Homemade Wassail
Learn how to make wassail cocktails with real apple cider, ginger, lemon, spices and, of course, bourbon. Wassails are perfect for warming up on cold days!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 22, 2024
Good evening! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I’m a bit behind on my holiday cocktail series this week. Photographing a drink after 5 on weekdays has proved impossible so the series may become a weekend affair.
No collection of holiday cocktails would be complete without hot spiked cider, so today I present to you: the wassail! According to Maggie Savarino in The Seasonal Cocktail Companion, “wassailing” is an Old English tradition with pagan roots that celebrates the fall harvest.
I had never heard of a wassail before coming across the recipe in Maggie’s book, but apparently they are commonly served in the Northern Midwest states. It’s basically a blend of apples and spices, spiked with bourbon, with endless variation.
The sweetness of your wassail will be entirely dependent on your choice of apple cider, which tends to be pretty sweet. If you would like a warming but less sweet holiday drink, try my mulled wine or hot toddy.
Homemade Wassail
Learn how to make wassail cocktails with real apple cider, ginger, lemon, spices and, of course, bourbon. Wassails are perfect for warming up on cold days! Recipe yields 4 to 6 cocktails, depending on how much of the warm cider mixture you use per drink.
Ingredients
- 4 cups apple cider (or unfiltered apple juice, doctored up with warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice)
- ½ inch nub of fresh ginger, peeled and grated or finely minced
- 2 lemons, sliced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 star anise (optional, but they’re pretty!)
- ½ vanilla bean, slit down the middle with the insides scooped out (or ¼ ounce vanilla extract)
- Bourbon (plan on about 1 ½ ounces per drink. I used Jim Beam)
- Garnish options: cinnamon sticks, star anise, lemon slices and/or thinly sliced red apple
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine all of the nonalcoholic ingredients and gently simmer for at least thirty minutes, preferably over an hour.
- Measure bourbon into mugs, then pour in your hot spiced cider (3 ounces for a stiff drink, or more to mellow it). Garnish as desired, and serve warm.
Notes
Recipe adapted from The Seasonal Cocktail Companion by Maggie Savarino.
Change it up: Substitute some of the cider for brown ale or real cranberry juice. Add other whole spices like cloves, allspice berries and/or white peppercorns. You can keep a big batch of cider warm in a crock pot!
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Hi–I just found your blog and am so happy to find another fabulous vegetarian (not vegan–no offense to vegans, of course) blog to read!
My favorite winter beverage is my mom’s mulled cider. When I’m lucky, all the alcohol hasn’t cooked out of the red wine she adds. Ha!
I just liked you on facebook!
Hot drinks just made the wintery world so much more cozy,
i love hot apple cider! this looks like a great recipe!
i’m a fan of fb :)
Walking in a winter wonderland… a little tipsy, but still walking. Love this, Kate!
I’m a hot chocolate kind of girl but I could be swayed by this drink any day!
Like you on Facebook!
I love spiced cider. This is really perfect for the winter.
Thank you for the post.=)
My favorite cold weather drink would be an Irish Coffee! Mmmm…
I’m old-fashioned and love a warm cup of tea (berry blends are my favorite in the winter) or a nice little cup of Basil Hayden — both warm you up!
Love Wassail! I’m so glad you posted this! In high school I was in Madrigals which was bascially a dinner/show of mediveal times. We’d serve wassail and I’ve been missing it ever since. I think my favorite cold weather drink is just good old peppermint tea. :)
Also, I’m already a Fbook fan! Great giveaway!
This looks delicious! I’m going to a “holiday drinks” party in a few days and was trying to figure out what to make – this may just be it! I think that my favourite holiday (and, well, year-round) drink is hot chocolate with peppermint (steep half a cup of peppermint tea, remove tea bag, then add cocoa powder, sweetener and warmed/frothed milk). Thank you for this recipe!
lately we’ve been heating up apple cider with a cinnamon stick and mulling spices, then adding some whiskey!
Hot chocolate for the win! I’m experimenting with hot chocolate blocks that you can dip in a cup of warm milk….no winner yet, but the search continues!
A cup of hot glühwein, German mulled wine, or some glögg with spice rum <3
So, we have had wassil every night this week….so good, thank you for sharing!! I did start putting the ingedients tied in cheesecloth for easy removal. I have also played with adding a few peppercorns, more nutmeg and allspice ect!
