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This mulled wine kombucha has all the cozy flavors of glühwein – cinnamon, cloves, orange, and red wine! A flavor packed Christmas kombucha flavor!
Having experienced the magic that is a German Christmas market, I often find myself trying to recreate the cozy flavors you’ll find in the maze of booths. And if there’s one flavor that most defines Christmastime in Germany…it’s the glühwein.
Glühwein is a hot red wine mulled with winter spices, like cinnamon, cloves, and citrus. Basically, it’s bliss. So naturally I had to create a kombucha version of this magical drink so we can enjoy these flavors all year round!
This kombucha flavor is a bit more involved that most fruity types (which are usually just blend and bottle). For this Glühwein Kombucha, we’ll simmer down the wine and spices to form a syrup which will be used to flavor the kombucha.
There are two fermentation phases when making kombucha:
- First Fermentation: This is when you transform sweet tea into tasty kombucha (see our guide to homemade kombucha here).
- Second Fermentation: This is when you carbonate the kombucha by adding flavor and sugars (like mulled wine syrup) and bottling it.
In order to make this Mulled Wine Kombucha, you need to have completed the first fermentation and have some kombucha ready to be carbonated!
Mulled Wine Kombucha Ingredients
- Kombucha: You have brewed your kombucha in the first fermentation and are ready to flavor it (first fermentation instructions here).
- Red Wine: A cheap red table wine is perfect for glühwein.
- Sugar: We’ll boil the wine down with sugar to create a sweet syrup. This will fuel the carbonation!
- Cinnamon Sticks: I prefer using cinnamon sticks, which you can easily pluck out of the syrup before bottling (also great in Apple Cinnamon Kombucha).
- Cloves: Whole cloves impart major Christmas flavor into our wine syrup (cloves also work well in Spiced Pear Kombucha and Chai Tea Kombucha).
- Orange Juice: When you bottle the kombucha, add a splash of fresh orange juice to keep the flavors bright!
Making glühwein flavored kombucha
Rather than adding the fresh wine, we’ll need to simmer it down with the sugar and spices into a syrup. It does require a little more hands-on time than most kombucha flavors, but it’s worth it in the end!
- Make syrup: Add wine, sugar, and spices to a small saucepan over medium/high heat. Let simmer, uncovered, until mixture has halved in volume (finished mixture should be about 3/4 cup). Let the syrup cool to room temperature (speed this up by setting the pot in a sink full of cold water).
- Bottle: Evenly distribute syrup and orange juice into fermentation bottles. Pour in kombucha, leaving 1 to 2 inches free at the top
- Ferment: For 3 to 10 days, until it reaches the carbonation level you like.
- Enjoy: Chill in the fridge before serving.
Mulled Wine Kombucha
Ingredients
- ½ gallon kombucha from a first fermentation this is not store bought kombucha, 1.9 L
- 1 ½ cups red wine 350 mL
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 5 whole cloves
- ¼ cup orange juice divided
Instructions
- Syrup: Add wine, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves to a small saucepan over medium/high heat. Let simmer, uncovered, until mixture has halved in volume, about 45 minutes. Finished mixture should be about 3/4 cup. Let the syrup cool to room temperature (speed this up by setting the pan in a sink full of cold water). Strain cinnamon and cloves from the syrup.
- Bottle: Add syrup and orange juice to fermentation bottles – for every 2 cups of kombucha, use 2 Tbsp of syrup and 1 Tbsp of orange juice (you may not use all of the syrup). Pour in first fermentation kombucha, leaving 1 to 2 inches free at the top.
- Ferment: For 3 to 10 days, until it reaches the carbonation level you like.
- Enjoy: Chill in the fridge before serving, optionally straining out any fibers.
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Hi Sarah, I am a newby kombucha maker. I can’t have any alcohol. I was wondering if there still will be some alcohol present after second fermentation?
The more it ferments, the more alcohol there will be. Running a second fermentation will add a little bit of alcohol!
In a science experiment I witnessed, when cooking off alcohol there was always a tiny residual amount of alcohol left.
So my syrup turned into taffy and I had to throw most of it out. I was tempted to add water but didn’t. Any idea where I went wrong? I’d like to give it another try!
Sounds like it might have cooked for too long and evaporated off! Water would have helped out 😀