flipMulsum, Campanian Wine with Honey and Spices
Mulsum, Campanian Wine with Honey and Spices
Why this dish? Nero was served the best vintages from Greece and Campania. Mulsum, wine sweetened with honey, opened every imperial banquet: it was the obligatory welcoming gesture, the toast that launched the feast before oysters and roasts.
A red or white wine sweetened with honey and scented with spices, served chilled at the start of the meal. Sweet, slightly peppery, it is the quintessential Roman aperitif—the distant ancestor of our mulled wines and hippocras.
Raise your cup, and drink to Caesar's health! This wine comes from the sun-scorched slopes of Campania, where Vesuvius watches over the best vines in the world; I have melted the blondest honey into it and thrown a few grains of pepper from the East. In Rome, no feast begins without mulsum—it is how we greet the gods and the guests. Drink slowly: an emperor offers you in this cup all the sun of Italy.
- •Campanian or Greek wine — a reduced amphora (base)
- •Quality honey — generously (sweetness)
- •Pepper — a few grains (warm spice)
- •Nard or bay leaf — one (fragrance (optional))
Mulsum, Campanian Wine with Honey and Spices
A red or white wine sweetened with honey and scented with spices, served chilled at the start of the meal. Sweet, slightly peppery, it is the quintessential Roman aperitif—the distant ancestor of our mulled wines and hippocras.
Why this dish? Nero was served the best vintages from Greece and Campania. Mulsum, wine sweetened with honey, opened every imperial banquet: it was the obligatory welcoming gesture, the toast that launched the feast before oysters and roasts.
Raise your cup, and drink to Caesar's health! This wine comes from the sun-scorched slopes of Campania, where Vesuvius watches over the best vines in the world; I have melted the blondest honey into it and thrown a few grains of pepper from the East. In Rome, no feast begins without mulsum—it is how we greet the gods and the guests. Drink slowly: an emperor offers you in this cup all the sun of Italy.
Ingredients (period version)
- Campanian or Greek wine — a reduced amphora (base)
- Quality honey — generously (sweetness)
- Pepper — a few grains (warm spice)
- Nard or bay leaf — one (fragrance (optional))
Ingredients
- Fruity red wine (or sweet white) — 75 cl (base)
- Liquid honey — 4 to 6 tbsp (sweetness)
- Black peppercorns — 5 (spice)
- Bay leaf — 1 (fragrance)
Method
- Warm a glass of the wine with the honey to dissolve it well (do not boil).
- Pour back into the rest of the wine, add the crushed peppercorns and bay leaf.
- Let infuse in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
- Strain to remove pepper and bay leaf.
- Serve chilled, in small cups, as an opening drink.
How it was made : The Romans prepared mulsum by mixing wine and honey (sometimes up to one part honey to three parts wine), often peppered. Apicius gives a long-spiced version called *conditum paradoxum*. It was drunk chilled, even cooled with snow stored in pits—a luxury Nero is said to have particularly enjoyed.
The contemporary twist : Serve over ice in frosted glasses, as an *ancient spritz* with a splash of sparkling water—a summer version of the imperial toast. (Adults only; for children, prepare the same infusion with grape juice.)
Sources : Apicius, De re coquinaria, I (Conditum paradoxum) · Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XIV (wines and mulsum)
Nero · Charactorium
