Avoid powdered spices, they tend to make a mess & are impossible to remove without filtration, tho you might make a sort of teabag. I always use whole, cracked or sliced spices & put them in a hopsack with a couple sanitized marbles to weigh 'em down.
My fav spice to use in graf is caraway seed. Might sound odd, but for my tastes, caraway makes the apple just POP. I've been meaning to try a little fennel to see if it works with graf, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I did a taste test with caraway & fennel mixed & it turned out tasting like a nasty anise.
Cinnamon sticks work, allspice & cloves can be good, but a little goes a long way in mead/cyser. Ginger works OK in apfelwein, why not graf? A hint of vanilla might work, but use a vanilla bean (split & scraped) instead of extract, it's easier to control the results.
I've got 2 batches with molasses that I need to bottle, last tasting there was little or no molasses flavour, so I may need to increase the amounts. A little orange zest might be interesting. I can see where lemon grass might add a little zing without adding acid, but I've never used it.
That's my 2 cents worth, hope it helps.
Regards, GF.
