Low carb mulled white wine

Christmas has officially hit our house, the tree is up, the candles have all been rotated to Christmas scents, and we're feeling festive! With that Christmassy feeling comes a reluctance to drink anything that isn't mulled for the next month or so, (apart from the lovely cocktails you'll see popping up here over the next week or so).
                                       

Mulled wine is an absolute favourite but it's pretty high in carbs and sugar when you buy it readymade so I set about creating a lower carb one as it's one (of many) drinks, that I can't stop at just one of... Now I do definitely love mulled red wine, and it's the type of mulled wine that I drink the most often, but there's something about mulled white wine that I also love. Perhaps because it's a bit lighter and doesn't give me a 'red head' (hangover from red wine),



You will need:

• One bottle of white wine
• 200ml low sugar elderflower cordial- I use this bottlegreen one
• The zest of two lemons
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 slices of orange to garnish
• 4 strips of the zest of an orange
• 20 cloves (roughly)
• 4 tablespoons of powdered sweetener- I use erithrytol

Making it is an easy affair:

• Press the cloves into the orange zest
• Pop all the ingredients into a pan and heat until it starts to steam but don't let it boil
• Stir well to ensure all the sweetener is fully dissolved
• Ladle into glasses, leaving the orange zest behind, I use these latte glasses 
• Keep the rest heating gently ready for top ups
• Garnish with a cinnamon stick, slice of orange and a star anise
• Enjoy with Christmas films/ music!

You can of course add more sweetener if you like is sweeter, I like mine quite tart so don't use too much.


Someone once told me that when making mulled wine, or other wine based drinks like sangria, always use a bottle of wine that you'd be happy to drink ordinarily. This is definitely true, while you might not use a special bottle of wine for this, don't think that mulling it will disguise a bottle that you wouldn't want to drink otherwise.



Excuse the mess underneath the tree- we made and photographed this the same night we put the tree up and in my eagerness I hadn't even finished the underneath bit...


I'm afraid I can't take credit for these lovely photos, full credit must go to my wonderful partner- see more of his photos here