Glögg (Swedish Mulled Wine) with the NewAir Wine Fridge
Glögg (Swedish Mulled Wine) is a traditional holiday cocktail made from red wine simmered with spices. Grab a glass today and raise it to celebrate the season!
This Glögg (Swedish Mulled Wine) post is sponsored by NewAir, but the recipe and opinions are entirely my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Spiced!
Skål! That’s Swedish for Cheers! As we head into the holiday season, it’s time for some celebration. It’s been a strange year for sure, and the holiday celebrations will certainly look different this year – but different doesn’t necessarily mean bad. This is a great chance to start some new family traditions, or perhaps restart some old traditions.
For me, I always loved laying next to our Christmas tree when I was a kid. With book in hand (or perhaps a word-search puzzle book), I would lay by the Christmas tree for hours. Over the years, I’ve gotten away from doing that – perhaps it was the busy nature of the season, perhaps it was the feeling that I needed to get more work done. No matter the reason, I rediscovered the tradition of reading by the Christmas tree this past weekend! It was amazing, and it put me in the best spirits afterwards.
Glögg
Speaking of new traditions, we also made Glögg (Swedish Mulled Wine) for the first time this year. I’ve made mulled wine in the past using the pre-mixed packets of spices from the store. That version never did much for me. This homemade version? Oh man, now I see why Glögg is so popular throughout the Nordic countries!
In order to make a truly authentic version of Glögg, I reached out to Ron @ Lost in a Pot. Ron and I have been blog friends for quite some time now, and I always enjoy reading his posts. He used to live in the US, but he now lives with his wife (and dog!) in Sweden. He was the perfect person to consult when I was looking for an authentic Glögg recipe. The key? Pomelo peel. We’ll come back to the pomelo peel in a bit, though.
In short, Glögg is a warm drink made from red wine and a mixture of spices. Because you are adding a number of strong flavors, you can actually use a fairly routine blended red wine for this recipe. There’s no need to reach for that fancy bottle that you’ve been saving for a special occasion! However, with that said, the red wine plays a large role in Glögg, so you still want to use a wine that you would enjoy drinking by itself.
NewAir Freestanding 28-Bottle Dual Zone Wine Fridge
NewAir recently reached out with the opportunity to highlight their Freestanding 28-Bottle Dual Zone Wine Fridge. This wine refrigerator is a great size for our kitchen! (Regular readers may remember when we made this Cranberry Grapefruit Wine Spritzer to highlight NewAir’s larger 43-bottle fridge. That fridge is in our basement, and it’s been a great way to organize and store our wine collection.) This smaller wine fridge is great for keeping upstairs for easy access.
Like the 43-bottle version, NewAir’s Freestanding 28-Bottle Dual Zone Wine Fridge features two temperature zones. This means you can set one zone at a storage temperature and one zone for serving temperature. Experts recommend ~55°F for storing all wines and ~40-50°F for serving white and sparkling wines. This wine fridge is also very quiet. We have it in our kitchen currently, and we barely notice that it’s there – well, except when we reach for a bottle of wine!
Aside from the functional benefits of the two temperature zones, one of my favorite features of this wine fridge is the blue LED lighting. When turned on, the light casts a really cool glow over the bottle in your fridge – it looks really sleek! We’ve enjoyed having this smaller wine fridge near the kitchen as it’s great for entertaining…even if entertaining means just the two of us this year!
How to Make Traditional Swedish Glögg
As I mentioned above, Ron taught me that pomelo peel is one of the key ingredients for making authentic Swedish Glögg. I immediately thought, “Uh oh…I’ve never seen pomelos in our stores here in upstate New York.” However, Ron said that dried pomelo peel can be used in a pinch. Ah! Amazon to the rescue (affiliate link). (On a side note, dried pomelo peel is delicious!) I soaked several pieces of that pomelo along with cloves, cinnamon sticks, ginger and cardamom in vodka for about a week. From there, just heat up the wine and add the Glögg “essence.”
