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2. In a medium saucepan heat orange and lemon juice over a low flame. Toss in a few of the squeezed rinds of both lemon and orange. Add cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, and cardamom. This recipe works much better when you use whole spices and not powder. Let simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Pour in the bottle of wine. Bring to a simmer (don't allow to boil) for another 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add honey to taste.
4. Use a ladle to serve avoiding whole spices. Garnish each glass with a strip of zest, a cinnamon stick, or both!
How Does This Ayurvedic Recipe Improve Wellness?
CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW
Warm, sweet, and refreshingly spicy, Mulled Spiced Wine is a traditional toasty remedy for cold winter nights. The dark, alluring burgundy shade of red wine warms you right up, dilates your blood vessels, and relaxes your entire body. Mixed with aromatic spices and a bright orange rind to garnish your glass, a mug of warmed spiced wine on chilly December evenings relaxes your whole body and provides the cozy comfort you crave around the fireplace.
Mulled Spiced Wine is a classic European recipe for the frosty wintertime and each country has their own special preparation for the holidays. In Sweden, Glogg is a version of spiced wine infused with raisins, almonds, and sometimes figs and is often served around Christmas time. In Germany, mulled wine is called Glohwein, which poetically translates to "glow-wine." Bisschopswijn, or "bishop's wine," is mulled wine of the Netherlands. Across the ocean in Chile, mulled wine it is called vino navega'o. which refers to the sailors who brought the recipe from Old Europe. The first documentation of spiced, heated wine dates all the way back to 2nd century A.D. in ancient Rome. In Ayurveda, a few tablespoons of medicated wines called "Drakshas" are a popular remedy for winter chills.
Relax Your Muscles
The combination of spices in Mulled Spiced Wine is a formula for relaxation of sore, tight muscles. Ginger and cardamom are both antispasmodic, meaning they relax your muscle tissue. This is great for tight muscles but also happens to be quite useful in colic, asthma, and the throbbing pain of a headache (caused by a spasm in blood vessels). Cinnamon, wine, and clove are circulatory stimulants, meaning that they help move stagnant blood that gets locked up in tight muscles. This brings a great deal of relief to those suffering from sore, tight muscles.
Lift Your Spirits in Dead of Winter
Mentally, and emotionally, a sip of spirits lifts the spirits. Mulled Spiced Wine is no exception. If the winter blues has you down, sipping a cup of this warm tonic with a loved one can be just what the doctor ordered. Of course, overindulgence is not recommended, so stick to just a small cup and sip slowly.
Common Cold Cure
Cardamom is also Ayurveda's most powerful mucus destroyer. As with all aromatics, cardamom is a diaphoretic that opens your pores, encouraging a mild sweat that cleanses the skin, aids low grade fevers, and cleanses the lymphatic system. It is a bronchodilator - helping to improve breathing in asthmatics.
Cinnamon, cloves, and ginger are all diaphoretics, meaning that they make you sweat! Your first and most powerful line of defense against pesky colds and flus is to "sweat it out." So, make a nice hot cup of Mulled Spiced Wine at your first inkling of illness, and see if you don't fight it off just fine.
Digestive Tonic
The string of winter holidays is quite taxing on your digestive system. Mulled Spiced Wine incorporates many tastes and effects that help your body stay strong in the winter. The sour taste of wine and lemon purge the gallbladder of bile, helping your body effectively digest heavy fats that abound at holiday feasts. Cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and clove are all spices that strengthen your digestive fire. Does the food sit stuck in your belly? Bitter lemon and orange zest clears stagnation in the upper GI tract so you feel relaxed and comfortable.
Mulled Spiced Wine may prove too hot for already-fiery Pitta constitutions. We suggest adding mulling spices to apple juice for a nice hot cider instead. Cold Vata and Kapha can add this recipe to their list of remedies for frigid winter.
AYURVEDA'S GUIDE TO VITALITY & WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT
Your Ayurvedic diet is tailored to your individual body and your specific imbalances.
With an Ayurvedic diet you feel joy and satisfaction because what you are eating truly nourishes and balances you.
Disease results from diets and lifestyles that are incompatible with your nature.
By eating a personalized diet matched to your body, you experience optimal health.
See How it Works.
Is Mulled Spiced Wine Good for My Ayurvedic Diet?
Find out by taking this free, easy quiz.
You'll learn your body type, and whether 'Mulled Spiced Wine' is a good fit.
