Make a delicious honey mulled wine with this step-by-step recipe and enjoy the deep flavour honey adds to this Christmas classic drink
Honey mulled wine is an easy yet delicious variation on a classic mulled wine, and our favourite way to make mulled wine here at Mama Loves A Drink!
While the classic mulled wine recipe with sugar delivers a lovely drink, we find that substituting sugar with honey adds an extra touch to your mulling, making the final taste of your hot spiced wine a little richer and deeper.
Making mulled wine with honey is easy.
In a previous post, we have shown how to make an easy mulled wine recipe using sugar. Today we look at how to make mulled wine with honey instead
This recipe is part of our favourite Christmas Cocktails series. You may also like to check out our non-alcoholic drinks collection for perfect Christmas Mocktails.
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Tools you will need for mulling Wine with honey
Mulling wine means to heat, sweeten and spice wine, therefore to make mulled wine, you need a wine, spices and a heat source.
In particular, you need the following mulling wine essentials:
- Medium Saucepan
- Wooden spoon for stirring
- Honey dispenser (a bottle of honey with built in dispenser or a teaspoon is also ok)
- Chopping knife
- Sieve
- Serving glasses or mugs
- Serving ladle
Mulling wine recipe ingredients
Red wine  – the best wine for mulling is red, dark, and full-bodied enough to support the different spices you are going to add to it. Merlot works well.
However, don’t use the best wine in the cellar for mulling: since you are going to heat it and alter its taste with the addition of many flavoursome ingredients, you don’t want to use a precious wine with complex layers to savous on a clean palate, it would be a waste! Â
On the other hand, don’t go with a low-quality wine, you want it to be a step up from what you’d use just for cooking.
A medium quality wine is perfect for this.
Honey – The best honey for honey mulled wine is dark, amber honey. This type of honey tends to have a rich, deep flavours with hints of toffee and caramel that go deliciously well with red wine. Buckwheat honey and sourwood honey are among our favourite.

Spices – for the perfect Christmas flavour and smell, you want spices that evoke the festive season. Our favourite spices for mulled wine are:
- Cinnamon
- Clove
- Star Anise
- Peppercorns
- Orange zest
Pre-packaged mulled wine spices
Pre-packaged mulled wine spice kits are a great way to make mulled wine when you don’t have the time or inclination to go hunting for individual jars of spices.
Some of them also look cute!
Honey mulled wine recipe
Honey Mulled Wine Recipe

This is a delicious twist to a Christmas classic drink: mulled wine but with honey!
Ingredients
- 750ml Red Wine
- 1 orange sliced (plus extra to garnish)
- 2 tablespoon of honey
- 6 whole cloves
- 3 cinnamon sticks (plus extra to garnish)
- 3 star anise
Instructions
Place all ingredients, except for your honey, in a medium saucepan and place on medium heat
As soon as the wine gets warm, add you honey so that it dissolves quickly
Stir gently and bring to a simmer, but not a boil, then lower the temperature and simmer gently for a further 10-15 minutes
If serving in a bowl, pour your mulled wine into your serving bowl, so that the spices stay in the sieve and the drink is smooth. If you want, you can then add again star anise and citrus peel as a garnish in individual glasses
Ladle into elegant heat-proof glassware with handles, or your favourite mug
If serving directly from the pot, use a ladle and a small sieve to fill each individual glass. One star anise per glass makes for a lovely presentation.
More variations to mulled wine
There are so many variations on mulled wine that have been passed through the generations and from family to family, so really feel free to make it your own.
One of the most popular, which is quite similar in many respects to our traditional mulled wine recipe is glögg which originated from Scandinavia.
It’s a slightly more complex and potent brew incorporating port or brandy (or both!) as well as wine, along with a wonderful raisin and subtle almond finish.
We also love a mulled cider too – read our favourite mulled cider recipe here .
And for those with a Thermomix, this is super quick and easy to whip up a batch in your Thermie, check out our Thermomix Mulled Wine recipe here.