Being British, my co-blogger Lindsey and I both suffer from our country’s national obsession with the Weather
Having emigrated to the North Eastern corner of the USA, I’ve had the chance to experience my fair share of extreme winter conditions, having endured nor’easters and blizzards too numerous to count. However, in the last couple of days, the weather here in the US has been making headlines all over the world. A ‘Polar Vortex’ has barreled in, bringing us the coldest temperatures seen in living memory. Arctic conditions have stretched across the country and the mercury has plunged to around -41c / -42f in the mid west and a comparably balmy -17c / 2f, here in NY
Stars & Stripes freezing in the Polar Vortex
It occurred to me that this would be the ideal time to get the fire going and pour a glass or two of spiced wine in true Nordic Hygge (cozy) style, as our readers across the country try and keep themselves warm
Luckily, our friends at Hetta, who are a family business based just up the road to me here in the Hudson Valley of NY, had recently sent me a bottle of their Port based spiced wine ‘Glögg’ to check out
Glögg is a Scandinavian welcoming drink served to warm your guests up when they come in from the winter cold to your home and is often drunk in the winter on festive days. Darren from Hetta told me their Glögg is based on the founder’s Scandinavian family recipe. It is a handmade Port based wine infused with a mixture of orange peel, raisins, cinnamon and cardamon finished with Brandy and has minimal added sugar and an alcohol content of just below 22% volume
Deep claret in color, with a fruity spiced nose and soft palate, I found it to be a very pleasant heart warming fortified spiced wine with a decent alcoholic kick from the port and brandy mixed within. The spices are very subtle although I could detect a hint of both the cardamon and cinnamon
Hetta Glögg all warmed up by our blazing wood log fire
Hetta say their Glögg is not just a drink for a festive day or the winter, it can also be drunk cold, used as a cocktail ingredient, as well as a wonderful addition to cooking any time of year. Something I will certainly test out soon
However, this frigid evening, I could not think of a better way to sample Hetta’s Glögg, than to warm it up in the Nordic tradition and enjoy it by the fire after we came in from the freezer outside that is the extraordinary Polar Vortex that has descended on the USA
‘Skål’ as they say, in Scandinavia and to all our readers in the US, in Scandinavia, the UK and beyond, keep warm this Winter!!
taste2taste 