Complete the basic quiz in 1 minute, or go deeper with additional quizzes at your own leisure to learn more about your body.
Functional Ayurveda helps you assess imbalances through 20 main biocharacteristics
(gunas).
Aggravating these characteristics weakens your body and causes imbalance.
By knowing which characteristics are habitually imbalanced in your body, you will be able to identify and correct imbalances before you get sick.
Every characteristic has an opposite which balances it (i.e. hot balances cold).
You restore balance by favoring diet and lifestyle choices that increase the opposite characteristic.
Taste is used to sense the most basic properties and effects of food.
Each taste has a specific medicinal effect on your body.
Cravings for food with certain tastes indicate your body is craving specific medicinal results from food.
Taste is experienced on the tongue and represents your body's reaction to foods.
Sweet taste causes physical satisfaction and attraction whereas bitter taste causes discomfort and aversion.
Kapha should use less sweet taste while Vata and Pitta would benefit from using more sweet taste.
One of the first signs of illness is that your taste and appetite for food changes.
The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
Do you crave foods with any of the tastes below?
According to the biocharacteristic theory of medicine,
people tend to get sick, over and over again, due to habitual causes and imbalances that are unique to the person.
Your body type summarizes this tendency, showing you the 'type' of conditions and imbalances that frequently challenge your health & wellness.
Using body type, you can also identify remedies likely to improve your strength and resiliency.
Your body type identifies physical and mental characteristics as well as your personal strengths and weaknesses.
The calculation of your body type is based on your medical history.
The 3 functional body types
(doshas),
are Catabolic (Vata), Metabolic (Pitta), and Anabolic (Kapha).
Catabolic individuals tend to break down body mass into energy. They are easily stimulated, hyperactive, underweight and dry.
Metabolic individuals tend to burn or use energy. They tend to be rosy-cheeked, easily irritated, focused, driven, and easily inflamed.
Anabolic individuals tend to store energy as body mass. If they store too much energy, they could gain weight easily and have congestion. Anabolic people tend to be stable and grounded.
Herbs or spices with volatile essential oils that present strong aromas. Aromatic oils shock, refresh and numb tissue, with the end result of relaxing, opening and clearing stagnant fluids in tissues.
Medicinal Benefits, Uses & Herbal Actions of Mulled Spiced Wine
Experiences are Personal
Experiences vary according to the person and constitution. Individual results may vary.
The list of herbal-actions below has not be approved by the FDA and should not be used to treat a medical condition.
Strengthens the lungs. Lung tonics include antifibrotic, vessel tonic, or nourishing herbs with an affinity for the lungs. They aid recovery in acute or chronic lung conditions.
An herb that literally calms the heart. These herbs are helpful in the treatment of anxiety, sadness, depression, or other emotional imbalances in the heart. Related to the Chinese Herbal Category 'calms spirit.'
John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a
healthy diet and lifestyle with Ayurveda biocharacteristics.
His approach to Ayurveda is clinical, yet exudes an ease which many find enjoyable and insightful.
John also directs Joyful Belly's School of Ayurveda,
offering professional clinical training in Ayurveda for over 15 years.
John's interest in Ayurveda and specialization in digestive tract pathology was inspired by a complex digestive disorder acquired from years of international travel,
as well as public service work in South Asia.
John's commitment to the detailed study of digestive disorders reflects his zeal to get down to the roots of the problem.
His hope and belief in the capacity of each & every client to improve their quality of life is nothing short of a personal passion.
John's creativity in the kitchen and delight in cooking for others comes from his family oriented upbringing.
In addition to his certification in Ayurveda, John holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.
John enjoys sharing Ayurveda within the context of his Catholic roots,
and finds Ayurveda gives him an opportunity to participate in the healing mission of the Church.
Jesus expressed God's love by feeding and healing the sick.
That kindness is the fundamental ministry of Ayurveda as well.
Outside of work, John enjoys spending time with his wife and 6 kids, and pursuing his love of theology, philosophy, and language.
What a perfect medicinal treat for the festive season especially helpful in cold climates where mucus build up and sinus congestion can be prevalent! Thank you for sharing this recipe it's so yummy with whole spices!
I thought that red wine isn't recommended if you're trying to balance vata dosha. I'm sure adding the warming spices helps, but if I'm trying to balance vata, is this something I should avoid for now?
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.