Health Benefit of Mulled Wine! Perfect for Winter Season!

Mulled wine not only warms your soul on the coldest of days with its perfect balance of spiced flavor, but it will warm your body too. Plus, it’s wine. If mulled wine is not part of your winter cocktail repertoire, we have just the recipes you need to get you started.

Just in case you’re wondering, mulled wine, which really means “to heat up and add spices” is called different names depending on the country. It was called “Negus” in Victorian English, “Glog” in Sweden, “Glogi” in Finland, “Gluhwein” in Germany and “Sangria” in Spain and later in Chile and Brazil. Non-alcoholic versions are referred to as mulled cider or “wassail”.

Several reports in 2000 confirmed that wine reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attacks. Red wine is a great source of antioxidants, which increases levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and gets rid of the bad stuff, which can significantly prevent heart disease and clogged arteries.

A high concentration of resveratrol helps fight against the damaging of free radicals in skin that play a role in aging, keeping you looking younger!

Drinking red wine in moderation can also reduce one’s risk of osteoporosis by increasing bone density. This was found by a study recently conducted on both men and women, showing that those who drank between 1 and 3 glasses a day had greater bone density than non-drinkers or heavy drinkers.

Ingredients

– 1 750ml bottle of wine
– 3 cups of water
– ¼ cup raisins
– 5 whole cloves
– 2 cinnamon sticks, plus one for each cup being served
– 2 cardamom pods
– 5 allspice berries
– 1” chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed (to release the juices)
– 2 oranges, wedged
– 1 lemon, quartered

Optional: Top each cup with 1 tsp brandy

In a saucepan, boil the water with honey, cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, allspice and ginger for 15 minutes.Turn down the heat to low and add the wine. Stir in the orange wedges and lemon quarters. Continue to heat for another 10-15 minutes. Pour into cider cups, add cinnamon stick as a garnish and enjoy!