Gift wines...sigh

I gave the gluhwein to the dry cleaner near my office yesterday.

Several years for our Christmas Eve/Morning "party on the streets", we made mulled wine. Equal parts cider and cheap wine, with mulling spices. Made 2-3 gallons of that, 5 gallons coffee, 10 gallons hot chocolate. Each year we ran out of cocoa, had a little left of the coffee and mulled wine. And half the mulled wine was drunk by the volunteers. Some of our homeless friends liked it, but the serious drinkers turned up their noses (I had one offer me a swig of his vodka, "no thanks I'm driving." Gave up on the mulled wine, just coffee and cocoa now.

True, of course ... ;-)

M.

Your homeless friends would probably appreciate Cossack Coffee better than mulled wine. The ingredients are: 5 parts red wine, 5 parts hot coffee, 3 parts vodka. The way I make it (since 5 and 3 are relatively prime, and inconvenient to measure), is one part of each. However, the coffee must be really strong in this case, ideally espresso. Add whatever condiments to taste - cinnamon, sugar, even cream. I myself prefer it neat and don't add anything.