Ever since the first Christmas I can remember, I woke up to the warm smell of cinnamon, apple, cranberry, and orange simmering in the crock pot. It was a tradition that came from my grandparents (and perhaps their parents) of making a drink called wassail for holidays.
What is Wassail?
Wassail is a traditional German drink made with apple cider, citrus of some form, and winter herbs. It’s delicious, and will warm you up on a cold winter day! This year, I found a way to incorporate herbs into the recipe for some added health benefits.
Making wassail has now become a family tradition with my own family (as well as making gluvine, a spiced wine punch that my husband used to drink when he studied in Austria). They say that smell is closely tied to memory and the scent of this homemade wassail definitely brings back good memories for me, just as I hope it will for my children.
Check out some of my other favorite drink recipes here.
Herbal Wassail Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 organic oranges
- whole cloves
- ½ gallon apple cider
- 1 quart brewed tea made with 3 parts red raspberry leaf 2 parts alfalfa, 1 part nettle, and 1 part dandelion
- 2 cups pineapple juice
- 2 cups cranberry juice
- 8 cinnamon sticks
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- small slice of fresh ginger root or a dash of ground ginger
Instructions
- Peel oranges, section, and put 1 clove in the middle of each section.
- Pour cider, tea, and juices into a large pot or reduce quantities and put in Crock-Pot.
- Add cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, ginger, and oranges.
- Heat one hour and serve. Can also be kept in crock pot all day.
Notes
Nutrition
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Ever made wassail? What’s your favorite holiday drink? Share below!
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Greetings Katie, I am living in Germany and gluvine is actually spelled Glühwein with a capital G. Also I have done a lot of research on Celtic traditions and I found that Wassail was a drink commonly drunk at the time of Yule or Winter Solstice and it is an old English drink.
So you use sweetened cranberry juice, or the hardcore unsweetened
Stuff?
Thank you very much for this fun and interesting holiday drink. I love that you used cleansing herbs with it. I can always count on you to keep it delicious and super healthy!!
Thanks again!
Ann
I grew up on Wassail! My sweet mama always made it. When she passed, I took over the Wassail tradition. I found your recipe a few years ago and my family loved it! It felt like mom was there with us. It’s been a few years now and my family has requested I make this delicious version of Wassail again for the holidays. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe. It was a joy to make it and a joy to incorporate the wassail tradition into our new years eve spectacular family night. What a gift. Thanks for sharing your wisdom on this and the many other tidbits I have learned from you and haven’t taken the time to thank you for (til now). Peace, prosperity, and happiness be yours this year! Wassail!
Borax is just now known to cause cancer, is a hormone disrupter, and is toxic. Now only good to kill ants. Now not for sale in Sweden, or Europe.
Never use ammonia, just by opening one arm length away from my face to pour on husbands work, sweat armpit stains,a small amount,the smell was toxic, I closed the lid, ran out of laundry room. It burnt the inside of my nose, and throat. Headache and dizzy with nasal drip. Go natural with baking soda products forget borax,ammonia, and also forget bleach as well. I never mixed anything with the ammonia, did not add laundry soap, nothing. Very dangerous, get it out of all homes. Being hurt is no fun!