This month the theme is "Drinks for a Festive Occasion" and it's hosted by Brenda at The Spirit World.
Around Christmas Jonas and I go into intensive cocktail mode. It's summer here after all and everyone is on holidays and ready to drink!
We usually make three particular cocktails at Christmas: glögg (Swedish mulled wine eaten with raisins and ginger biscuits) lingonberry daiquiris and mumma a pungent Swedish gin, porter and cola punch flavoured heavily with cardamom (kardemumma in Swedish, hence the drink's name).
Mulled wine is fantastic, but not so great in the scorching Australian summer so when I discovered this recipe for chilled mulled Riesling I just had to try it out.
I'm undecided about the results. While it was incredibly refreshing, the presence of citrus and fresh thyme gave the kerosene and lime notes of Riesling a slight medicinal quality that I wasn't expecting.
Of the four of us that drank it: Karen simply adored it, Tim Y thought it was pretty good, I thought it was worth making again and Jonas kept telling me it tasted like cough lozenges.
This recipe is either one that you love or shrug at nonchalantly, but I don't think anyone would really hate it.
Chilled Mulled Riesling
Recipe in Gourmet Traveller December 2006 issue. Makes approximately 6 glasses.
Ingredients:
1 bottle of Riesling (750ml)
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
Rind of a lemon
Rind of an orange
¼ cup sugar (55g)
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons honey
Lemon and orange slices to serve
Method:
1. In a large pot combine water, rind, thyme, honey and sugar and stir until sugar dissolves, approximately 5 minutes.
2. Add Riesling and heat for a further 10 minutes.
3. Strain and return to Riesling bottle, then refrigerate until chilled.
4. Serve chilled in a jug with slices of lemon and orange and plenty of ice.
Be sure to check out the other festive drinks at Brenda's recap on The Spirit World.
Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes mixology monday mxmo mulled wine riesling cocktails punch thyme orange lemon christmas recipes christmas christmas food
This drink looks really refreshing :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Riesling....not sure how chilled spices would be though
ReplyDeleteJonas drinks Sauvignon Blanc by choice so i wouldn't be listening to much of what he has to say.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could try a less zesty/lemony style of wine. The recipe is probably intended for an austrian or german style riesling, that may make a difference
We must be on similar wave lengths - not that first time though. Spooky. I love the sound of this - white sangria certainly works why not mulled wine?
ReplyDeleteangie - it certainly was refreshing. in fact that's the word we all agreed described it best.
ReplyDeletewheresmymind - i love chilled spices. delicious!
fabio - where have you been my friend? i don't think they intended to use a european riesling, but that's an excellent suggestion because it would certainly take away some of that excess citrus.
haalo - same wave length indeed. check out haalo's chilled mulled wine