The Best Hot Homemade Wassail Recipe (2024)

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ByAnn Drake

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Fill your home with the scent of Christmas by making this homemade wassail recipe for family and friends in your slow cooker. Easy and delicious!

The Best Hot Homemade Wassail Recipe (1)

Here we come a-Wassailing
among the leaves so green.
Here we come a-wand’ring
so fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
and to you a Wassail too,
And God bless you and send
you a Happy New Year,
God send you a Happy New Year.

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What Is Wassail?

We’ve all heard this familiar Christmas carol, but have you ever wondered what exactly is a wassail or wassailing? It turns out that they are two very different things. A traditional wassail recipe is an apple cider based drink that is made spicy with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Even more flavor is added by including fresh fruit. This traditional holiday drink tastes very much like hot mulled cider.

The Best Hot Homemade Wassail Recipe (3)

What Is Wassailing?

Wassailing is actually the centuries old, British custom of wandering around apple orchards singing to the trees, hoping all the while that the next harvest will be abundant, and that everyone will enjoy good health. This ritual eventually evolved into groups of people going from one home to the next, singing Christmas carols. Wassailing ceremonies typically take place on Twelfth Night (January 5th or 6th) depending on the tradition. Somewhere along the way, these small groups of people began carrying a bowl filled with wassail (the drink) to share with their neighbors.Traditionally, a wassail bowl was made from wood, and had a pedestal bottom.

Wassailing has enjoyed a revival in recent years, with families and communities bringing back the old customs as a way to connect with their cultural heritage, and celebrate the changing seasons.

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How To Make This Hot Drink

  • Add to a 4 quart slow cooker: cranberry juice, apple juice, orange juice, ginger beer, brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and fresh cranberries.
  • Stir until combined.
  • Thinly slice the orange and lemon.
  • Add orange slices and lemon slices to the slow cooker ingredients.
  • Cook on low for at least 2 hours before serving.

Helpful Tips

  • I tried to cut out as many calories from this recipe as I could. I used diet Ocean Spray cranberry juice, Trop50 orange juice, and diet ginger beer. Knowing it was a skinny 60 calories per serving made it even tastier and more enjoyable!
  • Other items that can be added/substituted: pineapple juice, lemon juice, apple slices, ground cinnamon, star anise, whole allspice berries, or any other fruit juices.
  • An added bonus to warming this delicious drink in a Crock-pot is that as it simmers, it makes your house smell wonderful.
  • If you don’t have a Crock-Pot, it works just as well to simmer the mixture on the stovetop in a large pot or stock pot, using medium-low heat.

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Even if you don’t plan to go wassailing this holiday season, I enthusiastically recommend that you whip up a pot of this hot wassail recipe anyway! It’s a delicious and spicy treat that’s the perfect drinkfor Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day. Start a new family tradition by serving this warm drink at your holiday gatherings.It also makes a wonderfulcozy drink on a cold day!

More Festive Holiday Drinks

  • Crockpot Hot Chocolate
  • Cranberry Christmas co*cktail
  • Pomegranate + Lime Spritzer

Homemade Wassail Recipe

Fill your home with the scent of Christmas by making this homemade wassail recipe for family and friends in your slow cooker. Easy and delicious!

Rate this Recipe Print Recipe Pin Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Servings: 6 servings

Author: Ann Drake

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Equipment

  • 4 quart slow cooker

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cranberry juice
  • 2 cups apple juice or apple cider
  • 2 cups orange juice
  • 1 1/2 cups ginger beer or ginger ale
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 orange
  • 1 lemon
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 teaspoon whole cloves
  • 1/2 cup fresh cranberries

Instructions

  • Add to a 4 quart slow cooker: cranberry juice, apple juice, orange juice, ginger beer, brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and fresh cranberries.

  • Stir until combined.

  • Thinly slice the orange and lemon.

  • Add slices to slow cooker ingredients.

  • Cook on low for at least 2 hours before serving.

Notes

I used Ocean Spray Diet Cranberry, Tropicana Trop50, diet ginger beer, and apple juice (no sugar added.) When calculated with these ingredients, a 10 oz. serving has 60 calories.

This recipe can be doubled if a larger slow cooker is used.

