The Ultimate Sangria - week 27 of 52

The Ultimate Sangria

Happy Canada Day everyone! Nothing is more Canadian than celebrating July 1st with a BBQ and friends.

This weekend I went to a couple of BBQs and brought a sangria. The quest for a good sangria came shortly after my birthday weekend. The sangria we had were terrible and watered-down – nothing more than chilled wine with some fruit dropped in as an afterthought. I knew I could make something better! I found this one online and it had excellent reviews and decided to try it.

This was a hit at both parties! This is really the ultimate red wine sangria! The thing that makes this sangria better than most is the fact that you have to let it set overnight with the citrus, the let the flavours blend. This is the big difference versus most restaurant sangria where they just drop the fruit in right before serving. Don’t worry about spending lots on the wine – a $10 bottle of red will do since you’ll be adding to it and changing the flavours.

A couple of things:
- Serve with skewers of fruit or skewers so people can get the wine-soaked fruit at the bottom of their glasses
- I left out gin & triple sec & sugar and the sangria was great
- 1/2 of can of pineapples was enough (1 full can may be too much)
- This is best served ice-cold – LOTS of ice

This Sangria recipe is perfect for big summer parties – bon appétit!




The Ultimate Sangria

$$

Rating (out of 5) *****

Ingredients:
• 1 Bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
• 1 Lemon cut into wedges
• 1 Orange cut into wedges
• 1 Lime cut into wedges
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• Splash of orange juice or lemonade
• 2 Shots of gin or triple sec (optional)
• 1 Cup of raspberries or strawberries (may use thawed or frozen)
• 1 Small can of diced pineapples (with juice)
• 4 Cups ginger ale

Preparation:

Pour wine into a large pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon, orange and lime into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and pineapple then add sugar, orange juice and gin. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale, berries and ice just before serving. If you'd like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice. However, remember that the best Sangrias are chilled around 24 hours in the fridge, allowing the flavors to really marinate into each other.

Cheers!