Winter Spices: Seven Warm Spices for Cold-Weather Cooking, and What Each One Does

EU law defines Glühwein, a mulled wine, as flavored mainly with cinnamon and/or cloves. Those two belong to the seven spices that cover most cold-weather cooking: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, cardamom, ginger and black pepper. You’ll find them in hot cider, gingerbread and pumpkin pie, and in slow-cooked savory food from Jamaican jerk to Cincinnati chili and garam masala. The “warm” in warm spices is about flavor and smell, though. We found no NIH summary or systematic review backing the claims that they boost circulation or strengthen the immune system.

At a glance

Do winter spices actually warm you up?

The idea is old. Dioscorides, writing around 50 to 70 CE, described ginger as “warming and digestive,” according to AramcoWorld’s history of the spice.⁷ Modern claims go further: that cinnamon and ginger boost circulation, and that nutmeg and cloves fight infection and strengthen the immune system. We found no NIH summary or systematic review that supports any of those claims for spices eaten in food.

Here’s what the evidence does say:

• Cinnamon. NCCIH says research doesn’t clearly support using cinnamon for any health condition.⁸ A systematic review of Ceylon cinnamon lists antimicrobial activity among its reported properties but notes that data on humans are sparse. Most of that work is in the lab or in animals.¹
• Ginger. NCCIH says ginger may help with nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, but most studies of ginger for motion sickness haven’t shown it to help.⁹
• Black pepper. We couldn’t trace claims that black pepper aids weight loss. See spices and herbs for weight loss for what the human evidence on spices and weight shows.

The warmth people mean when they call these “warm spices” is about flavor and smell, and that’s reason enough to keep them around.

Cinnamon

“Cinnamon” covers the inner bark of several trees in the genus Cinnamomum. Ceylon cinnamon is one species. Cassia is a group of related ones, and it’s the type most often sold in North America, according to NCCIH.⁸ The warm, sweet smell comes mainly from cinnamaldehyde, which a systematic review puts at roughly 49.9 to 62.8% of the bark oil.¹

In Europe, cinnamon goes into everything from bakery and sweet treats to drinks and herbal infusions, and it’s a key ingredient in garam masala and masala chai. EU law defines Glühwein, a mulled wine, as flavored mainly with cinnamon and/or cloves.¹⁰ Oregon State University Extension’s hot apple-orange cider steeps six cinnamon sticks with whole cloves and allspice.¹¹ See Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon and cinnamon vs. nutmeg.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg is the dried seed kernel of Myristica fragrans, a tree native to the Banda Islands in Indonesia’s Maluku province. It has a distinctive pungent fragrance and a warm, slightly sweet taste.

The FAO’s handbook on nutmeg lists eggnog among its dairy uses and says nutmeg is obligatory in Grenadian rum punch.¹² McCormick suggests its ground nutmeg for pumpkin pie and gingerbread, and in savory dishes like scalloped potatoes, glazed carrots and creamed spinach.¹³ Use it in small amounts (see Safety below). See fresh vs. ground nutmeg and how to store nutmeg.

Allspice

Allspice is one spice, not a blend. It’s the dried berry of Pimenta dioica, a tree native to southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. It got its name because it tastes like a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. The clove part has a chemical basis: eugenol, the main compound in clove oil, also makes up 50 to 80% of allspice berry oil.²³

Allspice is widely used in baking. Whole berries go into meat broths, gravies and pickling liquids, and Smithsonian Magazine’s history of Jamaican jerk calls pimento (allspice) an essential ingredient.¹⁴ See allspice vs. cloves and jerk seasoning.

Cloves

Cloves are the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, picked just before they open, from a tree native to Maluku in Indonesia. They’re strong in aroma and hot and pungent in taste, and they flavor many foods, especially meats and baked goods. PROSEA puts eugenol at 70 to 90% of clove bud oil.³

Cloves share the EU’s mulled-wine definition with cinnamon,¹⁰ and the Oregon State cider recipe uses 12 whole cloves.¹¹ They’re strong, and whole cloves in a liquid are easy to fish out. See ground vs. whole cloves and too much clove.

Cardamom

Green cardamom is the dried fruit and seeds of Elettaria cardamomum, a ginger-family plant native to southwest India. Black cardamom is a different plant, Amomum subulatum, native from Nepal to central China. Green cardamom’s essential oil is mainly 1,8-cineole and α-terpinyl acetate.⁴

Cardamom is an important ingredient in curries and spiced rice dishes, and it’s used to flavor coffee and tea. It’s popular in Scandinavian pastries, too. Madhur Jaffrey’s garam masala, published by Saveur, uses a quarter cup of cardamom seeds.¹⁵ See black cardamom, cardamom vs. cloves and chai spices.

Ginger

Ginger is the rhizome, an underground stem, of Zingiber officinale. Its bite comes from non-volatile phenolic compounds called gingerols.⁵ The fresh rhizome is essential in many Asian dishes, while the dried, powdered spice is more popular in European cooking.

Amelia Simmons’s 1796 American Cookery measures ginger for gingerbread by the ounce.¹⁶ Ginger is also a core ingredient of masala chai. See fresh vs. ground ginger and cooking with ginger.

Black pepper

Black pepper is the dried fruit of Piper nigrum, a climbing vine. It’s one of the earliest known and most widely used spices in the world. Its bite comes mainly from piperine, which PROSEA puts at 4.9 to 7.7% of black pepper.⁶ It’s also in Madhur Jaffrey’s garam masala alongside cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.¹⁵ See allspice vs. black pepper and cracked vs. ground black pepper.

Winter spice combinations, by recipe

There’s no single winter spice blend. These named sources show how the same spices get mixed and matched:

For more on the drinks and blends, see mulling spices for apple cider, pumpkin pie spice, garam masala, best spices for chili and Christmas spices.

Safety: two things worth knowing

Cassia cinnamon and coumarin, plus lead alerts. Cassia contains coumarin. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) estimates that a 60 kg adult hits the tolerable daily intake by eating about 2 g a day of cassia with average coumarin content.¹⁹ Separately, in a public health alert first issued in July 2024 and updated since, the FDA has listed ground cinnamon products sold in the U.S. that tested at 2.03 to 7.68 parts per million lead.²⁰ See too much cinnamon.

Nutmeg in large amounts. The National Capital Poison Center notes that nutmeg tastes great in cookies and eggnog, but too much can cause hallucinations, and that kitchen spices aren’t dangerous used as recommended.²¹ The Tennessee Poison Center puts reported effects at 15 to 20 grams, about two to three tablespoons of ground nutmeg, far above any recipe amount.²² See too much nutmeg.

Related

• Christmas spices
• Thanksgiving herbs and spices
• Apple pie spice
• Do spices go bad?
• Cinnamon vs. nutmeg, cardamom vs. cloves