Make Your Own Mulling Spices
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It's starting to get cold in my neck of the woods and throughout most of the country. As sad as I am to see summer fade away, I do look forward to the snow that winter will bring. The best way I know to get through a chilly evening is to snuggle with a blanket and a hot cup of spiced cider.
Spiced cider is great for parties, too! If you're having guests to your home in the next few months, why not welcome them immediately with the soothing smell of simmering spiced cider?
Cider with mulling spices is perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any winter get-together, indoors or out. We like to fill a Thermos for that football game or when taking a drive to look at Christmas lights.
How to make mulling spice mix at home
Whether you want to make your spiced cider by the mug-full or jug-full, I've got just the recipe for mulling spices.
Mulling Spice Mix
This quick sugar-and-spice mix makes it super easy to make mulled cider or wine in minutes. Make a batch for at home, or put it in decorative jars and give as a thoughtful gift during the holidays.
Ingredients
- 6 cups brown sugar
- 3 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp ground orange peel
- 2 tbsp ground cloves
- 2 tbsp ground allspice
- 1 tbsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together with a whisk.
- Store in an airtight jar until needed.
- To serve a group, add 1/2 cup of mixture and 1 cup water for every 2 cups of cider, juice, or wine. Bring to a boil and stir until dissolved, then reduce to a simmer. Serve immediately or keep warm until ready to serve.
- For a single serving, add 3 tbsp of mixture to 1 cup of cider, juice, or wine.
Notes
To scale the recipe for more servings, use our Mulling Spice Mix Calculation Worksheet.
How to make bulk mulling spices
With that basic recipe, there's so much you can do with this mix besides just keep it on hand for cold nights or parties.
Jo and I use our Mulling Spice Mix Calculation Worksheet to make up a huge batch of mulling spices every year, then we package it in our 8 oz plastic jars, and keep them on hand.
Giving mulling spices as a gift
Mulling spices make perfect homemade holiday gifts, and can suit just about any taste and occasion.
- Inexpensive Christmas gifts for friends, neighbors, teachers, and co-workers for whom we want to get something but can't afford spend a lot of money.
- Emergency gifts for when somebody drops by unexpectedly with a gift and you want to have something to give in return.
- Stocking stuffers for our aunts and grandmothers, who love to treat themselves with easy-to-make hot drinks.
- Party favors for fall-themed bridal showers, weddings, or birthday parties.
Free printable mulling spice jar labels
We like to decorate jars of mulling spices to make them extra special. And to help you decorate yours, we're sharing our free printable mulling spice mix labels and jar wrappers with you.
Just print the circles onto Avery 22830 round 2.5" labels, then peel and stick onto the lid. These labels fit perfectly on our plastic storage jars, which are available in 8 oz (1 cup) and 4 oz (1/2 cup) sizes. To decorate the sides of the jars, just cut the included plaid pattern sheet into strips, wrap around the jars, and tape in place.
These jars also work great as favors for an apple cider bar at a wedding reception, or for your kids' roadside cider stand, especially when combined with our coordinating apple cider stand printables, available on Etsy.
If you're looking for more of a traditional Christmas color scheme for your mulling spice gifts, we've even got a red and green version to share with you!
Easy calculator to scale this recipe
And remember, if you're making a huge batch for favors, bake sales, or gifts, you can easily determine how much of everything you'll need by using our handy Mulling Spice Mix Calculation Worksheet to calculate just how much mixture to make.
You enter the number of jars and the size of each into the worksheet, and it will tell you exactly how much of each ingredient to mix together to make enough mulling spices to fill all your jars.
10 comments so far:
YUM! This is the exact recipe I used at my carving party last night and it was SOOO good! I'll be linking to this.
I found this over at One Pretty thing and I'm so glad I did! This will be great for all the not so close family members who still need some sort of recognition this year.Thanks!
Excellent idea, Melissa. We're glad you found us, too :)
We used this as part of our fundraising for our missions trips and support. Thank you sooo much for your great "freebie". Have a very Blessed Christmas!
That's wonderful to hear, Rae. Merry Christmas to you too!
For the single serving, are you adding three tablespoons of the mixture to one measuring cup of juice, or a full drinking cup of juice? And does any water get added to it?
Chelsea, you'll add 3 tbsp of the mixture to one measuring cup of juice. And no, we don't add water, but you certainly could add a little if you need to stretch it out and don't mind a weaker punch.
I was searching and searching for a instant mulling spice, which is hard to find a good one. I had used the last of my Tastefully Simple Mulling Spice only to find out they do not sell it any longer. I have been using a touch of it in my pickled beets. And boy it makes them so delicious. Everyone that has eaten my pickled beets say what do you do different, I love these. I don't keep cooking and pickling secrets, I share. So I shard that I use a little bit of mulling spice along with pickling spice. I'm looking forward to making this mulling spice so I can keep making my pickled beets.
To clarify, I can do a 750 ml bottle of wine in a crockpot with 1/2 a cup of this seasoning mix- I don’t have to add water or juice? If I don’t have everything in the ingredients would it still be ok? Specifically, I don’t have orange peel or cloves on hand.
I’d also prefer to add less sugar, if possible.
Thanks for the advice and recipe!
Katie, our recipe is just a suggestion and you can whatever ingredients you like, but of course you will get a different taste profile.. You should experiment with a small quantity using what you have to see if you can come up with a combo of spices and sugar that suits you! As for the ratio of our particular recipe, we suggest using 1/2 cup of our mixture plus 1 cup of water for every 2 cups of cider, juice, or wine.