Sangria Season? How to Make it (Spoiler, There is No Wrong Way)

Mother's Day in the Hudson Valley usually marks the beginnings of all the local Sangria Festivals, with this year (2020) being what it is, there will not be a Sangria Festival taking place this month (unless it is done virtually).

So does this mean that 1). We can kick off Sangria Season, when we want to and 2) How do we make it?

I have always been told making Sangria is like making meatballs or red sauce (also known as gravy, tomato gravy and marinara, depending on where you are from). The similarity is that everyone has a slightly different recipe but in the end they all turn out tasting delicious.

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Think of sangria as a wine based punch, served cold. Where did it originate? It is believed to have originated in Spain. The requirements for it to be a Sangria is just that it has wine, fruit and served chilled, often it also includes some sort of brandy, rum or spirit.

Most of the written recipes I checked out start with a bottle of red wine. The bottle size is a regular 750ml bottle. Cut the fruit that you want to use, oranges are usually the number one fruit in Sangria. Followed by a lemon and say one apple, sliced or cut up.

Put the fruit in the bottom of a serving container. Sprinkle it with 1/2 granulated sugar and then 3/4 of a cup of brandy (or rum). Add 1/4 of triple sec and then let that mixture sit for about 1 hour.

Then add the bottle of red wine. Taste it. Is it sweet enough? If you want it sweeter you can add pineapple juice or white grape juice until you get it where you want it to be sweetness wise. Then put some ice in your pitcher and stir. Then add ice to your glasses and pour, pour, pour.

Have some berries or grapes? You can add those to the sangria as well. Remember, as long as it tastes good to you, then there is no wrong way to make it. Do you have a Sangria recipe that you would like to share with us?

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