One of my favorite fall drinks is spiced cider. It’s versatile, kid-friendly, and a great way to use the juices I worked hard to bottle over the summertime. If I’m out of home-bottled juice, I can pick up store-bought juice inexpensively and have a delicious drink for family or guests.

Spiced Cider: Any Time, Any Schedule

My other favorite thing about spiced cider is there are so many ways to prepare it. I can have it done in a matter of minutes, leave it going for hours in a crockpot, or make it ahead to keep on hand to heat a mug for unexpected guests.

Variety In the Spices of Life

The way to adjust when the cider is done is to adjust both the method of cooking and the technique of spicing the drink — a few whole spices for the crockpot, a lot of whole spices or some powdered spices for the stovetop, and herbal tea bags for a shockingly fast version of the drink.

Add some rum flavoring and butter batter for a sober-friendly version of hot buttered rum. That recipe is included at the end of the blog and can use any of the mulling methods as a cider base. It’s a truly decadent treat!

Beyond Apple Juice

Feel free to experiment with flavors and juice bases. Apple juice is the traditional base, but use what you have on hand! Peach, cherry, and grape make excellent additions to cider bases, especially blended with a lighter flavor like apple or pear. Adding orange and pineapple or pear juice to spiced apple cider makes for a tasty wassail-like punch. And it’s hard to beat a warm Concord grape juice mulled in a crockpot with some black pepper or long pepper and a few allspice berries. Just make sure to label any leftovers!

Recipes

Crockpot Mulled Cider

This one is super easy: Add juice and spices (listed below) to the crockpot, then turn on low for 6 hours.

I tend to base my batch on the size of my crockpot and just refrigerate leftovers. That way, the juice doesn’t reduce too far in the crockpot and I have cider for tomorrow, too!

Spice can be added loose in the crockpot, or placed in a muslin bag for easy cleanup.

If adding orange juice for wassail, add in the last hour of cooking.

Sachet of spices:

Use this amount for every two cups of juice you have in the crockpot. So, if you have 8 cups (half-gallon) of juice, you will use 4 cinnamon sticks, 28 coriander seeds, 12 allspice berries, etc.

For two cups of juice:

One 2-inch cinnamon stick
3 allspice berries
7 coriander seeds
3 black peppercorns (Tellicherry preferred)
3 cloves
1 cardamom pod, split
1 star anise, if you like

Stovetop Mulled Cider

Sometimes I don’t have six hours to wait for mulled cider. In that case, I use a heavy-bottomed stockpot on the stove. I’ll add a few extra spices to make sure I get the strength of flavor I want. Afterward, I’ll dry out the cinnamon sticks and use them again in other recipes. If you don’t want to dry them out, you can take the spice bag out of the cider and put it in a pot of water for some stovetop potpourri.

8–10 cups apple juice
6 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp allspice berries or 1 tsp ground allspice
1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cloves or 1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
2–4 star anise, if you like

Cook together to a boil, then cover and simmer on low until ready to serve (at least 1 hour simmer time). Watch the cider to make sure it doesn’t cook down too far. If needed, turn the heat off and keep the cider covered. Remove spices when it’s reached the strength you like.

Quick Mulled Cider

Clocking in at under ten minutes, this method is by far the fastest. This method also gives a deeper spiced flavor, due to the carob and chicory in the herbal tea blend, which makes it great for the hot buttered rum recipe that follows.

5 cups apple juice
6 tea bags chai herbal tea, such as Bengal Spice

Heat apple juice on medium heat to boiling.

Immediately remove from heat. Place tea bags in hot apple juice; cover. Steep for 4–9 minutes. I prefer the longer time for a stronger flavor,  but don’t steep so long that it gets bitter.

Remove tea bags to a heat-proof bowl and reserve for another use or discard.

Hot Buttered “Rum”

Spiced apple cider (4 cups)
rum extract
Butter batter (below)

Butter batter:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom, if you like

Mix the sugar, butter, honey, and spices together until smooth and creamy. Store in the fridge.

To serve, heat cider thoroughly. Add a splash or two of rum extract to the warm spiced cider. Put a large dollop of butter batter in each mug and pour hot cider over it. Garnish with whipped cream, if you like.

For a batch drink, add the butter mixture to the hot cider and stir until melted.