I'm making mulled wine almost constantly because of work.

I'll be slowly updating some of the mulled wine I've been making myself, all the pictures will be taken by me so it will take a bit of time to prepare them, I'll be pushing myself to be quicker (bitter smile).

It just so happens that I spent six months working in a ski resort in the French Alps, where I made mulled wine (French: vin chaud / English: mulled wine) every week; and a year before that, I learned to make café créole in Mauritius, a tropical island with a lot of rum; and I'll finish up by writing about the alcoholic hot beverages I mastered in my work. Finally, I'll write about some alcoholic hot drinks that I've mastered in my work. If you don't find it too much trouble, you can prepare the ingredients yourself and try to make them at home, the warmth of a hot drink in the cold will make you feel very happy, but naturally, beware of the cravings.

Vin Chaud

Mulled wine is a traditional drink that originated in Europe, and is generally made at home, except in the snowy mountains where I work, where it's mostly made in the winter months, and it's also a regular at Halloween and Christmas. Mulled wine was first recorded in the 2nd century AD, made by the Romans and spread throughout Europe. The recipe we use today was first recorded in the medieval cookbook, The Forme of Cury, and while it varies a bit from country to country, the basics don't change much.

Ingredients:

Bottle of unaged red wine (unoaked red wine, generally machine-made, under a hundred yuan)

Three oranges

Sugar 150g (750ml of red wine)

Spices:

Cloves 20g

Fennel (or Chinese star anise) 10g

Spices:

Cloves 20g

Cumin (or Chinese star anise) 10g

Peppardine (or Chinese star anise) 20g

Nutmeg 20g

Cinnamon 5-8cm (rolled or opened no problem)

Lemon zest 10g

Ginger 15g

Here prepared for the photo:

Pictured here with the yellow peel, which was a new attempt for me.

Practice:

To make mulled wine you can use a saucepan or a kettle, because the temperature needs to be controlled at about 70 degrees Celsius, so being able to use electric heat is more convenient.

The first thing to do is to prepare the very iconic clove orange, with a knife in the orange cut out about 30 slits, the length and depth of less than 1cm, and then embedded in the cloves, like this (which is cooked when fished out)

After that will be done with the two oranges and fennel, nutmeg and cinnamon in a pot, pour in the red wine and slowly heated, the temperature as far as possible not to exceed 80 ℃!

The rest of the oranges are cut into slices, and when the hot red wine cools down a bit, we put the cut oranges into the guest's glass, then pour the wine and cheers. Although locals rarely make this hot drink at home, we can easily find it in places with a high concentration of tourists. The drink is also ideal for making at home, and because it can be made in very small quantities at a time, it's actually more suited to less crowded occasions. I learned a lot about rum making and drinking at the Medine Distillery when I was in Mauritius, which gave me some ideas on how to improve this drink.

Ingredients:

Spiced rum (or golden rum) 50ml (for one person)

Orange halves

Brown sugar (also known as brown sugar)

Black coffee (Nespresso or good quality instant black coffee is recommended)

Cream and condensed milk

Dark chocolate

Cream and condensed milk

Dark chocolate

Dark chocolate

Ingredients. p>Equipment:

Large soup spoon with a long handle

Alcohol lamp (or solid alcohol)

Small spoon with a long handle

I used Bacardi Hearts of Oak Spiced Rum, which is kind of easy to get in China! (Although the store I bought it from is down to its last bottle ......)

How to make it:

Peel and shred the orange peel in advance, and place the shredded peel in a ventilated area for about 4 hours. (If the peel is too watery, it will have a distinctly sour taste, so air-drying it will soften the flavor)

Crush the brown sugar

Next, put 10g of the shredded orange peel and 10g of the brown sugar into a ladle and add 50ml of rum, then set up an alcohol lamp in a safe place where there is no wind and slowly heat the ladle, stirring the rum and the shredded orange peel with a long-handled spoon so that they heat up evenly. Shreds so that they heat evenly. Soon you'll notice that the yellow sugar will melt into the rum, but that's not enough, we'll wait until the rum is hot enough to tilt the spoon so that the flame can lick the liquor, at which point the spoon will burst into flames (a blue flame at a low temperature).

When the aroma of the orange peel has soaked into the rum we can slowly let it cool down and set it aside, at which point the amount of rum is lost by about 25%.

Meanwhile, we'll make a 150ml cup of black coffee and mix in 20ml of fresh cream and 5ml of condensed milk, stirring well, and then we'll pour the slightly cooled rum and orange peel into the cup, mixing a little to achieve the desired result!