Happy Hour With 3 Ingredients: Cold Mulled Wine
Happy weekend everyone, and welcome back to Happy 3 Ingredient Hour , a weekly drinks column featuring very simple yet delicious libations. This week we are adding some coolness to a classic winter heater: mulled wine.
Mulled wine simply means that the drink has been sweetened, flavored and heated, and we’re going to streamline this process. Instead of sweetening dry wine, we’ll start with sweet ruby port. I am also playing a bit hastily today with the definition of ingredient; instead of counting each cinnamon stick and spice pod as separate ingredients, I took the spice pack and count the mixture as an ingredient.
You can enjoy this drink cold or warm, but I like it when my alcohol is well chilled. To make this soothing cold-weather classic you’ll need:
- 2 cups ruby port
- 1 large tangerine (or several citrus fruits adjacent to the tangerine)
- 1 tablespoon mullein spice plus one bag of cinnamon sticks
Pour the port into a small saucepan and place on the stove. Peel the tangerines with a knife and squeeze the butter from each strip into a saucepan before placing them in the port. Squeeze the juice out of the tangerine and pour in it, then add the small spices. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to a simmer and let it bubble for five minutes, then remove from heat, cover and let it warm to room temperature before placing the entire pot in the refrigerator to cool. (If you want your mulled wine to be warm, just let it simmer for another ten minutes before pouring into mugs.) Once everything has cooled, serve over crushed ice or one giant cube.