Mulling spices substitutes

The actual composition of a commercial mulling sachet, assembled loose and either dropped in or tied in a square of muslin.

Best for

mulled wine, mulled cider, Swedish glogg, spiced apple juice, hot toddies, poaching fruit

This is better than the sachet, not worse, because shop sachets are often stale and you control the balance. Cinnamon and clove are the backbone, star anise gives the sweet liquorice lift, cardamom is what makes a Nordic glogg taste Nordic, and the orange peel does more for the finished drink than any single spice. Go easy on the cloves in particular: eight is assertive and twelve tastes medicinal, and there is no way to take them back out once the flavour is in the pot.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.