1. Coffee. Lame but honest.
2. I like you on FB. And in real life.
I love hot mulled apple cider in the cold weather! Your cocktail looks very yummy!
I’m also a fan on Fb (as pão e queijo blog).
You are so right. Definitely can’t go wrong with this! I’m not much of a cocktail maker, but I’m trying to get better at it. Thanks for a delicious looking recipe.
There is nothing better on a cold winter day than a good winter beer. Living in Kansas City I am a big fan of Boulevard Brewery and count the days every year until I can get my hands on a Nutcracker Ale!
Just became a fan on FB! Love this idea and I will definitely be trying it. As a Wisconsin girl I’m always in the mood for a good warm (spiked) beverage during the winter months. What I have recently been loving is Rumchata in my coffee or hot cocoa. It adds a bit of cinnamony rummness to your beverage. For those of you who may not be familiar with Rumchata here’s a link: http://www.drinkupny.com/RumChata_p/s1126.htm
I promise you it’s AMAZING! It’s yummy on its own or mix with Cap’n Morgan (Cap’n Crunch Shots!) or Van Gogh Espresson Vodka.
Bonus: it’s from Wisconsin!
<3
Laurie
WOW! Just realized I joined this party super late! Oh well! Glad to share my ideas anyway:)
We hunted and tested recipes for wassail and yours won – Last week we served up gallons of your recipe at our wassailing party and it was a huge hit! We have posters to commemorate it and I’d love to send you a set if you email back with your snail mail.
Cheers!
Thank you for posting, Kate! A perfect addition to my Twelfth Night CUPcakes post! :)
~Destiny
This Wassail looks delicious! Perfect for snuggle up with on a cold winter evening. My favorite hot drink will probably be tea Latte as I am enjoying one right now too!
What a fun giveaway! And this recipe looks amazing! I think my ‘go to’ cold weather drink is hot tea… green, rooibos, chamomile, and the Good Earth Original tea are all favorites. I am not sure how to spell it, but my favorite cold weather potent potable has to be Gløg (??). It’s a spiced red wine. I love red wine ;-)mulled wine has been a favorite this fall. i’ve made a big batch of cinnamon clove simple syrup and i’ve been creating some cocktails to go along with that lately, too.
Yum! Mulled wine sounds amazing in the winter months.
What a fun giveaway! And this recipe looks amazing! I think my ‘go to’ cold weather drink is hot tea… green, rooibos, chamomile, and the Good Earth Original tea are all favorites. I am not sure how to spell it, but my favorite cold weather potent potable has to be Gløg (??). It’s a spiced red wine. I love red wine ;-)
mulled wine has been a favorite this fall. i’ve made a big batch of cinnamon clove simple syrup and i’ve been creating some cocktails to go along with that lately, too.
This is such a yummy sounding cocktail! Love this!
I would love to get recipes on Walsall I love Walsall.
Thanks for sharing, Barbara!
I’m a bit confused; is American cider non-alcoholic? In your wassail recipe you simmer the non-alcoholic ingredients,which seem to include the cider.
Anyway, that’s by the by, I’m laid up with a bad chest infection and plan to drop the shop -bought medicines for one of your hot toddies tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Regards,
Alan (from Cumbria)
There are two kinds, apple cider and hard apple cider(which is alcoholic). I hope this helps! Feel better, Alan.
Way too much lemon
I’m sorry you didn’t love, it. I appreciate your feedback, Susan.
It is worth mentioning that in England, Cider is *always* alcoholic, sometimes strongly so (6% to 12% abv is perfectly possible) so we would not usually spike it another spirit. Since some dry cider is also often *very* dry (the sugars are lost when it ferments), adding sugar or honey is not uncommon.
What would this be like with fireball? Since it is cinnamon flavored! Maybe a good addition.
Wassail has been a Christmas gathering staple for generations. I lost my grandma’s recipe and in a panic searched the internet. Our family uses oranges covered in cloves and sometimes cranberry juice – not fresh ginger. Took a risk on this recipe based on the reviews. Then waited for my family’s disappointment – to my surprise, everyone LOVED this new version and said it was time to adopt this recipe going forward (less sweet and more warming). It won five stars from my very hard to please wassail connoisseurs.