November 27, 2013 11.03 am This story is over 124 months old

Special mulled brew to go on sale at Lincoln Christmas Market

Winter warmer: Keep fingers and bellies warm while walking around the Lincoln Christmas Market with a special traditional mulled beverage.

Photo: File/Dreamstime

A traditional mulled cider, consumed originally as part of an English drinking ritual, will be available at Lincoln Christmas Market.

The Rotary Clubs of Lincolns Colonia and Lincoln Lindum have combined to run a stall serving the drink, called Wassail.

Wassail is a hot, mulled punch, associated with Yuletide previously made up of mulled cider and sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and topped with slices of toast. Apples or oranges are sometimes added to.

The beverage was drunk as part of “wassailing”, an ancient drinking ceremony that involves singing and drinking to the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive.

Over the years the Rotary Clubs of Lincolns Colonia and Lincoln Lindum stall has evolved from selling hot beef rolls to hot drinks, and this year it will be selling for the first time a variety of ‘winter warmers’.

Alongside Wassail, tea, coffee and hot chocolate (with or without Baileys), sloe gin, mulled sloe gin, and hot or cold Belvoir Cordials will also be available.

Peter Oldham of the Rotary Club of Lincoln Colonia said: “Wassail is the thinking man’s mulled wine.

“It combines cider, cinnamon and spices to create ‘Christmas in a glass’ and we expect it to be very popular.

“Wassailing is a very ancient English tradition and eventually we hope it will become as popular as ‘dwyle flunking’.”