Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine Made with Direct-Pressed Juice: 4 Recipes

Non-alcoholic mulled wine is juice heated with spices until steaming but not boiling, then left to steep under a lid for 10–15 minutes. The simplest base is not-from-concentrate (NFC) apple juice: it already has sweetness, a little tartness and the aroma of fruit, so the cinnamon, cloves and orange have something to work with, and you usually don’t need sugar. With cherry juice, the drink comes out ruby red and brighter; with grape juice, deeper; and with pear juice, mellow and honeyed.

What you’ll need for 1 liter

• 1 L of direct-pressed juice;
• 1 cinnamon stick;
• 4–5 cloves;
• 1–2 star anise pods;
• 3–4 thin rounds of fresh ginger;
• ½ orange, sliced, or a few strips of zest;
• optional: 1–2 teaspoons of honey, 2–3 cardamom pods, a pinch of nutmeg.

Use whole spices: they’re easy to strain out.

How to make non-alcoholic mulled wine at home: 5 steps

1. Pour the juice into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the spices and citrus.
2. Warm it over medium heat until steam and small bubbles appear around the edge — that’s about 70–80 °C. Don’t bring it to a boil: the aroma escapes, and the cloves and zest start to turn bitter.
3. Take the pan off the heat, cover it with a lid and let it steep for 10–15 minutes.
4. Strain. If you’re using honey, add it now, to the slightly cooled drink.
5. Pour into thick-walled glasses or mugs and garnish with an orange slice or a cinnamon stick.

No thermometer? The drink is ready when it’s steaming but there are no large bubbles on the surface yet.

Recipe 1. Classic apple

Base: fresh-pressed apple juice.
For 1 L: 1 cinnamon stick, 5 cloves, 1 star anise pod, 3 slices of ginger, ½ orange.

The flavor is mellow and spiced, with a light apple tartness. This recipe is a good one to start with: the others are variations on it.

Recipe 2. Cherry with cardamom

Base: apple-cherry juice.
For 1 L: 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 3 cardamom pods (lightly crushed), zest strips from ½ orange, and ½ vanilla bean if you like.

The color is ruby red, and the flavor is cherry tartness with warm spices. If you like it sweeter, add a teaspoon of honey.

Recipe 3. Grape with black pepper

Base: apple-grape juice.
For 1 L: 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 1 star anise pod, 3–4 black peppercorns, ½ orange, sliced.

Grape juice makes the flavor deeper and richer, and the pepper makes it warmer. For more on the flavor of grapes, see the article on grape juice.

Recipe 4. Pear with ginger and rosemary

Base: apple-pear juice.
For 1 L: 5–6 slices of ginger, 1 small sprig of rosemary, 1 cinnamon stick, a few strips of lemon zest.

Add the rosemary toward the end of heating and take it out after 5 minutes, or it will overpower the pear. The flavor is mellow and honeyed, with the freshness of ginger and a light herbal note.

One more option: apple-plum juice — for 1 L, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 star anise pod and ½ vanilla bean. The drink comes out a little denser, almost dessert-like.

Mulled wine for a crowd: from a 3-liter box

One box makes up to 12 cups of 250 ml each. Don’t triple the spices, or the aroma will turn harsh: for 3 L, 2–3 cinnamon sticks, 10–12 cloves, 3 star anise pods, 8–10 slices of ginger and 1–2 oranges are enough.

It’s convenient to heat it in a large pot or in a multicooker on the keep-warm setting. To keep the drink from cooling down, leave it over low heat with the lid on, without letting it boil, or pour it into a thermos.

You don’t have to heat the whole box at once: you can pour as much juice from the tap as you’ll drink in an evening, and the rest will stay in the box.

Two boxes of different flavors, and you have two mulled wines on the table: apple for fans of the classic and cherry for those who want something brighter.

Direct-pressed juices, 3 L — apple and apple-based blends. The minimum order is two boxes, and you can mix flavors. We ship via Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta across Ukraine; orders go out within 1–2 business days. Read “Fresh Apple Juice: How We Make It” to see how we make our juices, and “Juice in a Bag-in-Box with a Tap” to learn how to open the box and how long it keeps.
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