暖在心頭的熱酒Vin Brule

一到冬天，偶爾會在街頭看到賣熱酒的攤子，尤其是有聖誕市集的地方更是普遍。買杯酒，捧在手上熱呼呼的，心裡也隨著身子暖了起來。
When it comes to winter, it’s quite often that I see stands selling hot red wine on the street, especially common in Christmas market. Get a glass of hot wine, it warms up my body and my heart.

熱酒這東西在冬天的歐洲似乎很普遍，在義大利叫做Vin Brule，德奧地區是Gl?wein。這次到奧地利也因為天冷而喝了不少，甚至覺得在維也納喝到的比義大利的好喝，引起了友人的不悅…「這很簡單啊，我在家常做…」接下來就巨細靡遺地開始告訴我做法，我概略記了下來，等到回家以後再來試試。
It seems quite a common thing in winter in Europe. In Italy it’s called “Vin Brule” and “Gl?wein” in Germany and Austria. I had quite a few mugs in Austria during the trip because of the cold weather. I even feel that the ones I had in Vienna taste much better than anything I tried in Italy so far. My saying made a friend unhappy…”It’s quite easy. I make it at home very often…” He started to tell me how to prepare it at home. I tried to remember it and decided to try the recipe once I’d be home.

昨天翻箱倒櫃找香料的時候，順手也把乾弟之前從德國帶來給我的酒給找了出來。那時乾弟就告訴我，這酒是專門拿來準備熱酒用的，標籤上寫的也是Weihnachts Gl?wein，只是當時我並不覺得自己會想要試做這種東西，也許是因為之前在義大利嘗到的都不合胃口的關係吧！從奧地利回到家，這瓶酒終於派上用場。
I was looking around my shelves for the spices yesterday, and also took out the bottle that a friend brought me from Germany. He told me that Germans use it specifically for preparing Gl?wein and the ticket on the bottle also says so. By that time I didn’t think to make it, probably because I didn’t really like the ones I tried in Italy and it just didn’t inspire me to do it at home. It’s not until I came back from Austria that I thought to take it out from the shelf.

找個小鍋子，倒入兩杯酒，先加入一茶匙的糖用慢火熬煮，過幾分鐘以後再加入一小枝肉桂、兩顆丁香、兩粒杜松子、一搓胡荽子、橘子皮和另一匙糖，小火煮至將沸，並將溫度維持在沸騰以下續煮個幾分鐘，就可以喝了。
Get a small pot. Pure in two glasses of wine and a teaspoon of sugar. Use small fire to heat it for a few minutes. Then add some cinnamon, clove, juniper, coriander, orange peel and another teaspoon of sugar. Keep small fire and heat it without boiling for some other few minutes. Then it’s ready to be served.

看了看其他地方的食譜，德奧地區用的香料和酒種似乎有點差別。接下來的工作就是要多試試幾種酒，找出最適合做熱酒的材料了！
I also checked recipes from various sources and it seems that the spices used in Germany and Italy are different. In any case, the following task is to try various kind of wines and find out the most suitable one for home-made vin brule!

PS. 也有人在香料裡混入肉豆蔻，橘子皮也可以用檸檬皮代替，加點蘋果進去煮也不錯。Some people also mix nutmeg in the spice. The orange peel can be substituted by lemon peel. It’s also nice if you add some fresh apple pieces while cooking.