Nasty mulled wine tricks uncovered in Austria

Icy temperatures and a warm mulled wine in your hand are part of a visit to the Christmas market. However, the prices are not entirely fair.

Munich/Vienna – Those who go to the Christmas market this year will probably be in for a shock when the prices are high. You sometimes pay four euros for the mulled wine, “special” mixtures or even the extra shot can even increase the price to seven or eight euros. The Austrian Christmas markets have also become more expensive. Even cheekier: A test revealed that the mulled wine stands cheat when serving.

Christmas market: Nasty mulled wine tricks uncovered in Austria

Two cups of mulled wine for 24 euros. At the price everything falls out of your face. How much did it cost in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna? oe24.at reported. The price also includes the deposit, which is noisy oe24.at costs four or five euros at some stands. In some cases, customers even have to pay up to seven euros. The testers were not only dissatisfied with the price, but also with the quantity. Only two-thirds of the cup was filled with the drink. The rest was just foam. When asked at the bar, it was said that the tap was probably defective, which caused the mulled wine to foam.

The cheapest mulled wine in front of Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral was EUR 4.90. For this you usually get 250 ml and have to pay an additional five euros for the deposit. When the testers poured the mulled wine into a measuring cup, it turned out that only 220 ml was poured into the first cup, i.e. 12 percent too little. The second cup only contained 200 ml, which is 20 percent too little.

Survey: Do you drink mulled wine despite the high prices?

Christmas market stalls: mulled wine is diluted with water

An insider also reported that many would buy the punch ready-made in canisters. “You can add 1 liter of water to every 10 liters – hardly anyone notices that,” says the insider. The punch should cost 10 to 25 cents in production, as the gastro expert explained. The stands would thus generate up to 1,860 percent of sales.

The stallholders at the Christmas market are not spared from high energy prices either, meaning that they too have to pay higher bills. In addition, the losses from the last two Corona years could play a role in the high prices. Some Christmas markets were also canceled last year due to the corona virus.

The price at the stands rose by up to 12.5 percent. And Germany is not spared from the price increase for mulled wine. A study revealed that prices at the Christmas markets have increased by up to 60 percent. (vk)