Glühwein

Red wine, cinnamon, cloves, and orange peel — Glühwein (glow wine) at German Christmas markets with records dating to 1434, the recipe essentially unchanged.

Glühwein is the defining drink of the German and Austrian Christmas market season — the warm, spiced red wine sold at the outdoor Weihnachtsmärkte that have been held across German-speaking Europe since the Middle Ages. The word translates as glow wine, referencing both the wine's warmth and the sensation it produces on a cold winter evening. Germany's Christmas market tradition is among the oldest in Europe: the Bautzen Wenzelsmarkt has records dating to 1384 and the Dresden Striezelmarkt to 1434, both predating Columbus's first voyage. The markets spread through the German states during the 15th and 16th centuries and by the 19th century had become the defining commercial and social ritual of the Advent season, attracting tens of millions of visitors annually across hundreds of cities and towns. Glühwein's recipe has remained essentially unchanged for centuries: red wine — typically a young, full-bodied German or Austrian table wine — heated with cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise, orange peel, and sugar to a temperature just below simmering, served in ceramic or glass mugs that carry the market's emblem and function as collectible souvenirs. A deposit system encourages visitors to return the mugs or keep them as mementos. The addition of a shot of rum or schnapps produces the stronger Feuerzangenbowle variation, in which a rum-soaked sugar cone is lit and allowed to drip flaming caramel into the bowl.