With Thanksgiving on the horizon, many (most!) of us are in planning mode for the biggest meal of the year. And along with the turkey and the trimmings comes another important part of the meal: what to drink.

Instead of the usual suspects—Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, or Chardonnay—I’d like to propose something quick, easy, and economical that serves a crowd and looks lovely on the buffet table to boot: warm wine punch.

In their enticing book Hot Drinks: Cider, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, Spiced Punch, and Spirits (Ten Speed Press, 2007), my friends Mary Lou and Robert Heiss, who run an atmospheric tea, coffee, and kitchenware shop in western Massachusetts and are the authors of several authoritative books on tea, serve up 50 recipes for classics such as Hot Buttered Rum and Spicy Mulled Cider, along with new inspirations such as Hot Wasabi Red Snapper and Pan-Asian Pear William.

In the Welcome Cups and Party Punches chapter, the husband-and-wife team feature 10 recipes including Glögg, a wintertime favorite in Sweden made of red wine, Aquavit, and brandy. Glühwein is another winter warmer featured in this informative and beautifully photographed book. “European punch” includes hard cider, brandy, dark honey, all manner of spices, not to mention citrus slices and twists.

You’ll want to go a’ wassailing when you read the recipe for Wassail, an ale-based punch that Brits drunk on Twelfth Night (January 5), at the end of the Christmas season. According to the recipe’s headnote, “The holiday Wassail bowl is popularly associated with medieval England, but is also part of even earlier Norse and Saxon traditions of celebrating the passage out of the darkest night of winter into a new year.”  Sounds promising.

I’ve included the Heisses’ recipe for Cranberry Claret Cup—a contemporary warm red-wine punch—below. Should you have any left over (highly unlikely), it makes a perfect poaching liquid for fresh pears or a heady foundation for a hot fruit soup.

Cranberry Claret Cup

Serves 12 or more

Ingredients:
1 bottle (750 ml) red Bordeaux wine
4 cups cranberry juice cocktail
1 cup (8 ounces) brandy
1/4 cup granulated sugar
12 whole allspice berries
8 whole cloves
8 thin slices of fresh ginger
2 (5-inch) Ceylon cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
1 lemon cut into 8 wedges

Directions:
1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat and bring to a very low simmer. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Ladle into heatproof punch cups or demitasse cups and serve warm.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Hot Drinks: Cider, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, Spiced Punch, and Spirits. Copyright © 2007 by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss, Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA.

—Braiden Rex-Johnson

Cranberry Claret Cup photo by Marshall Gordon.

Photo of Braiden by Ingrid Pape-Sheldon.