Gifting Dried Ingredients for Wine Recipes

Create unique DIY Holiday Gift Ideas for Cocktails this season, including this batch of Dried Ingredients that work perfectly for Wine recipes, such as Mulled Wine and Sangria. You can even go the extra mile by gifting a Wine bottle that works well with the recipe, and look no further with my suggestions below. It’s a great gift to throw together, customizable and creates an experience for those you’re gifting.

This concept came together on a special segment for Breakfast Television. Want to watch my segment? Catch it online by following this link HERE.

Choosing between Mulled Wine and Sangria!

What I love about this concept is that the recipe can do more than one thing. These dried ingredients come in handy to put together a Mulled Wine or grab some juices and you can put together a Holiday Sangria mix you’ll love! Mulled Wines are great for the Holiday Season when you need to warm up, and it doesn’t call for many additional ingredients. Whereas you have a Sangria option that is always a crowd pleaser.

When gifting this item, share the recipe with a tag, or even create a QR code label and leads you to this recipe page or your own custom JPEG file. You have a ton of ways to get these special recipes to your guests.

Choosing your Wine

You don’t have to go out and buy the world’s most expensive wine here. That’s not the point of this. But the quality you put in, really does result in a better quality drink. Something value driven is great, and there are a ton of great options out there. Something a bit fuller bodied, Syrahs, Cabernet Francs, Shiraz, all work well here. So you have a ton of regions to explore.

For this segment, I decided to bring out the Ogier Ventoux Cote du Rhone. It comes at an incredible value, it’s very robust with it’s cherry, leather and spice notes. It can handle the weight of what these two cocktails can bring, and you won’t go wrong here.

So What’s In Your Dried Ingredients Package?

The ingredients in this package are simple, and planning ahead is key, especially if you want to gift this to a bunch of people at your office or for your family members. Each fruit/citrus has varying times for dehydrated and depending on how thick you cut the slices, will also affect the dehydration time. Key notes are that a temperature of 130 degrees F at about 7-10 hours works best. Rosemary does NOT need that much time, only a couple hours should suffice. As well as the Ginger. If you’re nervous about dehydrating for the first time, check out this write up HERE that goes through everything when it comes to dehydrating. Then I would recommend looking up each fruit and how best to dehydrate. Now here’s that list of ingredients for this package:

How to make your Mulled Wine and/or Sangria

Last, but not least, we do incorporate a supporting spirit with our recipes. Now typically Brandy is used in Sangria’s and Mulled Wines, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Experiment with Sherry, Aged Tequila and even Rum, which is what I used here. There’s a lot of styles that can work with the recipes, the one thing I would note is that Spiced rum tends to be sweeter, so be mindful of that when incorporating additional sugars to your recipes. For this recipe, I use Barcelo Gran Anejo Rum, a great option to have on your bar!

I’ve broken down everything, so let’s get to the piece you probably came for, which is the recipe!

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Mull over Santa

You can find both the Mulled Wine and Sangria Recipes below, made with the dried ingredients mentioned above.

– Difficulty: Easy

Servings 8 cocktails

Author Monica C

Ingredients

Recipe for Sangria

• 1/3 cup Barcelo Rum
• 1 bottle Ogier Ventoux Red Cote du Rhone
• 1 cup Cranberry or Pomegranate Juice
• 1 btl Ginger Beer approximately 300ml
• Entire Dried Ingredients package
• Optional Honey Syrup 1:1*

Recipe for Mulled Wine

• 1/4 cup Barcelo Rum
• 1 bottle Ogier Ventoux Red Cote du Rhone
• Entire dried Ingredients package
• 1-2 tbsp Honey

Instructions

Recipe for Sangria

1. Pour all dried ingredients (except nutmeg) into a pitcher. Add in about a handful of ice (approximately 0.5 cup). Let it sit for 30 minutes to allow the dried ingredients to infuse before serving.

   Freshly grate nutmeg over individual glasses

2. *Dependent on the Juices you buy, will determine if you need Honey or not. Plus it’s up to your preference. So keep an open mind when putting this Sangria together and be willing to adjust and experiment to your preference. A splash of Orange Juice would also go a long way.

Recipe for Mulled Wine

1. In a small to medium pot over med-high heat, pour all your ingredients and dried ingredient package in (except nutmeg), and let the liquid come to a simmer. Once it reaches a simmer, turn down the temperature and let it simmer for 5 minutes before straining.

2. Grate fresh nutmeg into individual mugs.