Create your own mulling spices to make a delicious mulled wine, spiced apple cider, tea, coffee, syrup or even stovetop potpourri. This simple mulling spices recipe is a fragrant blend of cinnamon sticks, allspice, whole cloves, and orange zest.

It makes a beautiful homemade holiday gift, too – so fast and easy to throw together with a free printable label right in this post!

A tea bag filled with mulling spices
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Throughout fall and winter, I love to sip and savor the warmth, flavors, and aroma of mulled cider, mulled wine, mulled syrup and even stovetop potpourri.

Come December, I love gifting. Not just any gift though, because I love a thoughtfully curated gift basket or a homemade gift. Something from the heart, which often means something from the kitchen. 

Don’t miss my round up of 25 Easy and Beautiful Homemade Christmas Gifts. These mulling spices make one of our favorite homemade items to gift friends and neighbors.

A pile of mulling spices on a white surface.

Homemade Mulling Spices

Luckily, I’ve found a variety of ways to combine my love of warm and cozy scents and flavors with my love of gifting. These mulling spices are such a useful, charming gift that anyone on your list will love!

This homemade mulling spices recipe makes a thoughtful gift! Tuck your homemade mulling spices into a cute little jar (details below) with the beautiful free printable label for friends, family, neighbors and co-workers.

A bottle of mulling spices resting on a marble countertop, gold lid to the side.

You can gift them alone or create a beautiful gift basket with a bottle or wine and cider. When they are left as whole spices, they are ideal for mulled wine or mulled cider, but they can also be ground and used in baked goodies like pumpkin cheesecake or apple bread!

What are Mulling Spices?

They are spices used to add seasonal flavor and aroma to wine, cider, and syrup which and so much more, steeped in hot liquid and discarded. “Mull” is an infusing process that enhances the flavor for fall and winter.

A pile of mulling spices on a white surface.

You can also pulverize in a coffee grinder to make ground spices, perfect for baking! They are amazing blended into your favorite fall cookies, breads, muffins and more! Simply add or substitute a recipe that calls for cinnamon, allspice, pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice!

Chances are, you have most of the ingredients to make your own mulling spices in your pantry! However, they’re easily accessible both online and in your local grocery store.

A pile of mulling spices on a white surface.

You can bottle the blend for yourself or share with others for a beautiful homemade gift or a thoughtful hostess gift.

These four core spices create a foundation for the most warm and cozy mulling spice recipe you can imagine!

You can customize your mulling spices to your taste. I’m sharing the most classic recipe along with variations to try!

A glass jar filled with cinnamon and other spices, infused with the aroma of mulling spices.

Ingredients and Substitutions

  • Cinnamon Sticks – You’ll crush them a bit to break them down for this spice blend.
  • Allspice – I like to use true allspice seeds because they work beautifully in this mulling spice blend. However, if you can’t find seeds you can also use this homemade allspice blend. Just note that ground spices will add a stronger flavor to your ciders, wines, teas, etc, instead of just steeping in an infuser and it can be difficult to blend the ground spices with whole.
  • Cloves – Cloves are a dark, fragrant spice made from flower buds of a specific evergreen tree. They add an intense, slightly bitter and sweet flavor that makes your mulling spice blend come to life!
  • Orange Peel Dried orange peel works best here. It’s so easy to make your own dried orange peels – I’ve got a great dedicated post that shows you how!
Mulling spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom are used to enhance various beverages and dishes.

Variations

There are so many ways to add more spice to your life! Anything you can think of that is a dried fruit or spice could be a wonderful addition to your mulling spice blend.

  • Crystallized Ginger
  • Brown Sugar
  • Star Anise
  • Vanilla Beans
  • Peppercorns
  • Raisins
  • Currants
  • Plums
  • Cranberries

How to Make Mulling Spices

  1. Crush Cinnamon – Using a meat pounder, crush cinnamon sticks into bits. A rolling pin and cinnamon sticks on a marble table.
  2. Dry Orange Peels (as directed below)
  3. Combine – In a small bowl, mix the cinnamon bits, allspice, cloves, and orange peel and jar.
A glass jar filled with cinnamon and other spices, infused with the aroma of mulling spices.

