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041wine columnist LELETHU ZONDANI shares a simple guide to making traditional German mulled wine to warm up your evenings.

It’s been a cruel winter and honestly, I should’ve done this a long time ago to make my nights better. Mulled wine is a traditional German drink that can be sold in bottles but for preferences, I provided a step by step process for making it yourself. It’s a very easy drink to make and it’s made according to taste more than following a recipe, I’ve just provided an outline of a recipe you can follow if you’re a beginner such as myself.   

Ingredients: 

– 1 bottle of red wine (you can choose any red wine of your choice)  

– cinnamon sticks  

– 1 whole clove 

– 1 orange  

– 2 tablespoons of runny honey or brown sugar  

– bay leaves or a heated teaspoon of mixed ground spices (coriander, nutmeg)  

– 3/4 cup of water   

Directions: 

• Add your sugar or honey and the two sticks of cinnamon  – let this boil till the sugar dissolves  
• add your spices or bay leaves, your orange and the cloves. Leave this to boil for 25 -30 minutes  
• turn down the heat to low and pour the whole bottle of wine  
• let it simmer and cook for an hour  
• Take it off the stove and let it cool
•  Depending on how sweet you want it you can add more sugar or honey, again this warm wine drink is made according to your preferences rather than following a recipe. 
• Spoon out the ingredients pour into a heatproof glass and enjoy!  

I hope you’re all keeping warm and loving on each other! 

Cheers