Conditum Paradoxum: True Roman Wine for True Romans

Conditum Paradoxum, AKA Mulled wine, AKA spiced Roman wine, is a delicious wine, often made by mulling spices in defrutum and adding it with honey to wine. Today I will share one of my favorite Conditum Paradoxum recipes, so you can enjoy Roman wine like a true Roman (or use it to bribe filthy Celts in Britannia to fight their own...) Conditum Paradoxum is an easy recipe to make at home and requires easy to obtain ingredients:

Wine (I enjoy a slightly sweet white, Italian or Spanish will do)

Defrutum (see my previous post about purchasing grape must or

making your own)

Honey (roughly 5 ounces per bottle of wine)

Saffron

Mastic Gum (or Fennel seed)

Peppercorn

Bay Leaves

and if the wine is more on the dry side, dates or raisins.

I: In a saucepan heat up 2.5 ounces of defrutum and all of the honey (if you are not into sweet sweet, you can substitute the defrutum with wine from your bottle.) until the honey is dissolved.

II: While the mixture is still hot take it off the heat, and add the spices (crack the peppercorn before doing it for stronger flavor) to the wine/defrutum honey mixture (you can also add dates or raisins).

III: Cover your saucepan and let it mull until the pan and mix is cool.

IIII: Stir in the rest of your wine until it is one consistency.

V: Pour the mix through a sieve or cheesecloth or coffee filter to filter out the spices. If the mix is too sweet just add more wine or some water. If it is not sweet enough try adding some thinned honey.

VI: Before serving, cut the wine with some water (I recommend a 1:1 ratio of wine and water. This is also helpful if it is too sweet.

VII: Do not simply toss out the raisins or dates, they make a delicious dessert snack.

Next time I will give my favorite recipe for Posca, for that soldier always on the go. Until then.

Vae Victus

Marcus Cestius Pullus