Nutrition

Serving: 10oz. | Calories: 193kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 14mg | Potassium: 407mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 42g | Vitamin A: 268IU | Vitamin C: 72mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 1mg

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The Best Hot Homemade Wassail Recipe (7)

The Best Hot Homemade Wassail Recipe (8)

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The Best Hot Homemade Wassail Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between wassail and mulled cider? ›

Honestly, there isn't much of a difference. They are both a spiced juice drink, and in my recipe, you can actually use apple cider instead of apple juice if you choose to. What is this? Wassail will likely lean more heavily on spices, while mulled cider will have more of a mixed juice flavor.

What is wassail drink made of? ›

What is Wassail? Wassail is like the tastier sister to Apple Cider. Traditional wassail was made with hard liquor, apples, brandy, and other spices. This recipe is made with cloves, apples, cinnamon, lemon, orange, ginger, and nutmeg and is a nonalcoholic wassail recipe.

What two Norse words does the Christmas drink known as wassail derive its name from? ›

The text of the carol employs noun and verb forms of “wassail,” a word derived from the Old Norse ves heil and the Old English was hál and meaning “be in good health” or “be fortunate.” The phrase found first use as a simple greeting, but the Danish-speaking inhabitants of England seem to have turned was hail, and the ...

What was a wassail and do we still have them? ›

Wassailing is a very ancient custom that is rarely done today. The word 'wassail' comes from the Anglo-Saxon phrase 'waes hael', which means 'good health'. Originally, the wassail was a drink made of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, eggs, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and sugar.

What is in Trader Joe's wassail? ›

A sweetened blend of black currant, apple, and lemon juices, with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and orange peel, Trader Joe's Winter Wassail is a fruit punch whose flavors and aromas evoke the holidays. You can serve it chilled, over ice with bourbon; or warmed, in a big mug, with a cinnamon stick garnish.

What beer is best for wassail? ›

Wassail Style Beers We Like and You Might Want to Try:

Matt Brewing/Saranac Winter Wassail (Utica, NY) – A classic English Ale with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, orange, and allspice.

Why do people drink wassail? ›

By wassailing their crops in the winter, it was said to ensure a healthy crop in the spring. As Christianity began to spread, this ritual evolved further into singing and drinking to the health of next season's crops on Twelfth Night; the last night of the traditional Christmas season.

Does wassail go bad? ›

Spiced Fragrant Apple Cider Blend Wassail

A: There is no expiration date.

What are the two types of wassailing? ›

The tradition of wassailing (also spelled wasselling) falls into two distinct categories: the house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail.

What is wassailing in the Bible? ›

As England became a Christianized nation, farmers began wassailing on the Twelfth Night of Christmas, asking the Infant Christ to bless the trees and grant them good fruit. Wassailing eventually became the practice of going door-to-door with bowls of wassail, singing and sometimes expecting recompense.

Is wassailing pagan? ›

Wassailing is a Twelfth Night tradition with pagan roots and has been practised in Britain for centuries. Discover the celebration and its rituals, including sipping from a communal wassail bowl.

What is the spiritual meaning of wassailing? ›

Origin of Wassailing

The goal of this pagan tradition is to ensure a good harvest in the year to come by enticing good spirits to come to the orchard (they like the song and dance part), and to frighten away bad spirits that might wreak havoc and ruin this year's crop!

What is the modern equivalent of the word wassail? ›

Over time, waes hail (or wassail as Modern English would now have us spell it), has become synonymous with a spiced cider, and then warm, spiced cider, primarily drunk in the winter. This term remains especially strong in the USA, it would seem.

What does wassail mean in Old English? ›

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "wassail" originated as a borrowing from the Old Norse salutation ves heill, corresponding to Old English hál wes þú or wes hál – literally meaning 'be in good health' or 'be fortunate'.

What country is wassail from? ›

The word Wassail comes from the old Norse phrase ves heill.

The toast of Wassail was brought to England by the Danes and spread quickly. It had become the Anglo Saxon waes hael by the time the Normans invaded in 1066. Toasts are statements made in honor of a person, group of people, or idea, followed by a drink.

What is another name for mulled cider? ›

Wassail (/ˈwɒsəl/, /-eɪl/ WOSS-əl, -⁠ayl) is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following ...

What is the difference between mulled cider and regular cider? ›

Here's the difference between apple cider and apple juice: Apple cider is just unfiltered apple juice that can be served hot or cold. Mulled apple cider is unfiltered apple juice that's been heated and flavored with mulling spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and allspice; and fruits like oranges, lemons, and apples.

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