One of the great delights of the holiday season is a lovely, warming mug of mulled wine with its gentle spiced flavors and unmistakable aroma. Over in Europe, there’s a strong traditional of Glühwein — especially in Germany — which is basically just a local version of mulled wine. There isn’t a single official recipe that’s recognized, but rather everyone has their own preferences and traditions for the way that it’s made.
You start with a base of warmed red wine, then throw in spices like star anise, cinnamon, cloves, oranges or orange peel, and maybe a touch of honey for sweetness. Other people like to add spices like fresh ginger, juniper, licorice root, or cardamon, or to use caster sugar or brown sugar for the sweetner rather than the honey.
As you can tell, it’s an anything goes sort of drink so don’t stress over exact quantities or ingredients and have fun using whatever is to hand in your kitchen. Everything is warmed on the stove in one big pan for several hours, then when it’s ready the drink is ladled out into mugs for warming you up on a chilly night. It’s a tradition you’ll see in Christmas markets across the country and at plenty of homes where each family has their own recipe.
But there’s a secret extra ingredient that Germans love to add to their Glühwein, and it’s one that everyone should try: a shot of Amaretto. Amaretto is a sweet almond liqueur that you’ll find tucked away at the back of many a bar. The most common brand is Disaronno, which comes in a distinctive square bottle, and it’s most often added to coffee or used in drinks like the Amaretto Sour or the French Connection.
But it makes an amazing addition to a mulled wine as well. Known in Germany as a Schuss, or a shot, it adds potency and flavor to your mulled wine — though it also ups the abv to something powerful, so watch out!
Amaretto is sweet, so you can use it in place of honey in your recipe, and it also adds a nutty, rich almond flavor that goes perfectly with the dryness of red wine and the bakery sweet spices that have been added to it. You don’t need to pour in a huge amount of Amaretto as it is pretty strongly flavored, but once your mulled wine is ready and you have it in your mug, top it up with up to half an ounce of Amaretto to really make the flavors pop.
Some people like to add a Schuss of rum or Calvados, and in other parts of the world there’s a tradition of adding brandy to mulled wine, but to me there’s no better option than the Amaretto. So if you have a bottle sitting around in your bar, try adding a slug to your mulled wine to recreate a little bit of the German weihnachtsmarkt at home and enjoy the toasty, warm flavors of the season.
