Hot Spiced Cider

What a gorgeous fall weekend. Fresh snow dusted the mountains, and colorful leaves blanketed the ground. It's the kind of weather that inspires you to wrap a scarf around your neck when you head out into the crisp, cold air. It's also the time of year that a hot, spicy beverage like Hot Spiced Cider feels calming and cozy.

I highly recommend using a high-quality juice as your base. This organic Knudsen variety was cloudy with sediment on the bottom--the closest in liquid you can probably come to the fruit form. I also used organic orange and lemon.

The spicing is simple--whole cloves, cardamom seed and allspice seed. I forget allspice is a seed all its own--a berry, in fact, from a tree grown in warm climates--and not a mixture of pumpkin pie spices as the English thought back in the 1600s when they named it).

Simmered with citrus, the cider is at once stimulating and soothing.

Drink up!