Mulled Mead

For the first two books, I did pretty well at attempting to keep the holiday foods close to the holiday season. But it was inevitable that we'd catch up to wintertime in the Wizarding World before too long. And so today, we reach a decidedly wintertime beverage:

"'Four pints of mulled mead--' 'Ta, Rosmerta,' said Hagrid" (Prisoner of Azkaban 202).

Since the main ingredient in mulled mead is obviously, well, mead, you may have trouble making today's recipe until the holidays roll around again. I however, got lucky, and found a bottle of mead at a local specialty foods store, where they had a few bottles leftover from Christmas. Lucky me!

There are dozens of mulling recipes out there. I went with a pretty simple one, which I modified from a recipe I found at food.com. Their recipe includes Grand Marnier (which, if I could afford it, I would add to everything, because it's delicious) and Goldschlager (which, if I could afford it, I would drink all the time, because I think it's so silly). My modified recipe sticks to good old fashioned mead (which is technically wine made from honey, by the by) for my alcohol content!

You Will Need (I halved this recipe):

1 bottle of mead

1 orange, quartered

3 inches of cinnamon sticks

7 whole cloves

7 whole allspice (I used a dash of ground allspice, because that's what I had)

1 tsp nutmeg

1. Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.

2. Heat and bring to a simmer, but do not boil.

3. Let it warm with the lid on for 10-20 minutes. 

4. Strain out the cloves and things when you serve. Serve warm.

Mmmmm, this is quite tasty. I imagine it would be the perfect thing after a long trek in the snow. Though unless you're half-giant, I don't think I recommend drinking four pints of it, like Hagrid. Enjoy!