I wish I could convey in words the smell of this Glögg when it is warming on the stovetop. The entire house smells like, well, the holidays. It’s amazing! Laura and I really enjoyed our Glögg, and I’ve already started making another batch of essence. Give me about a week or so, and I’ll be reaching into our wine fridge for another bottle of red!
I highly recommend putting this Swedish Glögg on your list of holiday recipes to try this year. This one has definitely earned it’s place on our list of annual holiday traditions. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did. Thank you to NewAir for partnering with me on this post. A special thank you also to Ron @ Lost in a Pot for sharing his insights into making a traditional version of this delicious holiday drink. If you’re looking to learn more about Swedish holiday traditions, check out Ron’s excellent guide to the Swedish Julbord – or Christmas Table. Cheers…or should I say Skål!
Did you make a batch of this Glögg at home? Leave a comment, or snap a photo and share with NewAir (@NewAir) and me (@Spicedblog) on Instagram. We’d love to see your version!
Glögg (Swedish Mulled Wine)
Ingredients
For the Glögg Essence
- ⅓ cup vodka
- 15-20 whole cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp cardamom pods
- 4 pieces pomelo or bitter orange peel fresh or dried
- 2 pieces of ginger fresh or dried
For the Glögg
- 1 cup caster sugar granulated sugar can be substituted
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 750-ml bottle blended red wine
- 2-3 Tbsp raisins
- 2-3 Tbsp blanched slivered almonds
- {optional} orange slices for garnish
Instructions
For the Glögg Essence
- Using a small jar with a lid, add all of the essence ingredients (vodka, cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, pomelo peel and ginger); stir until well combined.
- Seal jar and let sit for at least one week. (Ron’s tip: Give the jar of essence a shake every now and then.)
- When ready to make Glögg, strain the solids out of the essence; discard the solids.
For the Glögg
- Using a medium saucepan, add sugar, vanilla extract, red wine and essence; stir until well combined.
- Place over medium heat and heat until warm (~100-105°F). (Note: Do not let Glögg come to a boil.)
- Sprinkle raisins and slivered almonds into mugs or glasses. Pour warm Glögg on top. (At this point, the Glögg can be stored in the refrigerator and then just reheated for serving.)
- {Optional} Garnish glasses with orange peel before serving.
Looking for more recipes using wine? Check out these other favorites, too:
Cranberry Grapefruit Wine Spritzer
‘Tis the season! I’ve actually had glogg on a number of occasions, working as I do in an international organization our Swedish colleagues never fail to offer up some this time of year. But not this year, of course, so I guess we’ll need to make our own at home, now that you’ve given us the recipe!
Good point, Frank! This year is different in many ways. But, hey, a batch of homemade glogg is really quite easy to make…and it just screams holidays! Thanks so much, my friend!
Cheers! We always head out into the woods to find our tree and I’m hoping we can do it this weekend. This mulled wine will be the perfect thing to sip on while we put the tree up and decorate it! I look forward to sipping on a glass.
Ah! I’ve always wanted to go hunting for a tree in the woods – that feels like such a classic Christmas activity. 🙂 I do think a glass of glogg is perfect for the holidays – and this recipe is spot-on thanks to Ron! Cheers, Kathy!
Wonderful stuff! You were right to contact Ron! But I was in London in December once visiting my daughter, and just about every pub served mulled wine. So I guess it’s not just a Nordic thing. I bet this is strong, with the vodka – I’d probably have to tone it down a bit, but it sounds lovely. I read most posts on my iPad, so that could be the problem, but the ads cover a significant portion of your text, just fyi.
