Wassail is the English original behind every mulled cider recipe: warmed dry cider, gently spiced with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg, sweetened with brown sugar and served with baked apples floating on top. It has been drunk since at least the Middle Ages, at Twelfth Night and right through the rest of a Christmas season that, historically, ran on for weeks afterwards. Warmed gently rather than boiled, so the spice and the alcohol both survive the pan.
The short version
- What it is: warmed dry cider and sherry, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg, served with baked apples floating on top.
- When it was drunk: Twelfth Night, 5 January, was its noisiest night, but wassail was drunk throughout the wider Christmas season, which in medieval and Tudor England ran on to Candlemas on 2 February, not Twelfth Night. More on that below.
- Two traditions in one drink: a house wassail, carried door to door by carollers, and an orchard wassail, sung to the apple trees to wake them for next year’s harvest.
- Easily made alcohol-free: a good non-alcoholic cider works in the pan exactly as well as the real thing; leave out the sherry.
- Cheap for what it delivers: two bottles of ordinary dry cider and a modest raid on the spice rack fill a room with the smell of proper mulled drink for less than a bottle of shop-bought mulled wine.
What is wassail?
Wassail is warmed dry cider, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg and sweetened with brown sugar or honey, usually lifted with a good slug of sherry and served with baked apples bobbing on top. It is the direct ancestor of mulled cider, and everything sold under that name today is really a version of this older drink.
It is not boiled. A wassail is held at a bare simmer just long enough for the spices to infuse, which keeps both the aroma and the alcohol intact. Boiling drives off the very things that make it worth drinking.
Twelfth Night, and why the Christmas season didn’t actually end there
The word wassail began life as a toast rather than a drink: waes hael, Anglo-Saxon for be well, to which the reply was drink hael, drink well. By the Middle Ages it had come to mean the spiced bowl itself, warmed ale, wine or cider blended with spices and sometimes honey or egg, carried from door to door by wassailers singing for a cup and a coin. Some of that house-visiting custom survives in carol-singing today; listen for the last of it in We Wish You a Merry Christmas, where the carollers demand figgy pudding and refuse to leave until they get it.
The other branch of the custom belongs to the orchard rather than the house. On Twelfth Night, 5 January, or Old Twelvey Night on 17 January in parts of the West Country, where the pre-1752 calendar is still observed, cider-growing regions such as Somerset, Devon and Herefordshire gather to wassail their apple trees: singing, banging pots and pans, and soaking toast in cider to hang in the branches, all to wake the tree spirits and see off anything that might spoil next year’s harvest. A Yorkshire variant called Lamb’s Wool swaps the cider for warm ale and lets the baked apples burst into the liquid, so the pulp floats on top like its namesake fleece.
It is worth being precise about what Twelfth Night actually marked, because the popular idea that it was the hard stop of the Christmas season does not hold up. The twelve days themselves are genuinely ancient: the Council of Tours declared the period between Christmas and Epiphany a single sacred, festive season as early as 567, which is where Twelfth Night and the modern “twelve days of Christmas” both come from. But in medieval and Tudor England, decorations and festivities were not swept away on Twelfth Night. Houses stayed dressed with holly, ivy and rosemary until Candlemas, 2 February, forty days after Christmas Day, which was the season’s real, official close. The 17th-century poet Robert Herrick describes the true moment for taking the greenery down in his poem Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve, not Twelfth Night. English Heritage’s own senior properties historian, Dr Michael Carter, has put it plainly: the notion that it is bad luck to keep decorations up after Twelfth Night is, in his words, “a modern invention”. Twelfth Night was always the noisiest night of the twelve, the traditional climax of feasting, games and a Lord of Misrule, and a natural night for a bowl of wassail, but it was a high point within a longer season rather than its final curtain.
Twelfth Night was the noisiest night of England’s old Christmas, not its last one. Historically, the season, and the wassail bowl with it, ran on to Candlemas in February.
How to make wassail
In short: bake apples with a little brown sugar until they are soft and bursting, warm dry cider and sherry with the spices at a bare simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, then serve the two together in a punch bowl or straight into mugs. It takes about an hour, most of it unattended, and easily scales up for a crowd.
Traditional wassail (serves 8)
Hands-on 20 minutes · cook about 40 minutes · roughly 8 mugs
For the baked apples
- 4–6 small eating apples, cored
- 4 tbsp soft brown sugar, for filling the apples
For the wassail
- 2 litres dry cider, a good farmhouse cider, or a good alcohol-free cider works just as well
- 300ml sherry, medium or cream; leave out entirely for a non-alcoholic wassail
- 1 orange, studded with 6 whole cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp ground ginger, or a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, sliced
- ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
- 100g soft brown sugar or honey, to taste
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/gas mark 6. Core the apples and stand them in a small baking dish, filling each cavity with a spoonful of brown sugar. Add a splash of water to the dish and bake for 30–40 minutes, until soft and just beginning to burst.
