I’m mulling some apple cider at my office. Every year I do this and every year the same comment arises: “Hey, got any booze to put in this?”
I always say that a splash of Dark Rum would be best. But I’m not a drinking man so I’ve decided to get the opinion of the SDMB.
What booze would you use to enhance some hot mulled apple cider?
I would suggest you Google Spiked Cider recipes…only because that’s what I did and they all call for something different. Some said dark rum, some said Captain Morgan, some called for apple (or other flavored) Brandy and then some went off into various kinds of flvored vodkas, but those ones were basically making martinis.
Anything will probably be fine, you could probably just dump in a little of whatever you have around the house if you’re just trying to give it some kick and not actually adjust the flavor of it too much. I’m sure some rum will be fine.
Have you considered Applejack?
I like Hot Damn cinnamon schnapps. Use the 100 proof though. With the normal lower proof variant you either have an extremely weak drink or you overwhelm the cider taste with the sugar and cinnamon of the schnapps.
Calvados or a nice straight brandy.
Consider serving the booze on the side. I’ve never had spiked mulled cider, and would be unpleasantly surprised to run into it without fair warning.
Adding a shot of Fireball to hard cider is pretty good. It might work with regular cider too, but I’ve never tried that.
I also would not use Calvados, not because it’d ruin the cider, but because it’s a waste of Calvados. That’s a very expensive and delicious liqueur, with a fairly delicate flavor, and it’d be overwhelmed by the sweetness of the cider, IMO, without adding all that much. Something neutral, like vodka, or something complementary, like rum, would be better.
Brandy was the first thing that popped to my mind. In college, we usually spiked with a cinnamon flavored schnapps type of thing. You can also look into some of the nice ginger liqueurs they have or, if you want to go a more herbal route, try something like Polish Krupnik or Czech Becherovka.
In my friend group, it’s a fall tradition to get a bottle of cheap red wine, a gallon of apple cider and your usual cider spices: a stick of cinnamon, loads of cloves stuck in an orange half, that sort of thing, and heat it all up on the stove.
If I weren’t making ersatz cider like that, I’d use brandy or dark rum.
What about just mulling some hard cider?
Applejack / American apple brandy. It’s not called Jersey Lightning for nothing. Plus, its apple and oaky flavors tend to work very well with apple cider.
Dark/amber rum also works well in my experience, as does bourbon.
Tuaca. Had it with hot cider at many a cold weather tailgate.
Interesting. I’ve never had this liqueur. So is it kind of like a vanilla-y Grand Marnier or something along those lines?
Yep, start with good hard cider.
Another vote for bourbon. That’s how I’ve always had it.
Yes, bourbon!
I also make a “sparkling” cider drink with 50/50 hard cider/regular cider. It’s mild for the folks who find hard liquor added to juice to be harsh or just don’t want much alcohol.
I also add a little bourbon to hard cider sometimes.
Just for clarity, are you talking about apple juice or actual fermented cider? But I’d think long and hard before adding alcohol to anything at an office do.
More vanilla than orange, I think. I’ve only tasted it straight once or twice, and it was a while ago. I just know it works much better than bourbon or rum, which just destroy the cider, in my opinion.
Jack Daniels. No sense using anything expensive, it will just be overwhelmed by the cider and spices. But JD plays very well with spiced cider.