Mulling Spices substitute

Substitutes for Mulling Spices with ratios

1. 2Chai tea bags

   Different texture

   Use 3 bags for every 750ml bottle or 4 cups liquid

   Masala chai blends contain almost exactly the mulling spice set: cinnamon, cardamom, clove, ginger and often black pepper and star anise.

   What changes

   Best for

   mulled wine, mulled cider, spiced juice, when the spice cupboard is nearly empty

   Genuinely one of the better options here and almost nobody thinks of it. The spices are already ground and blended for infusion, so extraction is fast, and there is no straining to do. The one thing to watch is the black tea, which brings tannin and turns astringent and bitter if you leave the bags in, so remove them after 10 minutes and taste. In red wine that extra tannin is barely noticeable; in apple cider it is, so use rooibos chai there if you have it.

2. 3Cinnamon sticks and whole cloves alone

   Close match

   Use 2 cinnamon sticks and 6 to 8 cloves for every 750ml or 4 cups

   The two-ingredient version, using the pair of spices that carry most of the mulled aroma between them.

   What changes

   Best for

   mulled wine, mulled cider, hot spiced rum, anything last-minute

   Delivers roughly ninety percent of what people recognise as mulled, because cinnamon and clove are the two spices the nose actually looks for. What is missing is complexity: no liquorice note from the star anise, no floral cardamom, so the drink tastes correct but slightly one-dimensional and flat on the finish. Adding a strip of orange peel costs nothing and closes most of that gap, which is why it is worth doing even at this stripped-down level.

3. 4Ground pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice

   Different texture

   Use 1 to 1 ½ tsp for every 750ml or 4 cups

   Pre-mixed ground warm-spice blends that overlap heavily with mulling spices, and are already in most baking cupboards.

   What changes

   Best for

   mulled cider, spiced juice for a crowd, when only ground spices are available

   Correct flavour, wrong physical form, and that is the whole story. Ground spices will not settle out, so the drink turns cloudy and leaves a fine gritty sediment in the bottom of every mug, which is unpleasant in a clear glass of glogg and barely noticeable in an opaque mug of cider. Tie the powder in a coffee filter or a tea infuser to get around it. Pumpkin pie spice is the closer of the two, since it includes ginger and clove; apple pie spice is milder and more cinnamon-led. Start at one teaspoon, because ground spice extracts far faster than whole and can turn dusty and overpowering.

4. 5Chinese five-spice powder

   Taste and texture differ

   Use ½ tsp for every 750ml or 4 cups

   Star anise, cinnamon, clove, fennel and Sichuan pepper, three of which are already mulling spices.

   What changes

   Best for

   mulled wine, mulled cider, adventurous versions

   Works far better than it sounds, but it takes the drink somewhere else. The fennel pushes the liquorice character forward and the Sichuan pepper adds a faint tingling warmth on the lips, so the result tastes intriguing and slightly savoury rather than cosy and Christmassy. Use half the amount you would use of pumpkin pie spice, since five-spice is potent and star anise dominates quickly. Add a cinnamon stick alongside it to pull the balance back toward familiar.

5. 6Ready-made glogg or mulled wine syrup

   Different taste

   Follow the bottle, usually 1 part syrup to 4 to 6 parts wine or juice

   Concentrated spiced sweetened syrup sold ready to dilute, common in Nordic and German shops through winter.

   What changes

   Best for

   glogg for a crowd, no simmering time, consistent results, alcohol-free versions with juice

   The zero-effort route and reliably decent, particularly for a party where you are reheating batch after batch. It is already sweetened, sometimes heavily, so do not add any sugar until you have tasted it, and expect a rounder, jammier, less aromatic result than fresh whole spices give, because the volatile top notes have long since simmered off in the factory. A fresh strip of orange peel dropped into the pot livens it up considerably.

6. 7Pickling spice (not recommended)

   Taste and texture differ

   Do not substitute

   A savoury whole-spice blend that looks almost identical to mulling spice in the jar and is not remotely the same thing.

   What changes

   Best for

   nothing in a mulled drink

   Worth stating plainly because the two blends sit next to each other on the shelf and look alike. Pickling spice is built on mustard seed, coriander, dill seed, bay leaf, black pepper and chilli, all savoury and sharp, alongside a little cinnamon and clove. Mulled wine made with it tastes like brine and bay leaf, and there is no rescuing it. If pickling spice is all you have, pick out the cinnamon, cloves and allspice berries by hand and discard the rest.