Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Caribou
Quebec's Winter Carnival warmer: red wine fortified with whisky or brandy and sweetened with maple syrup, served warm or chilled.
Québécois · easy · serves 6
prep 5 min · cook 10 min
~268 cal · 0g protein · 24g carbs · 0g fat · 1g fiber · 19g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Caribou is the iconic drink of the Carnaval de Québec, the warming, potent punch French Canadians sip to take on the deep cold of a Quebec winter. Legend ties its name to a rough mixture of whisky and caribou blood said to have been drunk by hunters and fur traders in the seventeenth century; the modern drink keeps only the idea of a fortifying winter warmer.
At its simplest, caribou blends red wine with a strong spirit, rye whisky or brandy, sweetened with pure maple syrup, Quebec's own sugar. It sits close to a mulled wine but trades the baking spices for peppery whisky and swaps sugar for maple, and it can be served either warm from a saucepan or stirred cold over ice. Some versions lean on fortified wines like port and sherry instead.
Robust, rich, and dangerously easy in the cold, caribou is poured into ice glasses and sipping tubes on the Plains of Abraham during Carnaval. A spiced grape-juice version keeps the warmth without the alcohol.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 bottle dry red wine
1 cup rye whisky or brandy
1/2 cup, or to taste pure maple syrup
from 1 orange orange peel
1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
1
Warm the red wine gently in a saucepan with the orange peel and cinnamon stick, without letting it boil.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep it below a simmer; boiling drives off the alcohol and the aromatics you want to keep. For the cold version, simply stir everything over ice.
2
Stir in the maple syrup until dissolved, tasting for sweetness.
3
Take off the heat and stir in the whisky or brandy.
4
Strain out the peel and cinnamon and serve warm in mugs, or chill and serve over ice.
Carnaval de Québec tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Québec. Poutine is late and disputed. It came out of Centre-du-Quebec snack bars in the late 1950s, with rival claims from Warwick and Drummondville and no consensus between them, so nobody here gets to be handed the invention. What is agreed is the construction: hot chips, fresh cheese curds that must squeak, and gravy poured over to warm the curds without melting them.
🗺️
Canada. Quebec produced about seventy-two per cent of the world's maple syrup in 2024, and the province's producers run a strategic reserve, storing syrup in good years to steady prices and supply in bad ones. Sap runs only when nights freeze and days thaw, which makes the season a few weeks long and different every year.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Canada
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Caribou?
Quebec's Winter Carnival warmer: red wine fortified with whisky or brandy and sweetened with maple syrup, served warm or chilled.
Where does Caribou come from?
Caribou is a Québécois dish from Québec, Canada.
Can Caribou be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Caribou recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Caribou safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Caribou take to make?
About 15 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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