Bevanda — the comforting drink for vigils
Vino caldo speziato (spiced mulled wine for winter)
DrinkReconstruction🍯 🌶️ 🍋facile20 min
Trebbiano (or a light red wine) gently heated with honey, cinnamon, cloves, and citrus zest until the room fills with fragrance. A sweet, spicy, and tart drink for winter vigils.
Bevanda — the comforting drink for vigils
Trebbiano (or a light red wine) gently heated with honey, cinnamon, cloves, and citrus zest until the room fills with fragrance. A sweet, spicy, and tart drink for winter vigils.
On winter nights at Arcetri, when I watched the stars until the cold numbed my fingers, I would warm a wine with honey, a cinnamon stick, and a few cloves from afar. Never bring it to a rolling boil — too much heat would drive off its spirit and perfume, just as a flame too high burns instead of cooks. Sip it slowly, nose in the spicy steam: that is what keeps an old man curious about the sky awake.
Ingredients
- •Tuscan wine (Trebbiano or light red) — a pitcher (base)
- •Honey — to taste (sweetness)
- •Cinnamon, clove, nutmeg — a few (warm spices)
- •Orange or lemon zest — a strip (acidity and fragrance)
How it was made : Spiced sweetened wine descends from medieval hippocras, filtered through a 'Hippocrates sleeve'. In Galileo's time, spices (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg) remained luxury goods imported from the East via Venice, a sign of refinement on a wealthy table.