Christmas is approaching by leaps and bounds - time to make your own glögg

I’d better confess – I love Christmas, all fragrances, traditions and to buy a little fine, handmade Santa Claus every year. I have already bought one today, in the Old Town of Stockholm, to give away. Preferably I would like to keep it, because it matches my own collection.

My partner and I are already planning for a glögg-party. We had a party last year and reckoned coldly that our friends would drink many litres of glögg and have lots of ham. How surprised we were when only three litres of glögg was consumed but 12 litres Christmas-must (a sweet tasting Christmas soda). Not to talk about how much ham we had to freeze. Thank God it was finished after a couple of months.

This year we are re-stocking. We have glögg left over from last year – nearly 6 1 ½ litre bottles. We made the glögg which you can read about below – “en masse”. It smells wonderful for several weeks when you arrive home from work and a bucket of glögg is in the kitchen. Worst Christmas feeling.
I recommend saving some glögg, because it just gets better as it gets older.

The recipe comes from a student friend of my brother in Uppsala.

Christmas glögg
5 litres small beer
2 kg caster sugar
50 g yeast
500 g raisins
¾ dl cloves
2 pieces of fresh ginger
6 large, peeled, potatoes in slices
1 packet of cardamom seeds
4 pieces of cinnamon stick

Blend all ingredients in a large bucket. Stir daily. Leave fr 2 weeks. Strain, leave for 1 week. The glögg is drinkable. If you have some left over it will improve if you keep it till next year.