Glühwein, Anyone?

The engineer seated next to my trainer talked to me today (I like that guy, actually), and the short talk was in German, good luck to me! He doesn’t speak English that well, all he knows are the basics of basics (greetings in particular). So I understood his point a little too late, all I remembered was he asked if we have plans to go out tonight or tomorrow, I said no plans yet of going to Frankfurt because of the storm, and it’s colder this time compared to recent days. He answered something, that all I remembered was the word “glühwein.” Maybe he saw the confusion on my face, so he printed something from his PC and I understood it, hahaha! Stupid me! I asked him what it tastes like, in English, he said he doesn’t know what “taste” means, hah! And I didn’t have my German dictionary earlier, I just gave all the tastes I know, sweet, bitter, sour, salty, but he didn’t answered me what Glühwein tastes like! What he meant pala was to drink some Glühwein to warm me up this time, whew! Too bad, the hotel doesn’t have any place to cook, I wanna try it now!

The procedure is as follows:

Hot Mulled Wine (Glühwein, “glow wine”)

Ingredients (serves 2-3 persons)

• 1 bottle of dry red wine (750 ml)
• one lemon
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 3 cloves
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• some cardamom (or ginger)

Directions
Heat the red wine in a pot (don’t boil). Cut the lemon into slices and add to the wine. Then add the cinnamon, cloves, sugar and a little cardamom (to taste). Heat everything for about 5 minutes - do not boil - and let stand for about an hour. Before serving, reheat and strain. Serve in prewarmed glasses or mugs.

Some facts about Glühwein:

Mulled wine, variations of which are popular around the world, is wine, usually red, combined with spices and typically served warm. In the old times, wine often went bad. By adding spices and honey, it could be made drinkable again. Nowadays, it is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas.

Of course, I made a separate research tonight, he used a different website on the print-out.

Hmmm… Ody can you bring some when you get here next week? We’ll just ask the people at the restau to reheat it, hahaha!

Worst is, I’d prepare this back in the Philippines for the Christmas eve, and that would be the time I’d get to taste this… I hope Dr. Krause still remembers his promise of treating us somewhere for this mulled wine (he said that on our first day)…