Good morning and welcome to Summit Up, the world’s only daily column that wonders why it is we have so many different beverage options at this time of year. Avid readers of Summit Up (all three of you!) will recall we’ve been on our yearly nog rant already several times, but the curious holiday beverage thing doesn’t end there. Here’s just a few things we can think of off the top of our heads that come around this time of year:

> Mulled wine – usually spiced, heated-up red wine that can either be rather tasty or spit-it-out-on-the-floor bad.

> Wassail – some kind of hot, spiced punch. Could be like mulled wine, could be different.

> Glue Wine – We read about this being served at some upcoming even in the county and we were like what the? Who the? Is this wine mixed with Elmer’s or something? Is it wine meant to double as a wallpaper adhesive? And then we discovered it’s actually Glühwein, and that it’s just another name for mulled wine or wassail.

> svarene vîno – same kinda crap, just in the Czech Republic.

So what’s going on here? Is every country doing some kind of spiced wine and passing it off as something special? Yeah, pretty much, according to Wikipedia. Let’s do a little international tour of hot spiced wine:

Poland: grzane wino

Romania: vin fiert

Bulgaria: greyano vino

Moldavia: izvar

Italy: vin brule

Latvia: karstvins

And then it gets a little weirder:

Alabama: pbr-in-a-microwave with tabasco!

Iceland: rudderfinch (hot fish wine)

Saskatchewan: blüberwine (walrus wine)

Of course, there are a few other yuletide beverages to consider:

>Harvey’s Bristol Cream (goes nice with about 100 Chesterfields)

> Cider: Just mooshed-up apples

> Hot cider: Mooshed-up apples, heated up and served in a mug

> etc. etc.

If you know of any particularly interesting holiday drinks, perhaps from “the old country,” let us know at summitup@summitdaily.com.

Of course, if all else fails, a good ol’ six pack of whatever suits you always works just fine.

We out.