00:01Ho ho ho, it's me, Europe's hottest street drink.
00:06Glühwein, glögi, mulled wine, there are many ways to describe me.
00:15I like the good old children's punch.
00:18Glühwein with rum.
00:20Swedish glögg.
00:22I'm not loyal, I'll drink whatever there is.
00:26White mulled wine.
00:27White mulled wine with a shot of amaretto.
00:31Regular red glühwein.
00:37I am an essential part of cold winters.
00:41And I'm even older than any Christmas market.
00:44I'll tell you more about that later.
00:47Nowadays, Europe's Christmas markets are my home.
00:51You'll find me everywhere here.
00:52One of my mugs costs around 5 euros in Germany.
00:57When it gets cold, your love for me awakens.
01:01But it's not easy to fulfill all your wishes.
01:04The more alcohol, the more fun, usually.
01:07When it's extremely sweet, it's bad.
01:10Also, when there's not enough spice to it.
01:11Spicy, a bit of alcohol.
01:17Warm.
01:19That's all it needs.
01:21It needs to be warm and pack a punch.
01:24Me, a warm wine.
01:26You, with cold hands.
01:27A match made in December, you could say.
01:31But be careful drinking me.
01:33I'm sweet and warm you up.
01:36But watch out, I've got 7 to 14.5% alcohol by volume.
01:41No wonder some people get a little tipsy.
01:43And I'm not exactly healthy either.
01:45On Berlin's Christmas markets, you can find all of my European friends.
01:56Nils Kolleander, a.k.a. Papa Glögi from Finland, is a master of hot alcoholic beverages.
02:04He's been selling his homemade Glögi at the Lucia Christmas market for many years.
02:08Okay, Glögi is black, muller blackcurrant wine.
02:16And not so sweet as normally the Glöwein is.
02:20We have only about 70 grams of sugar.
02:23Glöwein has 120 and more.
02:25Uh, but back to the star of the show.
02:29Look how I'm made.
02:31Chef Olympia Spanopoulou prepares me fresh in her Berlin cafe, Lutus Besi.
02:36She cooks up a syrup from caramelized oranges, spices and orange juice.
02:43And then the most important ingredient.
02:46The wine.
02:50Because my heritage is Greek, I use a kind of a Greek wine.
02:54This wine comes from, uh, comes from Nausa.
02:58And, uh, is a really round, fruity, dry kind of red wine.
03:04And it balances really good with the syrup together.
03:09And the next really important step for making a Glöwein is that you really should simmer and not boil.
03:15Because then the alcohol, it dies and then we create so much bitterness.
03:18So, altogether for me, like when you close your eyes and you drink it, it reminds you Christmas.
03:23And this I really love about it.
03:24No, this you can cut out because I'm not sure, but I think it really comes from Rome.
03:27Is it true?
03:28Yes.
03:30Spot on, Olympia.
03:32The ancient Romans were already sipping me.
03:36I spread throughout Europe with them.
03:40I became really popular in the Middle Ages.
03:44As a remedy for bad wine.
03:47And even as medicine.
03:50Once you've tasted me, I hope I stay in your memory for a long time.
03:55You only get it one time a year and it's warm when you're cold outside and tastes like Christmas.
04:03When it's cold, you drink a nice mulled wine. Lovely.
04:08It's a cozy Christmas tradition, huddled together out in the cold.
04:11There's not much snow during winter anymore, so that's a bit sad.
04:20But we have our Christmas markets with Glühwein.
04:24And friends.
04:26Friends, I think the camera is wobbling a bit.
04:30Or is it me?
