The Best Homemade Mulling Spices Recipe in the World!

One of my favorite winter things is to tuck into a cozy warm beverage at towards the end of the day. I never met a variation of hot chocolate I didn’t like until the sad day when I found out I had a severe dairy intolerance and couldn’t find a good dairy free replacement. (If you know of one, help a gal out and share it in the comments below!)

Shortly afterward I received these exact Williams Sonoma mulling spices as a Christmas present. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.) My husband and I used them to mull red wine and later we started trying them in other beverages like apple cider (and apple juice when apple cider season ended,) black tea, orange juice, cranberry juice or my favorite half cranberry and orange juice to make non alcoholic wassail as a festive non alcoholic party option (you can add alcohol to it if you like.)

Which means I go through a lot of mulling spices.

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I’ve tried many different brands of mulling spices but I always go back to Williams Sonoma because its simple warm spice and citrus taste. It is also the easiest and least expensive homemade mulling spice recipe to make because it doesn’t use expensive cardamom pods or star anise (although you can add them if you like.)

Homemade Williams Sonoma Copycat Mulling Spice Recipe

The beauty of my homemade copycat Williams Sonoma mulling spice recipe is you might already have all of the ingredients in your pantry! The only exception may be the dried orange peel which you can easily make at home by using a vegetable peeler to remove the orange rind from the orange (try to avoid as much of the white pith as you can. It may make your drink bitter) and drying it for 4 hours in a dehydrator (I have this exact Nesco dehydrator that I can’t recommend enough!) Air drying the peels may work too but I personally haven’t tried it.

 

You will need the following ingredients:

Whole cloves – you buy whole cloves here

Dried orange peel – if you don’t want to make it yourself you can get dried orange peels here

Cinnamon sticks or chips – you can buy whole cinnamon sticks and chips here

Whole allspice – you can find whole allspice here

 

It smells like heaven when you're mixing the ingredients!

Step by Step How to Make this Recipe:

1. Mix equal amounts of cinnamon chips, orange peel, whole allspice, and whole cloves together in a bowl. You may want to break large pieces of orange peal or whole cinnamon sticks into smaller chucks that will fit into a tea or mulling spice ball.

2. Pour the mixture into an air tight container to keep for yourself or to give as a thoughtful and budget friendly gift idea!

3. Optional: If you miss the hint of pepper in other brands of mulling spices, you can add an equal amount of whole cardamom pods like these to the mix. If you want to add a hint of licorice taste, you can add an equal amount of star anise like this kind to the mix.

How to Use Mulling Spices

Simmer two tablespoons of mulling spices in one quart of your favorite wine or non alcoholic beverage in a pot on the stove for up to 20 minutes. Remove the spices from the liquid (which is easy if you use a mulling spice ball similar to mine here,) pour into heat resistant mugs or glassware and enjoy!

Tip: if you don’t have a spice ball (which I recommend because you can use it for soups, stews, and so much more) you can tie the mulling spices into a square of cheese cloth or a paper coffee filter.

When I use mulling spices to brew hot tea, I use one teaspoon of mulling spices in a mesh tea ball (you can find several cute tea balls here) and brew the mulling spice tea ball in my mug along with a black tea bag. If I’m brewing loose leaf tea, I get crazy and put the tea leaves and mulling spices in the same tea ball. I was born to be wild!

If you’d rather buy than DIY, check out the following mulling spice gift ideas - and more! - below!

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