Best Mulling Spices for Apple Cider

Making a pot of mulled cider? Start with cinnamon sticks and whole cloves, heated slowly in apple cider or juice, usually with some citrus. The two recipes compared here agree on that pair and then go their own ways: one adds allspice, the other ginger and star anise. Cinnamon sticks beat ground cinnamon here: they flavor the cider steadily, lift right out and keep it clear. There are also two safety points worth knowing, one about cassia cinnamon and one about star anise.

At a glance

Spice	What it brings	In the recipes cited
Cinnamon sticks	Sweet, woody warmth	Both¹²
Cloves	Strong, hot, pungent aroma	Both¹²
Allspice	Clove-like warmth with a peppery edge	Food Hero (Oregon State)¹
Orange (and other fruit)	Citrus brightness	Both: halved oranges in one; orange, lemon and apple slices in the other¹²
Ginger	Pungent bite	Thatchers²
Star anise	Licorice-like sweetness	Thatchers²
Nutmeg	Warm, slightly sweet note	Neither; an optional extra
Cardamom	Floral, camphor-like lift	Neither; an optional extra

Two recipes side by side

Recipe	Liquid	Spices	Fruit	Heat
Hot Apple Orange Cider, Food Hero, Oregon State University Extension¹	8 cups 100% apple juice plus 4 cups water	6 cinnamon sticks, 12 whole cloves, 2 whole allspice	2 oranges, halved	Bring to a boil, then simmer 2 hours
Mulled Cider, Thatchers Cider²	2 liters hard cider	2 cinnamon sticks, 5 cloves, 8 slices ginger, 2 star anise, plus 5 tbsp soft brown sugar	1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 apple, sliced	Simmer gently 30 minutes; do not boil

These are the makers’ own recipes, not a house standard. The Food Hero version is nonalcoholic and simmers a long time; the Thatchers version uses alcoholic cider and tells you not to let it boil.¹² Thatchers also gives ground alternatives: ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon for the two sticks, ½ teaspoon ground cloves for the five cloves, and 1 teaspoon ground ginger for the eight slices.²

Where spiced drinks come from

Spiced wine is far older than mulled cider. A Roman cookbook attributed to the gourmet Apicius already includes a spiced wine, conditum paradoxum.³

The core spices and what each does

Cinnamon: the backbone

Both recipes use cinnamon sticks.¹² The cinnamon most often sold in North America is cassia. Either works in cider. Cassia gives the bolder, candy-like flavor most Americans know; Ceylon, a gentler one. See Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon and cinnamon sticks vs. ground cinnamon.

Sticks are the better pick here. They flavor the liquid steadily, lift out cleanly, and keep the cider clear. Ground cinnamon tends to cloud the drink and settle at the bottom of the cup.

Cloves: the other half of the classic pair

Both recipes use whole cloves: 12 in about three quarts of liquid for Food Hero, five in two liters for Thatchers.¹² Cloves are strong in aroma and hot and pungent in taste, so a few go a long way, and studding them into the orange halves makes them easy to fish out. See ground vs. whole cloves and too much clove.

Allspice: one berry, several flavors

Food Hero adds two whole allspice berries.¹ Allspice is a single spice, a dried berry. It gets its name because its flavor resembles a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It backs up the cinnamon-and-clove pairing more than it adds anything new. See allspice vs. cloves.

Orange and other fruit: brightness

Both recipes simmer citrus with the spices: two halved oranges for Food Hero; a sliced orange, lemon and apple for Thatchers.¹² The pith turns bitter with long simmering, so for a two-hour simmer, zest strips or halves you can lift out are easier to control than thin slices.

Ginger: heat with a bite

Thatchers uses eight slices of fresh ginger.² Fresh slices give a cleaner, sharper heat than ground ginger. See fresh ginger vs. ground ginger and cooking with ginger.

Star anise: the licorice note

Thatchers adds two star anise.² Buy star anise sold as a food spice, not as a decorative item. Japanese star anise, a related plant, is toxic,⁴ and in 2003 the FDA linked teas made with star anise to illnesses affecting about 40 people.⁵ See star anise uses and cloves vs. star anise.

Optional extras

Nutmeg

Neither recipe uses nutmeg. It tastes warm and slightly sweet. A whole nutmeg cracked into pieces infuses without clouding the cider, or you can grate a little on top of each cup. Kitchen amounts aren’t a safety worry: the National Capital Poison Center says nutmeg isn’t dangerous used as recommended, though very large amounts can cause hallucinations.⁶ See fresh vs. ground nutmeg and too much nutmeg.

Cardamom

Cardamom isn’t in either recipe. PROSEA notes it’s used to flavor coffee and tea.⁷ A few lightly crushed green pods add a cool, floral note; more than a few will take over. See cardamom pods vs. seeds and too much cardamom.

Safety

Cassia and coumarin. Cassia cinnamon contains coumarin. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) calculates that a 60 kg adult reaches the tolerable daily intake by eating about 2 g a day of cassia with average coumarin content.⁸ Nobody we found has measured how much coumarin moves from a steeped stick into cider, so we can’t give a figure. A cup now and then isn’t what the BfR is worried about; heavy daily cassia use is. See too much cinnamon.

Japanese star anise. See the star anise section above.⁴⁵

Hot Apple Orange Cider, Food Hero, Oregon State University Extension Service. extension.oregonstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Mulled Cider, Thatchers Cider. thatcherscider.co.uk · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³
Christina Makris, “Mulling it over”, Apollo, 2022. apollo-magazine.com · Publication ↩
Illicium verum Hook.f., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²
“Teas Made from Star Anise Were Associated With Illnesses Including Seizures”, FDA, 2003. fda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Rose Ann Gould Soloway, “Kitchen surprises and cautions”, National Capital Poison Center. poison.org · Reference work ↩
Wardini and Thomas, “Elettaria cardamomum”, PROSEA. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Cassia cinnamon with high coumarin contents to be consumed in moderation, BfR. bfr.bund.de · Regulator ↩

Also drawn on

Cinnamon: Usefulness and Safety (last updated November 2024), National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH). nccih.nih.gov
Clove (Britannica Editors, revised by Anoushka Pant, updated 4 Sep 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
Allspice (Britannica Editors, updated 3 Sep 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
Nutmeg (Britannica Editors, updated 17 Aug 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com

Mulling Spices for Apple Cider: Cinnamon, Cloves, Allspice, Citrus and the Optional Extras