TEK - A tonic (coca) hot wine recipe

[Benga]

This popped up in another thread, though it might be better off here.

Here's a lovely recipe, to which you can add whatever leaves you have, let's say, hum, laurel leaves, hum...

Benga's Tonic Hot Wine

take one liter of red bordeaux wine
dump in between 50 g or 150g of say laurel leaves
add 3 brown sugar cubes
3 sticks of cinnamon
one tablespoonful of grated ginger
a few cardamom pods
4 star anis (badiane)
4 cloves
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
some fenel, fenugrec
optional 1 or 2 betelnut (areca catechu) dried slices, one tablespoon c. sour for those in the know.

a dash of liqueur, say cointreau or cognac, or even a little rum or whiskey

at the end of preparation (after first heating) some lemon juice ( or lemon peels) and orange juice (or peel) in moderation, this stuff is strong tasting.

let this sit for as long as you can, 24 hours is great but a couple of hours will also do.

cover, then heat very slowly, turn off heat just before it comes to a boil.
let it cool, and repeat process, just reaching boiling point and turning off heat, add half a glass of wine, and let sit.

the key is not to let it boil, or at least not more than 30 seconds, as boiling degrades.

Strain and drink your delicious tonic hot wine.

laurel of course is just one option among many possibilities.

this drink is perfect for long winter evenings.b