The Essential Ingredients You Need For Making Mulled Apple Cider

Apple pie may be a favorite around the holidays, but apple cider is a true symbol of the season. As often as apple pie graces a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table, it's also something that people enjoy year round. Apple cider, on the other hand, is intimately tied to the celebratory end-of-year holiday season, showing up on grocery store shelves around September and disappearing after the New Year. And one of the best expressions of it is mulled apple cider, the most quintessential of all the warm winter cocktails for the holidays. So to help us make the best mulled apple cider this season, Tasting Table reached out to expert Derek Crow, award-winning lead bartender of Bar Zazu in Resorts World Las Vegas, to garner suggestions for the wintery classic.

Crow says, "The best seasonings for a homemade mulled cider are quality star anise, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg as well as lemon and orange peel." That combination of warm spices and bright citrus is a perfect counterbalance to sweet, fresh apple cider. His suggestions don't veer too far from tradition, and he reminded us what the star of the drink really is, saying, "These spices translate best in a quality local unfiltered apple cider." So while the extra ingredients will add depth to your cider, you don't want them to outshine it either.

The important thing to remember with warm spices like cloves and star anise is that they are pungent. One too many can quickly overwhelm a drink, so while you absolutely need them in your recipe, you need to have a light hand. If you start with a base of one quart of cider, a single star anise pod, or even a half of one, is enough to impart the subtly sharp earthy flavor you're after. You don't want people to feel like they are eating an entire bag of black licorice. The same goes for cloves, where five or six will be plenty to get that warm depth. You can be a little heavier on the citrus, but three or four strips of lemon peel and one small sliced orange should be more than enough.

Crow has given us the essentials, but you can still customize mulled apple cider with additions that add to the complexity of the warm flavors. Two great options depending on your taste are allspice berries, which will double down on the warm spice notes, or ginger, which strikes a happy balance between the spice and extra bite of the citrus. And of course you have plenty of options for the spirit you use in you mulled cider, too. Everything from classic bourbons and whiskies to rum, brandy, tequila, and even Aperol can be used. Even when you stick to a classic flavor profile, you needn't lose the space for creativity and surprises.