
4cl Schnapps (Kirschwasser, for example, or a dry fruit brandy)

Heat all ingredients to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Add sugar for taste. Done!