Wassail
Wassail is a hot bowl for eight to ten: a litre of cloudy apple juice and 500ml of dry cider, warmed with two cinnamon sticks, a teaspoon of ground ginger and an orange studded with six cloves, held below a simmer for 20 minutes, never boiled, and sweetened with brown sugar to taste. Add 100ml of brandy or calvados off the heat if you want it stronger. With a 5% cider and the brandy, a cup carries about 0.7 to 0.8 UK units. The name was a greeting before it was a drink. It comes from the Old Norse ves heill, be in good health, and by the twelfth century the toast was wassail and the reply drinkhail. By about 1300 the word meant the drink itself: spiced ale for Twelfth Night and Christmas Eve. Ours is the cider version, soft and lightly spiced and gentle enough for a second cup. Made with apple juice alone, it has no alcohol at all.
Glassware: Punch Bowl
Garnish:
Ingredients
1 litre
The base, and most of the sweetness. Cloudy rather than clear, for the body that carries the spice. Use it alone, with no cider or brandy, for an alcohol-free bowl.
500ml
A dry cider at about 5% ABV; ciders run up to 8.5%, so check the label, and the units rise with it. It brings acidity and the orchard thread of the old custom, and all of the alcohol unless you add brandy. Most ciders contain sulphites; the label will say.
To taste
Added a spoonful at a time, because ciders and juices differ too much for a fixed measure. Stop while the bowl still tastes of apple.
6
Pressed into the orange rather than loose in the pan. Cloves take over a bowl quickly, and studded ones are easy to find and lift out.
1 tsp
Dry warmth under the fruit. A single teaspoon disperses through the bowl without leaving a gritty sediment.
1, studded with the cloves
Studded with the six cloves. It scents the bowl as it warms and stays in the pan when you serve.
100ml (optional)
At 40% ABV, added off the heat so it stays in the bowl. Calvados keeps the drink on apples; brandy is warmer and rounder.
Instructions
Stud the orange with the cloves.
Put the apple juice, cider, cinnamon sticks, ground ginger and studded orange in a large pan.
Warm gently and hold below a simmer for 20 minutes so the spices open. Do not let it boil.
Sweeten with brown sugar in stages, tasting as it warms.
Take the pan off the heat and add the brandy or calvados, if using.
Ladle into heatproof cups, or serve from a warmed punch bowl.
Our version
Wassail has no fixed recipe: old bowls were hot ale, cider or mead with spice, sugar and apples. Ours is cloudy apple juice and dry cider with whole spice, ground ginger and a clove-studded orange, and brandy or calvados is optional.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Never let it boil. Held below a simmer, the spices open slowly into the cider. Boiling strips the aromatics, costs the cider some of its alcohol and leaves the cloves tasting harsh. Keep the spices whole. Cinnamon sticks and cloves pressed into the orange can be lifted out; loose ground spice clouds the bowl. The teaspoon of ginger is the only ground spice it takes. Sweeten in stages. Ciders and apple juices differ a great deal in sugar, so add the brown sugar a spoonful at a time as the bowl warms, and taste between each.
Behind the Wassail
Flavour Profile
The Toast Came First
Wassail was a greeting long before it named a drink. The Oxford English Dictionary traces it to the Old Norse ves heill, be in good health, matched by the Old English wes hál. The earliest record of the drinking pair, wassail and drinkhail, is in Geoffrey of Monmouth, around 1140.
By about 1300 the word meant the drink: spiced ale for Twelfth Night and Christmas Eve. Lambswool, named by 1593, was ale or mead with roasted apples, sugar and spice. Later bowls were mulled cider with sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, with toast floating on top.
The Orchard Rite
In the cider counties, wassailing means drinking the health of the apple trees. At Carhampton in Somerset the village circles the largest tree on Old Twelfth Night, hangs cider-soaked toast in its branches for the robins and fires a gun to scare off bad spirits.
The aim is a good crop the following autumn. Whimple in Devon keeps the same date, and newer wassails have started across the West Country.
Door to Door
The other tradition went from house to house on Twelfth Night, singing and offering a drink from the bowl in exchange for gifts. Here We Come a-Wassailing is one of its songs, and carol singing has largely taken its place.
The Modern Bowl
Apple juice and dry cider keep the bowl on the orchard side of the tradition. The juice gives sweetness and body; the cider brings acidity and a little alcohol.
Brown sugar goes in by taste, because ciders vary. Brandy or calvados, if you use it, goes in off the heat so it stays in the drink.
Three Hot Drinks for Winter
Wassail beside Mulled Wine and the Hot Toddy
Wassail (ours)
- Base
- 1 litre cloudy apple juice, 500ml dry cider
- Spirit
- 100ml brandy or calvados, optional
- Serves
- Eight to ten
- UK units
- About 0.7 to 0.8 a cup with brandy; under 0.5 without
Mulled Wine
- Base
- 750ml red wine, 100ml orange juice
- Spirit
- 150ml brandy
- Serves
- Six to eight
- UK units
- About 2.0 to 2.6 a cup
Hot Toddy
- Base
- 120ml hot water, lemon and honey
- Spirit
- 60ml Scotch
- Serves
- One
- UK units
- About 2.4
| Drink | Base | Spirit | Serves | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wassail (ours) | 1 litre cloudy apple juice, 500ml dry cider | 100ml brandy or calvados, optional | Eight to ten | About 0.7 to 0.8 a cup with brandy; under 0.5 without |
| Mulled Wine | 750ml red wine, 100ml orange juice | 150ml brandy | Six to eight | About 2.0 to 2.6 a cup |
| Hot Toddy | 120ml hot water, lemon and honey | 60ml Scotch | One | About 2.4 |
How to Serve It
From the pan or a warmed punch bowl into heatproof cups, with the studded orange left in the pot. It holds on the lowest heat for the evening and scales by plain multiplication.
Offer the toast with the first ladle: wassail, and the reply, drinkhail.
For red wine in place of cider, make Mulled Wine; for a hot drink made by the glass, a Hot Toddy.
Make it at home
The Spirit
BrandyBrandy is wine, distilled and then aged in oak, and in British law the word on its own means grape brandy of at least 36% ABV, matured for six months or more. Most bottles, and the ones our recipes assume, are 40%. It is the warm, dried-fruit base of milk punch, eggnog and mulled wine, where a sound young bottle serves better than an expensive old one.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What does wassail mean?
Is wassail alcoholic?
What is wassailing the orchard?
Why must it not boil?
When is wassail drunk?
Can I make wassail ahead?
What is lambswool?
How strong is wassail?
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Mulled Wine
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 11 October 2026