Starkglögg

A swedish version of Gluhwein. Some wikipedia info.

Ingredients for the Base

• One bottle of Vodka. (0,75 litres)
• 7 Tablespoons of whole Cardamom
• 15 Cinnamon Sticks
• ~140 Whole Cloves
• 1 diced fresh Ginger (roughly two thumbs)
• (Optional: peelings from three unwaxed oranges. I usually skip this.)

Prepping the Base

Put the above in a sealed glass jar. Let sit for 24 hours or more. Not less. Unless you’re in a hurry. Once ready (it will have started to turn dark) strain out all the goopy spicy stuff and put the vodka back in a bottle. This is the base.

Ingredients to finish the Glögg

• One bottle of red wine. (Or experiment with cider, Rose, etc.)
• ~150g Brown caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Finishing the Glögg

When it’s time to drink, take 100ml of vodka base for each bottle of red wine, add one tablespoon of Vanilla Extract and ~150g of brown caster sugar. Take care to add the sugar slowly while carefully heating it up, and taste it a couple times while adding sugar to see that it doesn’t get too sweet for your taste. Heat up (DON’T LET IT BOIL, THAT IS ALCOHOL ABUSE!) and drink, for example in a mug with a good helping of raisins and almonds that you just let soak in the bottom.

I have also found that this works well with cider (eg. Apple Bandit) instead of wine, as well as with Rosé wine is superb.

If less strength is desired, you can use Wine instead of Vodka for the base. If alcohol free is desired, use alcohol free wine for both base and finish.