Mulling it over

Hot, spiced alcoholic drinks have a surprisingly rich and varied history but how did they become such an enduring staple of the winter season?

- Written by Caroline Roddis

THE GROUND may be cold and stony but inside lights are twinkling and the tantalising aroma of mulled wine fills the air.

No matter whether you're a glutton for glühwein or think it's a crime against viticulture, there's something undeniably jovial about a hot and boozy beverage in what can be a gloomy time of year. But how and when did these drinks wrap their toasty tendrils around our winter traditions?

Humans have been heating alcohol for almost as long as they've been making it, often as a delicious way to stave off the chill winter air. The heat from the alcohol combined with the warmth of the liquid can keep you cosy. Mixing other ingredients into hot tipples is similarly ancient. Residues of herbed wine in Egyptian vessels have been dated back to 3150BC, with components added for a variety of purposes: flavour, preservation and even medicine.

Ancient Greek father of medicine Hippocrates' treatment for muscle contractions, for example, was pounding bryony and carrot root into fragrant wine and giving it to the patient in the early morning. The advent of large-scale distillation took boozy medicine one step further, with high-ABV (alcohol by volume) spirits used to absorb the properties of secret herb mixes to create medicinal tinctures everywhere from Chartreuse in France to Angostura in Venezuela.

In winter, when colds and flu are rife and immune systems feel about as robust as an overcooked sprout, the combination of this history and the restorative sensation of a hot boozy drink contributes to a widespread notion that these must be medicinal. Indeed, a 2016 study of more than 3,000 participants from 14 different European countries found that 4% of people regularly took mulled wine as a cure for a cold, while only 1% relied solely on evidence-based pharmaceutical compounds.