The weather’s crisp, the jolly tunes are sounding all around, so why not spice up your holiday menu with our Mulled Wine Kombucha Cocktail?! Think mulled wine, meets crisp kombucha, meets gingerbread and sugarplums, with added notes of orange and cinnamon. See the full recipe below!

This recipe is approximately 140 calories per serving and lower than many holiday cocktails! It’s made with Healthy Hooch Kombucha – Cranberry Ginger Spice + Everything Nice. Our kombucha is certified organic, raw (full of life!), and loaded with probiotics, digestive enzymes and antioxidants that aid in digestion, adds to a diverse microbiome (think city of microbes all working together to keep our bodies healthy and happy), and overall health.

Ingredients You Will Need:

Healthy Hooch Cranberry Ginger Spice + Everything Nice Kombucha – It’s a seasonal flavour of Healthy Hooch Kombucha, and it sells out fast! Made with organic festive herbs, organic local cranberry juice and fresh-pressed organic ginger! 5% of sales from each bottle sold is given to the Covenant House Vancouver Charity supporting homeless youth.

Fresh Cranberries – Cranberries are full of antioxidants, health benefits and flavour!

Cane Sugar – You can also substitute organic cane sugar for organic agave or raw honey, however, you may need to render down the syrup a little longer than the cane sugar.

Cinnamon – You can use ground cinnamon in the syrup or substitute it for a stick of cinnamon. If you would like extra cinnamon flavour, put a couple of sticks into the glass when serving.

Ginger – Organic fresh ginger is recommended, but it can be substituted for 1 teaspoon of ground ginger. Fresh ginger can also be frozen for later use. You can freeze it whole, with the peel on, and when you’re ready for the next use, it peels easily with a spoon, and grates beautifully while frozen!

Lemon – Fresh lemon is always better than the bottled lemon juice but both do the trick! If you like the convenience of having bottled lemon juice in the house, you can replace it by freezing fresh lemon juice in ice cube trays for later use. Just thaw it for recipes as needed.

Orange – Navel oranges are perfect for this recipe you will need one for garnish then the juice of one orange for the cocktail. You can use the left-over peel from the orange you juiced in the syrup as you’re rendering it down for extra flavour. The peel releases essential oils as it’s heated, and will add a nice fragrance, and a subtle orange flavour to the syrup.

Red Wine – For this recipe, we used a smooth blend from the Okanogan wine region with flavour notes of black tea, cherry, boysenberry, pomegranate and plums.

For the Sangria:

(Makes 4 servings, 140 calories per serving)

• 1/4 cup cranberry syrup
• 1/2 bottle of red wine
• 1 bottle of Healthy Hooch Cranberry Ginger Spice + Everything Nice Kombucha
• The juice from one large orange
• 1 orange for garnish
• Ice
• Optional: Cinnamon sticks for garnish

Instructions:

For the Cranberry Syrup

1. In a medium saucepan combine the cranberries, cane sugar, cinnamon, water, ginger, lemon juice and just the peel of the juiced orange (save the juice for the cocktail).
2. Bring to a simmer on medium heat and render for about 5 – 10 min until the cranberry skins have split.
3. Remove from heat and let cool, then strain the syrup through a cheese cloth or a fine mesh strainer into a separate container (you can store the left overs for up to a week in the fridge).
4. Remove from heat and let cool a bit, then strain the sauce through cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer into a separate airtight container.
5. You can store the leftovers for up to a week in the fridge.

For the Pitcher

1. In a pitcher combine ¼ cup of the cranberry syrup you just made, with ½ bottle of red wine, 1 bottle of Healthy Hooch Cranberry Ginger Spice + Everything Nice Kombucha, and the juice you saved from the one orange.
2. Stir and add ice, then add in the remaining orange cut into ¼ inch rounds and 4 sticks of whole cinnamon.
3. Drink and be merry!