Mulled cider. Pxhere / CC0 1.0
The 30th of September is Hot Mulled Cider Day.
It celebrates warmed and spiced cider.
Making this beverage is a traditional fall activity. In fact, some people view today as the official kick-off for the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere.
In North America, mulled cider is typically associated with soft apple cider.
There are two types of apple cider:
- hard (aka alcoholic), which is an alcoholic beverage, as wine is;
- soft (aka sweet cider), which is a non-alcoholic beverage, as grape juice is.
When buying soft apple cider, check the label first to ensure that you are purchasing pasteurized apple cider. Raw, unpasteurized cider can contain harmful bacteria.
What are your favourite spices in mulled apple cider?
Spices can include allspice, black peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, orange peel, star anise, and vanilla bean.
Pros recommend using only four or fewer different flavourings to avoid overwhelming the taste of the cider itself.
You can even buy already-made mulling bags with a spice mix right in them.
Do you like to add sweetener such as brown sugar, or just go with the natural sweetener already in the juice?
As an aside, the day is Mulled Cider Day — note that it doesn’t actually specify that the cider has to be apple, and also note that there is another type of cider that people usually forget about, which is pear cider, otherwise known as perry. So you might wish to give that a go today! (There’s also peach cider.)
#HotMulledCiderDay #AppleCider
See also: Cider, World Cider Day, Cider Apples, Perry, Be Careful of Unpasteurized Apple Cider This Fall
Recipes
Spiced Apple Cider (University of Illinois Extension)
Activities for today
- Have friends around and serve them hot mulled cider;
- look for candles that have the scent of hot mulled cider to enhance the atmosphere;
- after the kids have been served, sneak a bit of booze in to make an adult apple cider, maybe some apple brandy;
- you can cheat and buy an apple cider already spiced, such as that sold by Trader Joe’s;
- glasses can be garnished with cinnamon sticks, orange slices, cinnamon-dusted apple slices, whipped cream from a can with a swirl of caramel sauce on top;
- make sure you have some cheesecloth on hand for the day for either straining the concoction or for making a mulling bag to put the spices in;
- keep mulled apple cider warm for a crowd in a slow cooker;
- have some hot apple pie or hot apple crisp to go with it.
History
The earliest print mention that CooksInfo is aware of for a “Hot Mulled Cider Day” on the 30th of September dates from 2011 in New Hampshire:
“Friday [30th September]. Mull it over: With apples ripening on the trees and the chill of autumn creeping in, hot mulled cider is a perfect fall beverage choice. National Hot Mulled Cider Day, which we celebrate today, is the first of the cold weather hot drink holidays.” — The Week in Preview. Nashua, New Hampshire: Nashua Telegraph. Monday, 26 September 2011. Page 3, col. 1.
Sources
Hot Mulled Cider Day (September 30). University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Accessed November 2019 at https://food.unl.edu/september-food-calendar#cider
Medearis, Caitlin. Celebrate National Hot Mulled Cider Day with Tree Top. Yakima, WA: KNDO TV. 29 September 2016. Accessed September 201 at https://www.nbcrightnow.com/archives/celebrate-national-hot-mulled-cider-day-with-tree-top/article_a94f14d4-c2ed-524b-8ec6-ea795635be17.html
This week in preview: mull it over. Nashua, NH: Nashua Telegraph. 26 September 2011. Accessed September 2021 at https://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/local-news/2011/09/26/the-week-in-preview-for-sept-26/