If you’re looking for a cocktail recipe with which to impress your friends and family with this New Years’ Eve, then try this mulled gin tipple.
Lightly spiced, subtly festive, but totally delicious, this warm and cosy cocktail proves that gin isn’t just for summer – and wine isn’t the only booze worth mulling.
Perfect for sipping while singing auld lang syne and ringing in the new year, mulled gin is easy to make – particularly if you have a slow cooker to hand.
You’ll probably have all the ingredients you need to make it in the house already, if my fridge and spice cupboard is anything to go by. If not, the ingredients are all relatively inexpensive and easy to pick up at any supermarket – just be sure to check opening hours between Christmas and New Year.
This recipe makes two cocktails, so be sure to multiply the quantities depending on how many people you are serving. Alternatively, you can add the recipe to a slow cooker and keep topping it up with apple juice when it runs low on NYE, keeping a bottle of gin close by to pour your measures from.
You will need:
- 100ml gin
- 300ml apple juice
- A cinnamon stick
- Three cloves
- One star anise
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 1tsp honey
- 50ml fresh lemon juice
- Orange peel for garnishing
You can use any gin for this recipe, whether you’ve got a bottle of Gordon’s laying around, or picked up a flavoured gin for Christmas. I find that flavours like clementine (like the Aldi and M&S snow globe gins) or winter berry gins work best. For this recipe, I used the Sainsbury’s Limited Edition Blackfriars 11 Winter Berry & Clementine Gin, which is a beautiful London Dry that comes in at just £16 a bottle.
Add 50ml of gin to each heatproof glass, then, to a pan (or slow cooker) add your apple juice, throwing in a cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, vanilla extract, honey and lemon juice, to balance the cocktail. Gently warm the liquid until simmering and then strain into a jug.
Add your warm mulled apple juice to your gin, and garnish with orange peel or a cinnamon stick, if you prefer. The gin botanicals and juniper pair beautifully with the festive spices, offering a warming and aromatic winter toddy that will seriously impress your guests.
