First mulled wine of the season

After an unfeasibly cold spell of exercise to assist with the back recovery (no running yet) I decided that flatmate and I were in need of a big cauldron of mulled wine. This would also have the added effect of increasing the oooo factor of the local council fireworks. My logic being that if we can see double, we get extra value for our council tax funded explosives.

Should you need a recipe because all super markets near you are lacking in 'mulled wine spice bags' this is what you should do instead.

Take some Bulgarian Merlot. Or Argentinian Malbec. Or Italian plonk, whatever you like. You get the picture, a couple of bottles of random red wine. Slice lemon and orange, add many whole cloves, a cinnamon stick broken in two, a grating of a knob of fresh ginger from the handy corner shop on Eric Street. Using a gentle motion, coax the ridiculously sticky lid off the honey and add as many dollops as you fancy. Add some water, this really helped ungloop the fragrant mix.

I also added a splash of Croatian prosek but any sort of fruit alcohol would be lovely. For extra warmth and aroma, a dash of vanilla essence and orange flower water was seriously nice. Let this come gently to almost boiling and then turn the heat off before you evaporate any of the alcohol.

Then sit back, drink and let the fumes embrace you. If you're lucky you may see some fabulous fireworks when you shut your eyes...