This is my favorite holiday drink. It is warm and tastes like hot apple pie minus the ice cream, but with rum. When choosing the apple cider, go for a local or organic cider (they are often in glass bottles). They seem to be much more authentic and flavorful. We mull the apple cider with whole spices — cloves, cinnamon and star anise are a must, but adding other warm baking spices are always a good idea. You can make this in a crock pot, but we find a saucepan on the stove works just fine since we don’t mull the cider for very long. By the way, it’s important to measure the rum. You barely taste the rum, even if you add more than what we suggest below. I’m telling you this from experience, the rum builds people ? Recipe updated, originally posted December 2010. Since posting this in 2010, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne 2 whole star anise 3 whole cloves 4 1/2 cups apple cider or unfiltered apple juice 1 small orange, sliced 1 quarter-size slice fresh ginger 3/4 cup spiced rum 2Remove the pan from the heat and stir in rum. Pick out the spices orange slices, and ginger then divide between four mugs.
