These DIY mulling spices are the perfect way to create your own homemade mulled cider or mulled wine this fall and winter. These make great little gifts as well!
I always love to make treats during the holidays and I love that all the aromatic spices in so many Christmas recipes also give your home a wonderful comforting scent. I love the nostalgic spiced apple-cider aroma that comes with simmering juice on the stove with these homemade mulling spices when the cold-winter winds blow outside. Mulled wine is also a really fun, festive red-wine beverage to make if you’re going to be hosting a special dinner for the holidays, or really at any time during the colder months when hot drinks are very much needed. I love the idea of giving these DIY mulling spices as gifts as well to make it really easy for others to enjoy mulling their own beverages like fragrant spiced wine this holiday season.
Another old-fashioned Christmas Idea: Homemade Scented Pinecones
Ingredients Needed
Here’s what you’ll need to make the mulling spices recipe:
- Cinnamon sticks
- Dried sliced orange (Here’s how to make your own dried orange slices, or you can purchase dehydrated orange zest to use instead)
- Star anise
- Allspice berries
- Whole cloves
I bought all of my spices from a bulk foods store, which is a great way to go because you can purchase as much or as little as you need. If you just want to spend a few cents and get just enough to make a batch for yourself, you can do that. If you want to buy a whole bunch and make these as gifts, you can do that too.
Or, if these are spices that you don’t typically use all year round, it’s a good idea to buy just enough so they aren’t sitting in your cupboard until next year losing flavour. You can just pick up new spices next year when you need them. I have a soup recipe that I make almost weekly that uses cloves so I always have those, but for everything else, I bought just enough. Cardamom pods are also a great addition if you can find them, but not absolutely necessary.
How to Make the DIY Mulling Spices
The recipe I’m sharing with you today is enough to make one batch of mulled cider or mulled wine…. or whatever other mulled beverage you feel like making, alcoholic or not. Get creative!
You can feel free to double, triple, quadruple, or quintuple the recipe if you’d like to give your DIY mulling spices as culinary gifts. I like the idea of making a bunch of single batches of mulling spices and packing them up in little cheesecloth sachets tied with baking twine so they’re ready to toss into a saucepan or slow cooker to boil away. Making a big super-batch of spices and presenting them in a big jar also looks really lovely, but the recipient may need to pick out the individual elements a little to make sure that they get enough cinnamon stick, orange slice, etc each time that they make mulled cider, so it’s not quite as functional.
If you’re making a big batch of DIY mulling spices for yourself and you know you’ll be using them often, you can crunch up the larger spices a bit and mix them really well so that you’ll get an even distribution of spices each time you take a scoop of the spice mixture out by the tablespoon. It won’t look as pretty, but it will still taste just as great!
To crunch up the larger spices/ingredients, just place them in a big ziplock bag and smack them a few times with a heavy rolling pin.
Try my crock-pot mulled apple cider recipe if you’d like to have a batch of mulled cider waiting for you at a simmer when you get home from the tree farm or from ice skating. For autumn, pair with some 3 ingredient pumpkin bread for a winning combination.
How to Give Homemade Mulling Spices as a Gift for Christmas
These mulling spices can be a beautiful, easy-to-make gift on their own, or you can pair them with a few other items that will elevate their mulled Christmas drinks experience.
For a family with children who love hot apple cider, add the mulling spices to a care package with mugs, a special teaspoon or two, and gallon bottles of apple juice, pomegranate juice and cranberry juice. For extra sweetness, include a bottle of caramel drizzle, whipped cream, and some candied ginger topping.
To create a spiked mulled hot toddy or spicy hot sangria gift that will remind them of being at the Christmas markets, include a big ladle, a beautiful tea towel, a bottle of red wine, and bottles of spiced rum and cognac, along with some ground nutmeg to garnish. Include a mug and your favorite mulled wine recipe for the recipient to experiment with making different cozy beverages.
For either gift, a batch of homemade ginger molasses cookies to go along with the bundle is always a good idea.
Here’s the full printable recipe!
These DIY mulling spices are the perfect way to create your own homemade mulled cider or mulled wine this fall and winter! These make great little gifts as well!
- 2 Cinnamon sticks
- 3 Dried orange slices (or 2 tsp dried orange peel)
- 1 tbsp Whole cloves
- 1 tbsp Whole allspice berries
- 5 Whole star anise
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Combine all ingredients together to make one batch of mulling spices. Store in an airtight jar or wrap in cheesecloth tied with string to give as a gift.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.