How to Crush Cinnamon

With a Rolling Pin 

Place cinnamon sticks in resealable bag with excess air removed. Place a towel on top to prevent tearing holes in the bag. Gently roll over cinnamon sticks until crushed into pieces. A rolling pin and cinnamon sticks on a marble table.

With a Mallet 

Place cinnamon sticks in resealable bag with excess air removed. Place a towel on top to prevent tearing holes in the bag. Gently hammer until broken. ***This method also works as therapy.

How to Dry Orange Peels

  1. Peel orange rinds into very slender slices.
  2. Bake citrus zest or peel on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 1 hour at 200°.
A pile of orange peels on a marble surface

Tip

Use the 1x 2x 3x tab in the printable recipe card to multiply the ingredients and make a larger batch! You can also use my printable measurement conversion worksheet to make the math a little easier!

How to Use

(For Tea, Mulled Wine, Coffee and Apple Cider)

  1. Place the spice blend in a tea infuser, wrap in a piece of cheesecloth or muslin bag. A tea bag filled with mulling spices
  2. Pour liquid over the top and warm.
  3. Allow to simmer for at least 15 minutes, but up to four hours.
A tea bag filled with mulling spices in a pot of cider

Serving Suggestions

Two cups of cider with a bag of mulling spices spilled in front.

How To Store

Room Temperature – Store in an airtight container, preferably in a dark cabinet up to 1 year.

printable mulling spices labels laid out on a marble surface

Free Printable Mulling Spices Gift Label

They’re perfect to share with friends and family along with a gift of free printable labels to make homemade gift-giving even easier.

Rather than using labels in a specified size, I purchase sticker sheets because they’re easily customizable and you don’t have to line everything up just right in the printer.

You can download the mulling spices label and directions here to pair with pretty glass spice jars! Unfortunately, the spice jars I used in these images are no longer available, but these 6 ounce square jars, these traditional four ounce spice jars with black lids, and these with pretty bamboo lids should work well!

This makes a beautiful gift on its own or you can pair it with a spice ball and bottle of wine or apple cider.

Printable labels for mulling spices

More Kitchen Gifts

A glass jar filled with cinnamon and other spices, infused with the aroma of mulling spices.
5 from 12 votes
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Mulling Spices

A simple recipe for mulling spices to make a delicious mulled wine, spiced apple cider, tea, coffee, syrup or stovetop potpourri. This mulling spices recipe is a fragrant blend of cinnamon sticks, allspice, whole cloves, and orange zest. It makes a beautiful homemade holiday gift for your loved ones.
Prep: 5 minutes
Total: 5 minutes
Servings: 8
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Ingredients  

  • 10 small cinnamon sticks
  • ¼ cup allspice
  • ¼ cup cloves
  • ¼ cup orange peel

Instructions 

  • Using a meat pounder or rolling pin, crush cinnamon sticks into bits.
  • Peel orange rinds into very slender slices. Bake slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 1 hour at 200°.
  • In a small bowl, mix cinnamon bits, allspice, cloves and orange peel and jar.

Julie’s Tips

Variations

  • Crystallized Ginger
  • Brown Sugar
  • Star Anise
  • Vanilla Beans
  • Peppercorns
  • Raisins
  • Currants
  • Plums
  • Cranberries

To Use

Use 2-3 tablespoons of mulling spices per two bottles of wine for mulling. Use the same 2-3 tablespoons of spices for a half gallon of apple cider. Place the spice blend in a tea infuser, wrap in a piece of cheesecloth or muslin bag. Pour liquid over the top and warm. Allow to simmer for at least 15 minutes, but up to four hours.

To Store

Room Temperature – Store in an airtight container, preferably in a dark cabinet up to one year.
Calories: 23kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 3mg | Potassium: 61mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 44IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 1mg

Estimated nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed.

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Originally published December 13, 2017, updated Aug 11, 2020

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5 from 12 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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31 Comments

  1. This looks so beautiful – perfect for the holidays! What type of wine would you recommend pairing this with (red/white, dry/sweet)?

  2. What a lovely gift idea! I’m wondering where I might find the spice bottles that you used for this project?

    Thanks, Jean

    1. You can use any spice bottles, but I purchased these at Freund Container. If you need to scale the labels down, you can adjust your printer to print at 75%. Enjoy!

    1. I am so sorry, it’s a hiccup with my site redesign – they’re going out in my newsletter and I’m trying to get a fix asap. Thanks for your patience!