Cranberry Mulled Wine (Glögg)

Warm up your winter with our Cranberry Glögg recipe! Our twist on the traditional Scandinavian mulled wine, it blends cranberry juice, spices, and a touch of brandy for a cozy, festive beverage.

While researching cardamom for my post about cardamom roasted vegetables, I learned that cardamom is one of the spices that typically flavors the Scandinavian winter-time mulled wine drink known as Glögg.

Glögg is the name of mulled (heated and spiced) wine in Sweden and Iceland; it goes by other similar names in Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Estonia, and it is called Glühwein in German-speaking parts of Europe.

Historically speaking, mulled wines like Glögg have been enjoyed for centuries, particularly by folks living in cold regions of the world. Today, Swedes and other Scandinavian dwellers enjoy Glögg at festive occasions in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and it’s often served with pastries.

This Cranberry Glögg contains more juice than wine, and you are welcome to swap the proportions. You can use more wine and less juice, or no juice at all. I have some lovely apple brandy from a local winery, so I added a little as glögg recipes do sometimes contain brandy; I’ve also seen ones that contain vodka, rum, or aquavit.

Note that if you don’t want a very alcoholic drink, you can boil the mixture so that some (or most/all) of the alcohol cooks off. Most recipes tell you to keep the temperature very low so this doesn’t happen, but it is up to you. If you do want it to be alcoholic but you find that you’ve heated it too much, you can always add a splash of brandy or one of the other forms of alcohol before serving.

On the flip side, if you want a completely alcohol-free version, you can make a glogg-like drink just with juice. I think it would be nice with a mixture of cranberry juice and pear or apple cider, for example. Pomegranate juice might also be great. If you are using only juice and no alcohol, you really won’t need the additional sweetener (unless you’re using unsweetened cranberry juice, which is incredibly tart on its own).

In order to really taste the spices, it’s important to let all the flavors infuse for a while. Though I didn’t use one, a crockpot might be a good way to go with this recipe; you can leave it on low for quite a while (a day or so) before serving and I think it would just get better and better.