Spiced Apple Drink
This is what you drink when it is wet outside and wine is not what you want. Spiced apple juice behaves like mulled wine: it warms the same way and scents the whole stairwell, but you can pour it for children and drivers. The one rule is not to boil it — boiling turns the spices bitter.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Rest
- 10 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Servings
- 4
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 120 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: about 1.2 l, 4 mugs
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Toast the spices
Warm the cinnamon, cloves, star anise and cardamom in a dry pan for 30 seconds, until they smell. Dry heat opens the essential oils and doubles the aroma of the drink.
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Step 2: Add the juice
Pour in the apple juice with the ginger, orange slices and the juice of the other half. Cloudy juice works better than clear — the pulp gives it body.
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Step 3: Hold it near 80 °C
Warm over low heat for 20–25 minutes without letting it boil. Only the odd bubble should break the surface — boiling makes cloves and zest bitter.
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Step 4: Let it infuse
Take it off the heat, cover and leave for 10 minutes. Most of the aroma is picked up in exactly those minutes.
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Step 5: Add honey and strain
Stir the honey into the drink once it has stopped steaming hard, then strain into mugs. Add a fresh cinnamon stick and a slice of orange to each.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Peel the zest without the white pith: that is the source of the bitterness usually blamed on the spices.
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Tip
Honey loses its aroma and some of its benefit above 60 °C. Add it last, when the drink is already drinkable.
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Variation
Replace half the juice with cranberry or cherry — sharper, darker and closer to mulled wine in colour.
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Storage
Three days in the fridge, with the spices taken out. Reheat by the cup to 70 °C; a second boil kills the aroma for good.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 4 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 120 kcal | 480 kcal |
| Protein | 0 g | 0 g |
| Fat | 0 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrates | 30 g | 120 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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