- Meanwhile, pour the cider and sherry into a large saucepan. Stud the orange with the cloves and add it to the pan along with the cinnamon sticks, ginger and nutmeg.
- Warm the pan gently over low heat, stirring in the brown sugar or honey to taste. Bring to a bare simmer and hold it there for 15–20 minutes, letting the spices infuse; do not let it boil, or you will lose both the aroma and the alcohol.
- Ladle the hot wassail into a large heatproof punch bowl, or straight into mugs, floating the baked apples on top so they bob invitingly.
- Serve immediately in warmed glasses or mugs, spooning a little of the baked apple into each.
Alcohol-free wassail
Swap the dry cider for a good non-alcoholic cider and leave out the sherry entirely. The spicing and the baked apples do the real work, and a well-made alcohol-free wassail loses very little against the original.
Variations worth knowing
| Version | What changes | Worth trying if… |
|---|---|---|
| Lamb’s Wool | Warm ale in place of cider; the baked apples are left to burst into the liquid so the pulp floats like fleece | You prefer ale to cider, or you are recreating a Yorkshire version |
| Alcohol-free | Non-alcoholic cider, no sherry | You are serving a dry household or driving guests |
| Egg wassail | A beaten egg or two whisked in at the end for a thicker, eggnog-like drink | You want something closer to a posset than a punch |
Can you make wassail ahead?
Yes, up to a point. The spiced cider base can be warmed through, strained of the orange and spices, and left to cool, then gently reheated (never boiled) when your guests arrive. Bake the apples fresh on the day if you can; they do not hold their texture well once made ahead. Do not try to freeze wassail: the cider separates and the spicing turns flat once thawed.
Wassail troubleshooting
| What happened | Why | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| It tastes thin or flat | Not enough infusing time, or the spices were old | Hold it at a bare simmer for the full 15–20 minutes and use spices that still smell strong |
| The alcohol has cooked off | It boiled rather than simmered | Keep the heat low; you want the surface barely moving, not bubbling |
| The apples turned to mush | Overbaked, or a soft variety | Use firmer eating apples and check them from 30 minutes |
| Too sweet or too sharp | Cider and sherry vary a good deal in sweetness | Add the sugar or honey gradually and taste as you go |
How to serve wassail
Serve it hot, in a punch bowl for guests to ladle themselves or straight into warmed mugs, with a baked apple and a spoon in each. It suits a Twelfth Night gathering, a bonfire in the garden, or simply the last evening of the decorations being up, whenever you choose to take yours down, and it fills a room with a better smell than any candle.
If you are building out a festive drinks table, wassail sits naturally alongside our Christmas cocktails and mulled wine and makes a good non-alcoholic option next to our festive Baileys cocktails.
Wassail FAQ
Did the Christmas season really end on Twelfth Night?
Not historically, no. Twelfth Night (5 or 6 January) marks the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, a festive period dating back to the Council of Tours in 567. But in medieval and Tudor England the wider Christmas season, decorations included, ran on to Candlemas on 2 February. English Heritage has described the now-common idea that it is unlucky to keep decorations up after Twelfth Night as a comparatively modern invention.
What is wassail made of?
Dry cider and sherry, warmed gently with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg, sweetened with brown sugar or honey and served with baked apples floating on top.
Is wassail the same as mulled cider?
Essentially, yes. Wassail is the older English name for the same idea; most things sold as mulled cider today are a simplified version of it.
Can you make wassail without alcohol?
Yes. A good alcohol-free cider works in the pan exactly as well as the real thing, and leaving out the sherry loses very little.
What is wassailing?
A separate but related custom in cider-growing regions such as Somerset, Devon and Herefordshire, where people gather at apple orchards to sing, bang pots and pans, and hang cider-soaked toast in the branches to wake the trees for next year’s harvest.
When do you drink wassail?
Traditionally at Twelfth Night, 5 January, the noisiest point of the twelve days of Christmas, though historically it was drunk right through the wider festive season and it suits any cold-weather gathering.
Can you make wassail ahead and reheat it?
Yes, the spiced cider base reheats well over gentle heat; just do not let it boil. Bake the apples fresh on the day for the best texture.
Sources
- Dr Michael Carter, Senior Properties Historian, English Heritage, quoted in ‘Leave your Christmas decorations up until February, says English Heritage’, English Heritage press release, 5 January 2021
- ‘Twelfth Night: The Festive Finale of Christmastide’, Weald & Downland Living Museum
- ‘Candlemas: The Light of a New Year’, Weald & Downland Living Museum
- Claire Ridgway, ‘Christmas Decorations, Twelfth Night and Candlemas’, The Tudor Society, quoting Robert Herrick’s ‘Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve’ (17th century)
- ‘Twelfth Night (holiday)’, Wikipedia, for the Council of Tours (567) dating of the Twelve Days of Christmas and the West Country ‘Old Twelvey Night’ custom
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Written by Linda Garrould. Last updated 16 August 2026.
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