Oh My Glögg

Tables are adorned with platters overflowing with cookies, candies, and cakes, along with heaps of gingerbread shaped like pigs, bats, and teddy bears. Seasonal pomander balls—whole oranges decorated with dried cloves—hang in the windows, infusing the air with the aroma of hot punch. There’s an additional fragrance that fills the space: a rich, spicy scent with notes of cinnamon and ginger. You’ve arrived at the quintessential Swedish winter gathering, a glöggmingel, where enjoying glögg takes center stage.

While Germans enjoy glühwein, Brits opt for mulled wine, and the French warm up with vin chaud, the Swedes are arguably the most passionate aficionados of what we know as glögg. This warm, spiced wine boasts a deep-rooted history in the frigid Nordic regions. It’s said that King Gustav Vasa, Sweden’s founder, relished heated white wine sweetened with honey and sugar, enhanced with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger.

As Christmas approaches, every Swedish magazine, newspaper, food podcast, and TV show shares its own take on glögg recipes. Retailers stock specially designed punch bowls, pitchers, copper pots, and glass decanters for heating glögg and keeping it warm. Sets of small cups, plates, and spoons, often handed down through generations, are carefully retrieved each winter season.

Despite its ancient heritage, glögg is evolving. In recent years, producers have become increasingly inventive, altering the core ingredients and introducing modern flavorings, base spirits, and unique variations. Today, you can find glögg made with both red and white wine, as well as apple juice, ice cider, blueberries, gin, beer, birch sap, and whiskey. Traditional spices—cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and orange peel—are now complemented by flavors like meadowsweet, lingonberries, vanilla, cloudberries, cherry, saffron, chocolate, marzipan, and even tiramisu. This contemporary glögg trend has extended beyond beverages, inspiring recipes for glögg-flavored cheesecakes, sourdough breads, and glögg-infused hot pot.

You can now find large quantities of glögg readily available in Sweden, sold in bottles, boxed bags, and cans, especially at the retail alcohol monopoly, Systembolaget. (In the U.S., your best option is Ikea.) The Swedish chain offers over 90 different varieties of glögg and is said to sell nearly 3 million liters annually. This figure doesn't even account for the rapidly expanding market for non- and low-alcohol glögg. Additionally, micro distilleries are entering the glögg scene, with their products available in boutique shops and directly from small producers throughout Sweden.

Stockholm Bränneri, housed in a former Jaguar repair shop, produces a unique blend that combines apple wine with raspberries, aronia berries, and pomace from the Gothenburg winery Wine Mechanics. This infusion is enhanced with their own dry gin and a mix of traditional holiday spices.

“Each vintage brings its own distinctive flavor profile,” says Anna Wikner, co-founder of Stockholm Bränneri. “The 2023 vintage showcases notes of allspice and rosemary.”

The distillery also offers a glögg-inspired ready-made negroni mix called Winter Negroni, made from their dry gin and red bitters, combined with cold-pressed cherries and black currants. The nonalcoholic version substitutes black currant juice for gin and includes juniper berries, rowan berries, lingonberries, and wormwood instead of bitters.

“Both versions can be enjoyed either over ice with a slice of orange or warmed on a chilly winter day,” Wikner notes.

On Gotland island in the Baltic Sea, Elisabeth Hellström from the small Hellström gin company crafts one of the finest gin-based glöggs available. She uses a blend of Swedish organic apple cider infused with blackcurrants, sloe berries, holiday spices, and her own gin. Hellström enjoys serving her glögg with a cinnamon stick and a slice of apple.

“Since launching my distillery, I’ve envisioned creating my own take on glögg,” Hellström shares. “The idea came from the use of sloe berries in UK sloe gin, and I thought they would pair beautifully with glögg spices and gin.”

“We aimed to redefine what glögg can be,” says Dennis Bejedal, founder and CEO of Norrbottens Destilleri in northern Sweden. The brand infuses cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon with fresh sea buckthorn and even jalapeno, which adds a warm, lingering finish. Bejedal wanted to create a drink that retains its identity as glögg while also serving as a digestif for year-round enjoyment.

“We received messages from people in mid-summer enjoying our glögg chilled while sitting on the beach,” Bejedal notes.

However, glögg is still primarily made at home, and one of the most impressive recipes—based on vodka, sugar, and spices—originates from Skansen, the world’s oldest open-air museum in Stockholm. Begin by chopping dried figs and ginger and macerating them in vodka with traditional glögg spices (like cloves) for at least six hours. Then, warm the vodka and ignite it. Suspend a sugar cube above the pan and carefully pour the flaming vodka over it, allowing it to melt and drip into the mixture. The result should be a lightly golden liquid with a delightful caramel aroma. Extinguish the flame with the pan lid and serve immediately in small glass cups, garnished with raisins, blanched almonds, and a tiny spoon. Trevlig helg! (Happy holidays!)

Per Styregård is an author and journalist based in Stockholm, where he lives with his wife and son.Tilda Rose is a Finnish American artist and illustrator who works in editorial and children’s literature.Copy edited by Kelli Pate.