Hypocras, The Medieval Nectar

The hypocras recipe I give you here is served cool in a wine glass. It may date back centuries to medieval times, but it's not only delicious but elegant too. So you could add it to your holiday drinks and Christmas drinks. After all, the ancients served it for important celebrations.

	Hypocras

Catalan hypocras is a medieval spiced wine sweetened with honey. You neither boil nor heat it like mulled wine, which is a different drink. You can make it with white or rose wine. I personally prefer the rose wine, it's like drinking cava sparkling wine - it's a holiday drink.

In medieval Catalonia hipocras was also called piment, and sometimes nectar, as it was considered a cordial or healthy tonic. It was reccomended by doctors like the great Arnau de Vilanova or Francesc Eiximenis, in moderation, at the end of meals as digestive with neules, which are plain cookies, slightly toasted bread or fruit.

I doesn't seem so at first, but the spices and the honey make hypocras quite strong. So, if you are not familiar with it, you should keep this in mind and drink only a small glass every time.

There are a few different hypocras recipes found in old Catalan manuscripts, some of them difficult. This one is very easy. I do it myself in no time every winter. I adapted it to our times so that you have no trouble buying the spices. It's really fun to make it.

Ingredients for this hypocras recipe

Yields a little less than 1½ quarts (1.5 l)

• 1½ quarts (6 cups or 1.5 l) rose or white wine
• 7 black pepper corns
• 2 inches (5 cm) cinnamon bark
• 7 cloves
• 2 inches (5 cm) fresh ginger root - peeled and chopped
• ¾ teaspoon mace - use nutmeg if mace isn't available
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon dried ginger powder
• 7 tablespoons honey - use a mild honey like orange blosom or any other with a delicate flavor

Hypocras recipe preparation method

Preparation time: 12 minutes.
Cooking time: 0 minutes.

1. Add the pepper corns, the cinnamon bark, the cloves and the ginger root to a mortar. Crush and pound the spices with the pestle.


2. Pour the wine into a bowl, add the mortar spices and the rest of the spices: mace, the cinnamon powder, the ginger powder, together with the honey.


3. Cover with a cloth and allow it to rest overnight, or at least 5 hours.


4. Strain once or twice through a cheese cloth or a fine strainer. Serve cool