Wassail

My non-alcoholic wassail recipe is the perfect holiday drink to please a crowd. Fragrant, perfectly spiced, with a wonderful sweet-tart flavor, it’s bound to be a family favorite!

Course Drinks

Cuisine english

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1 10

Total Time 1 20

Servings servings

Calories 147kcal

Author John Kanell

Equipment

Large Pot

Ingredients

2 quarts apple cider (1.8L)
2 cups orange juice (480ml)
½ cup fresh lemon juice (120ml)
4 cinnamon sticks
15 whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground nutmeg

Instructions

In a large pot, combine all of the ingredients. Place over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Reduce the heat to low. Simmer for about 1 hour or until the spices have steeped to your taste. (If preferred, you can sweeten the mixture with brown sugar or maple syrup.)
Serve hot in mugs with an apple or orange slice and a cinnamon stick.

Notes

Use freshly grated nutmeg. Grating your own nutmeg only takes a few seconds, and the flavor is far superior to the pre-grated kind. Unlike other ground spices, nutmeg’s flavor rapidly lessens once it is ground or grated, so the jars of preground nutmeg have little flavor compared to freshly grated!
For a sweeter version: Add 1 cup of pineapple juice, or replace the lemon juice with pineapple juice or more orange juice for a sweeter spiced cider. You could also sweeten the mixture with brown sugar or maple syrup to suit your taste preference.
Use different spices. You can use different warm spices to change up the flavor. Mix and match until you get your desired flavor. Star anise and allspice are two of my favorites if I want to add a little twist to my drink. Or, to simplify the recipe, use 1 tablespoon of mulling spice in place of the whole and ground spices.
Make it in a slow cooker: Combine all the ingredients in your Crock Pot or Instant Pot set to slow cook, and simmer for 3 to 4 hours on Low. Turn on Warm to keep the beverage hot if serving it during a party or over an extended period.

Nutrition