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Lately though I have been using the non-alcoholic stuff from IKEA and mixing it with pure grain alcohol so it has a punch. It works out well.

Seriously, does anyone actually drink grain alcohol? If so, what does it taste like? I'm guessing rocket fuel.

On the other hand, imsscott, I am a big fan of glogg, when made with red wine.

Actually, real glogg is supposed to have both wine and Aquavit, a flavored vodka.

1 T broken cinnamon bark

By the way, (I'll risk stating the obvious here) this is a recipe where you want to use something generic for both the red wine and the brandy components. Anything nice will be wasted once combined with the spices, raisins, and sugar.

This Christmas, one of the things people are sure to miss most about Hans Gotling is his famous glogg, the warm traditional Swedish drink he made of port wine, cinnamon, cloves and other ingredients.

Mr. Gotling, 77, died Monday, Dec. 4, at Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, said his wife, Carol Gotling.
...

Mr. Gotling, a bar owner of 30 years and a fixture in the Andersonville community, created his own brand of the drink, Mr. Hans' Andersonville Glogg. Friends and family say that among his happiest times were selling his bottled glogg to customers, some who drove from as far as Minnesota for his homemade recipe.

...

Mr. Gotling opened his bar, Clark Fosters Liquor, in the mid-1950s and kept it open for more than 30 years, drawing neighborhood crowds and various elements of the Chicago political machine, according to family and friends.

"Hans knew everybody in the neighborhood," said Mike Roper, who bought the establishment from Mr. Gotling in the early '90s and renamed it Hopleaf Bar. "His bar was a big deal. It was from an era when all the tavern owners lived above their stores, and bars had multi-generation family owners."

...

"It was the way neighborhood bars used to be," she said. "Never any trouble, just one big, happy family," she said.

Mr. Gotling arrived in the United States as a teenager from Sweden in 1946, landing in New York en route to Chicago, where an aunt and uncle lived.

"He originally came here thinking he would only come for a year, but he loved America, he loved the U.S., and he loved the opportunities that were afforded people here," Carol Gotling said. He loved it so much, in fact, it was about "six years until he made it back to his native Sweden," she said.

Those who knew him remember his humorous stories, positive attitude and persistence. Family members recalled his stories about his first two weeks in the U.S.

"He ate nothing but eggs and ham the whole time he was in New York, because those were the only words he knew how to say in English," said his son Glenn.

...

His tavern also catered to the local Swedish population, serving its beloved holiday drink. For a long time, Mr. Gotling made his Christmas concoction in his apartment and sold it in his bar, Roper said.

His wife remembers when he decided to sell it commercially. "It was so popular, and so many people came there for it, he eventually decided to go commercial with it."

Mr. Gotling linked up with a Midwest distributor. Eventually, he sold the brand and recipe to a company in Minnesota, his wife said.

"The thing is that his boys and I always talk about is that there are people who simply live life and those who experience it--he definitely experienced it," Carol Gotling said.

...

Hmmm... As the site's self-proclaimed Swedish resident, I've just got to chime in here!



Aquavit, aka "brännvin" in Swedish, is actually unflavored vodka. As to why it's not simply labelled "vodka", the only answer I can find is that it's usually less proof (between 35-37%) and doesn't have the same purity requirements as Swedish vodka. There are a number of "snaps" (snaps actually being the correct Swedish term for flavored brännvin) that have the word "aquavit" in their name ("Skåne aquavit", "Herrgårds aquavit") which perhaps only adds to the confusion...

"..

Actually, real glogg is supposed to have both wine and Aquavit, a flavored vodka.