I left the alcohol train some time ago and I know I’m not alone, whilst some just like to have a non-alcoholic option ones in a while, so I created a mulled juice to substitute the very Christmas warming mulled wine. I used traditional spices and lots of citrus fruits to infuse the juice and served it with almonds and raisins, Swedish style.

Mulled wine screams Christmas festivities to me and to be honest it hasn’t always been my favourite and to be honest again I prefer the English version to the Swedish (oh-oh). Anyway I wanted to make something with the same lovely flavours of mulled wine but free from refined sugars and alcohol. Something you could have in the morning as well as in the evening to warm your cockles.

I love the spices that go into this drink and I use maple syrup and water rather than caster sugar to create a flavoursome syrup before adding the juice to keep as many of the goodies in there and not heat it too much. There might be quite a few ingredients to create the flavours of mulled wine but ones you’ve gathered them all it’s really pretty simple to get the best out of them.

In terms of beet to orange ratio I think it’s up to your taste buds but I use two oranges which I put through my juicer (rather than squeezing them) and the rest red beets for a pint of juice. If you are feeling experimental you could add other vegetables or fruits to create you own version, maybe apple and carrot could be good additions. If you’d like some more heat to your mulled juice add some fresh ginger in the juicing process, this is something I really enjoy!