How to Make Sangria Using What's on Hand
From the Spanish word for blood, "sangre," comes the delightful wine punch known as sangria. Sangria is ridiculously easy to make and can be adapted to the ingredients you have on hand. The hardest part is deciding which kind of sangria to make. Sangria also lets you stretch your beverage dollar, as a wine cocktail costs much less than other cocktails. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Pitcher
- 1 bottle of wine
- 2 to 3 cups fruit juice or sparkling water
- 2 cups fresh or frozen fruit
- 1/4 cup liquor
- Ice
- Fruit slices
Instructions
-
-
1
Start with any kind of wine you like -- cheap wine, fine wine, sparkling wine, dessert wine, red wine, white wine -- it all tastes fabulous in sangria. Pour wine into a pitcher.
-
2
Add roughly half the equivalent quantity of other liquids for each bottle of wine you use. These liquids can be sparkling water, fruit juice, sweetened sodas like ginger ale, lemonade or a combination of these.
-
-
3
Add about 2 cups of fresh or frozen fruit per bottle of wine. Use fruit that looks pretty floating in the sangria like peaches, strawberries, pineapple and blueberries.
-
4
Add a kicker, if you like, in the form of 1/4 cup of liquor per bottle of wine. This could be brandy, cognac or a flavored liquor. Rum and vodka also work wonderfully. This step is optional.
-
5
Taste the pre-chilled sangria to see if it's sweet enough. If not, you may want to add a bit of simple syrup. Mix one part sugar with one part hot water to make simple syrup. Use simple syrup as a sweetener to ensure you do not have crunchy sugar crystals in your sangria.
-
6
Cover the pitcher and let the sangria rest in a refrigerator for at least two hours. This lets the flavors mingle before you serve the sangria. Chilling means you won't have to add much ice. Ice will dilute and change the proportions of your sangria.
-
7
Garnish before serving with a few slices of fresh fruit and ice, if desired. Citrus slices, strawberries and pineapple slices make lovely garnishes for sangria.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Don't forget the option of using champagne in sangria.
To avoid diluting your sangria, you can freeze the juice or sparkling water you use in Step 2 by pouring it into ice cube trays and letting it harden. Use these cubes of frozen juice instead of liquid.
You can add a bit of spice by squeezing some grated ginger into your sangria or float peeled, thinly sliced ginger in the sangria. Ginger works better with white wine sangria than red wine sangria.
Do not add granulated sugar to any cold drink. You will get crunchy bits that are disconcerting to your guests. Simply mix sugar with at least an equal amount of water, and then microwave lightly until the sugar dissolves (should take around a minute, depending on how much sugar you use). Add the simple sugar to your beverage before chilling. However, if you are using sweet fruit, sweet fruit juice and sweet liquor in your sangria, try making the sangria without added sugar--you may be delightfully surprised.
References
- Photo Credit Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images
