Hi Firas :)

There's a UK/US difference here. In the UK, what we call cider is always alcoholic, but in the US, I think "apple cider" is (as I understand it) cloudy apple juice, i.e. squeezed apples.

Here (UK), I sometimes do mulled (i.e. hot spiced) apple juice; I use the clear kind, but I can imagine using the cloudy kind. I do it as a non-alcoholic alternative to mulled wine.

For spices, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves are traditional, and I've heard of cardamom and lemon-grass as more exotic alternatives.

Yes, altolinguistic has described it perfectly: in the US, cider is a tangy, often slightly cloudy drink made from pressing apples. It's delicious ice-cold, but warm cider is delicious in cold weather. Add whole spices, not ground ones, and you can also add strips of citrus zest or whole slices of orange. (I also like to spike non-alcoholic mulled cider with a shot of applejack, but that's totally optional.)

Tell me, UK folks: is it customary to mull hard cider? I'm trying to think how that would even work... but I'm going to have a bottle of cider for our at-home Christmas and I probably won't finish it all, so mulling would be a good treatment for the leftovers if it's not completely crazy to think of.

Well, hey, lookit that: I went over to Serious Eats and saw this: Five tips to brewing better mulled cider.

Okay cool! Man you will not believe how confusing I found this from both asking people and googling I guess cause we're talking about at least three things here, the boxed kind of apple juice vs. apple juice with pulp vs. fermented cider

I first tried warming up boxed apple juice and that didn't taste right at all

So a couple days later, today, I tried from actual apple(s) juiced with a machine and that tasted better

I was thinking about winter drinks actually cause for the last few months I've stopped being able to chain-drink coffee/tea; now I just have it a couple times a day max. So here's a breakdown I think

DAIRY

* warm milk, hot cocoa, other flavored milk things, (can eggnog be warmed?) etc

TEA & COFFEE

* all types of hot coffee drinks
* the workaday teas, tea with milk, black tea
* fancy herbal teas and flavoured teas and infusions and what-have-you

FRUITS & VEGETABLES

* this cider example is one of the things that work
* maybe with vegetables you could make borderline soups etc and drink em

Yeah, in the US I would say that what we call "apple juice" (usually crystal clear -- probably the boxed kind you had) is a nonalcoholic version of what becomes [hard] cider elsewhere. When I was younger, I remember that my mom would buy cloudy apple juice that resembled (US) cider but was still called "juice" -- it often had little pulpy slugs that I thought were gross. But "cider" here in the US doesn't have that.

For a winter drink, you could have something like broth -- chicken or vegetable or whatever.

Have you tried Ovaltine?

Elsa, I've never mulled (alcoholic) cider, but it's got to be worth trying... *has ideas*

I wouldn't warm up eggnog. You can drink it as is or add a shot of bourbon, spiced rum, etc. I think bourbon is the traditional addition.

In the US, Trader Joes sells a delicious Spiced Cider, which is nice cool, but delicious when warmed. It's murky and spicy and good. They also have other spiced juices this time of year, and the cranberry is better than pear, but apple is still king.

Was drinking mulled hard cider last night. It is delicious.

Exxxxxcellent! I'm primed to try mulling any leftovers from my holiday hard cider. Yum.