17th of December

Feuerzangenbowle

Foto Carola by Carola

It seems as if everyone knows the German Glühwein (mulled wine) and we cannot imagine the time before Christmas without it. Meeting friends for a Glühwein on the Christmas Market or gathering family at home and snuggled up to your loved ones. However, there is another drink Germans are fond of especially in the month of December: Feuerzangenbowle. Similarly to Glühwein, you will be able to taste red wine enriched with the well-known Christmas flavours of cinnamon, cloves and orange. What makes it exceptional in taste and comes as a great spectacle is the fact that a sugarloaf is soaked with Rum and lit so that the melted and caramelized sugar is dropping into the wine.

It is not only about drinking Feuerzangenbowle, though. It is often connected with watching a German movie from 1944 under the title “Die Feuerzangenbowle” starring the well-known German actor Heinz Rühmann, although the drink only plays a role in the frame story. It’s a tradition you will find in families, circles of friends and even for larger gatherings. When I was a student in Leipzig, every year in December there would be a screening of the film in one of the big auditoriums, of course coupled with drinking Feuerzangenbowle. Nowadays, I watch the film with friends or even dare to make a Feuerzangenbowle without watching it, like we did last year introducing the drink to a very good non-German friend, who kindly agreed for me to use his pictures of the spectacle. Thank you, Viktor! ;-)



Recipe:
Ingredients:

  • 2 bottles of dry red wine (0,75 l each)
  • 2 oranges
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 sugarloaf (250 g)
  • 280 ml of rum (at least 54% Alc/Vol)
  • other optional ingredients: lemons or other fruits; orange or other fruit juice; star anise; ginger; etc.
Instructions:
1. wash the oranges; put some pieces of the orange zest aside; squeeze the orange or cut the pulp of the orange into slices as you prefer
2. put red wine, orange zest, orange juice/ pulp, cinnamon and cloves into a pot and heat it (make sure you don’t boil it)
3. put some kind of stand on top of the pot (in German we call it Feuerzange – fire tongs), which can hold the sugarloaf
4. pour some of the rum carefully over the sugarloaf and lit it; if the flame gets smaller continue to pour some more rum until the sugar is melted and dripped into the wine
Be careful with handling alcohol and fire and take the necessary precautions!

✦ You can download the recipe as pdf here: Feuerzangenbowle