When we think of festive traditions, a glass or two of mulled wine on a dark winter’s evening is typically high on many of our lists. In fact, mulled wine dates back as far as the 2nd century when the Romans reportedly used to heat their wine in order to help ward off the cold.
It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that spices were added though, thought at the time to improve health, and only since the end of the 19th century has the drink become associated with Christmas.
But that’s not the end of the story. With the growing popularity of alcohol-free drinks, as more of us seek out grown-up alternatives to alcohol and rejecting the narrative that alcohol has to be centre-stage in our social celebrations, it was perhaps only a matter of time before alcohol-free mulled wine hit the shelves.
Alcohol-free drinks - such as alcohol-free wines, beers and ciders - were at first met with some scepticism by the Great British public, but many people have since been won over by these tasty beverages as a useful and enjoyable means of moderating our alcohol intake.
Will alcohol-free mulled wines go the same way?
Ultimately, it will be down to the taste factor – it’s quite easy to mimic the look and smell of a spiced wine, but it will have to taste good too in order to become a popular alternative to alcohol.
And so, armed with a variety of alcohol-free mulled wines, I recently sat down with some close family members who happily (I think!) carried out a blind taste test to establish which, if any, pass muster.
In order to ensure authenticity, each alcohol-free mulled wine was served warm, with some cinnamon sticks and orange peel, and each volunteer was asked to write down their reactions and score them out of five. Often with little experiments like these there are a range of views and scores which makes drawing firm conclusions somewhat challenging but, on this occasion, after ‘mulling’ things over (sorry!), everyone was in firm agreement!
Bringing up the rear in last place was Eisberg’s mulled punch, described by the producer as offering “festive cheer without the alcohol”. Unfortunately, there were more boos than cheers from our participants, who said they disliked the overpowering taste of cloves and thought it had a somewhat chemical aftertaste. Average score = 1/5
Faring not much better was Belvoir’s Mulled Winter Juice Punch. You can certainly enjoy the fruitiness of the beverage, but the cinnamon flavour was a little overpowering and the general view from our reviewers was that, ironically, it lacked punch overall. Average score = 2/5.
In the middle of the pack came Saturnus God Jul Glögg. Instead of using a de-alcoholized wine, it uses a grape juice to give glögg character. And we were mostly impressed, although it’s quite sweet and won’t be for everyone. According to Saturnus, for every bottle sold it donates one Swedish Kroner to the Children of the World charity, which is admirable. Average score = 3/5
Next for second place. Three Mills is one of the UK’s best-selling drink brands, named after the three old tower windmills, that once stood adjacent to its Norfolk winery. Its Non-Alcoholic Mulled Punch is a drink to savour. Combining flavours of red berries, zesty orange and aromatic cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, our reviewers certainly warmed to this one! It has a plummy, sharp taste, and we thought it was excellent. Average score = 4/5.
But the winner according to our family gathering is Morrison’s Mulled Zero. Tangy and not too sweet, it has a depth of flavour that was missing from most of the others we tried, and it’s the one we kept pouring more of. Enjoy with some roasted chestnuts, an open fire and some Yuletide carols! Average score = 5/5.