Yeah, I think mulled wine has definitely spread throughout Europe – and why not? It’s a festive and tasty way to enjoy the holidays! Thanks for the heads up on the ads – I can’t always see the same thing on my end. I’ll reach out and see what’s going on there. There’s always something, right? :-/
David, thanks for the shoutout! You’ve honored the drink and I’m glad you and Laura had a chance to experience glögg. There are many versions out there, but this is our favorite. A great post indeed. But, I deed fail to mention that it’s a tradition (at least in our part of Sweden) to serve pepparkaka a thin Swedish gingersnap cookie. I’ve got a good recipe if you’d like to bake your own or you can just buy Anna’s gingersnaps in the US. Skål och ha en fantastisk julhelg!
I did gather that glogg is a bit like chocolate chip cookies – there are millions of versions out there. Regardless, this is now our version! It is perfect. I had to resort to dried pomelo peels, but that wasn’t a problem thanks to Amazon. And I have indeed seen Anna’s gingersnaps – they’re quite tasty. I assume you’ll need a pasta machine to roll the dough out super thin at home?
You’re so right about the different varieties of glögg and I’ve tried many. But, this is our go-to homemade version. I like to kick the glögg up a notch and add a shot or two of vodka while warming up a pot. That said, we likely have 10 or 20 different varieties of glögg setting on the self of our local liquor store.
Actually, the pepparkaka dough is quite dense and buttery so it rolls out nicely between two baking sheets. But, Annas is our go-to here as well.
Thanks for the tip about the pepparkaka dough! I was assuming it might be like Moravian sugar cookies – amazing to eat, but not easiest to make at home. And now I’m intrigued by other varieties of glogg – although to be honest, I’m not sure I want to stray from your recipe too much!
This is a fabulous recipe for the holiday season, David. I have tried Glögg from a mix too and it wasn’t great so I am intrigued by this (genuinely Swedish) version. How wonderful to get Ron’s tips and your photos look amazing. Happy December to you and your family!
I’m with you, Katerina! Glogg (or mulled wine) from a mix was always less than interesting to me. It smelled great, but the taste wasn’t there. This homemade version is amazing! Ron nailed it with this recipe, and it was nice knowing that this is an authentic version. The house really did smell like the holidays when I put this on the stovetop!
I’ve always been extremely lazy (or just too busy) to make my own mulled wine. It actually doesn’t seem that difficult when you follow through this recipe. Thanks David!
I’m with ya, Neil. The pre-mixed stuff always left something to be desired. Ron’s authentic version is not only amazing, but it really wasn’t hard at all. I did have to order the dried pomelo peels but that was it – and on a side note, the extra dried pomelo peels are a really tasty snack!
I make mulled wine every year around the holidays, but have never tried glogg! Love all the flavours in here. So warming and just perfect to warm ya up on a cold day. I can imagine myself with a mug, sitting by the tree. So cozy! That wine fridge sounds awesome, too, by the way!!
You totally need to try Ron’s recipe, Dawn! This is one heck of a drink – perfect for the holiday season. In fact, I’ve almost got another batch of ‘essence’ ready to go! And, yes, that wine fridge is proving to be quite handy! 😉
Now I feel like I want to have a wine fridge, we are a huge wine drinkers in NZ and having this at home would be a good idea otherwise I will have to make mulled wines with the wines that has been opened and lying around for a while.
Ah, if you like wine, then I highly recommend this wine fridge, Raymund! It helps us keep our wine organized…and it looks cool, too! 🙂
David I’m so loving your photos on this post! And such a fantastic recipe! We’ve thoroughly enjoyed glogg from Ikea – but homemade is always better and looking forward to giving this a try. Like y’all our holiday is going to be quite subdued – no cookie exchange parties, no Christmas Eve get togethers – a good time to slow down and focus on what truly matters and brings us joy – Skål my friend!
Why thank you very much, Shashi! I’ve gotta say that I am hooked on this homemade glogg recipe now. Glogg is a bit like chocolate chip cookies – there are a million different versions. However, I can say that this version is awesome! 🙂 I only wish we could raise a glass with you and Little S this year! Skål!