Gluhwein

Glühwein is red or white wine heated with cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel and star anise, then sweetened to taste. Most German stalls pour red, while white turns up more in northern Italy and both are common in Austria and Franconia. German law sets 7 percent as the minimum strength for Glühwein sold in shops. Good stalls keep the pot below 80 °C, since the alcohol starts to cook off at 78 °C and the spices turn harsh.

The cheapest Glühwein is often bulk wine sweetened hard to cover its faults, and German Wikipedia says so plainly. Winzerglühwein is the grower's version, made from wine pressed from the grower's own grapes, with no water or juice added and only natural sugars for sweetness. A drink with rum, brandy or amaretto in it counts as punch in the strict German sense, and Kinderpunsch or Kinderglühwein is hot spiced fruit juice with no wine at all.

The oldest documented Glühwein tankard is a gilded silver one from about 1420, attributed to Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen. Central Germany's oldest surviving recipe is dated 11 December 1834 and comes from August Josef Ludwig von Wackerbarth, with cinnamon, ginger, anise, nutmeg, cardamom and a pinch of saffron. Bottled Glühwein arrived in the winter of 1956, when Rudolf Kunzmann filled bottles at his small cellar in Augsburg and the city's market office fined him because sugar wasn't yet allowed in wine.

Most markets charge a deposit on a ceramic or glass mug, and many print a new design every year, so people collect them. Dresden's Striezelmarkt rules allow only its own mugs: ceramic ones for alcoholic drinks, children's mugs for alcohol-free punch and glass ones for specialities such as Eierpunsch. Nuremberg's market says you can skip the refund and take the mug home, and every Glühwein trader there hands out the same one.