Sangria ! My Favorite Cocktail.

One of my all-time favorite cocktails, the Sangria. Sangria is named after the Spanish word for "blood" - "sangre" because of its typical dark-red color. It is usually a summer drink. But then in most parts of India you can have it though the year.


The beauty of the Sangria is that the recipe is very flexible. In the essence of it, it consists of fruit juices and cut fruits with red wine being the most prominent ingredient.


A popular variation is one where you use white wine in place of red; this is called a Clerico (an Argentinian name) or even simply Sangria Blanco.



Let’s talk of my favorite Sangria recipe.

Key ingredients: serves 8-10 glasses
• Apple juice – ½ litre
• Orange juice – ½ litre
• 1 Apple
• 1 Orange
• 2 lemons
• Your favorite medium bodied or light red wine – ½ bottle

Process:
Dice the apple, I prefer un-peeled ones. Chop the orange in to neat circles. Pour the red wine over the fruits directly and let them soak for a bit (about 5-10 minutes). This makes the fruits zesty when eaten.
Then pour in both the juices and squeeze the two lemons fully in to the mix. Stir this in and add ice to serve chilled.
For garnishing you can add a few mint leaves. If you like your cocktails a little on the sweeter side then you can also add in some lime cordial, in this case use only one lemon.

That’s it, simple as that to make and serve.

More on the wine:

My preference is to use a wine which is lighter in body for this cocktail, full-bodied wine will tend to overpower in the combination. I would recommend a Shiraz or a Merlot for this; if you can lay your hands on a Beaujolais it will make the taste really nice. Since we don’t have locally made Beaujolais in the country they tend to be a little steep on the wallet which makes it difficult to use as a cocktail ingredient.

I would mostly suggest using the Vindiva or Big Banyan Shiraz, if you can grab a Grover’s Art Collection Shiraz that would also go down very well.

One variation to this basic sangria which I quite like is where you replace the red wine with a pink one. There are some excellent Rose’ wines available in the market, notably Grover’s Shiraz Rose’ and the Sante’ Rose. Just replace the red wine with this one. The taste perks up quite a bit.

If you are looking for a lively evening of music and drinks I would expressly recommend the sangria with a rose. To make it even more fun, you could secretly add in some Gin - 250 ml should make it a rocking party. Let’s christen this variation of the Spanish sangria with a desi name shall we, how about the Khooni Gulab. (promise a later post on Pink Wines).

To make it more summery you can always add strawberries, chop them in to half and make sure there are enough to be seen throughout the jug of Sangria. Gives a very good summery effect.

Personally I am not in favor of cucumbers in there, but hey, its a free world, add them if you feel compelled to.

In case you have any variations that you are really fond of then do send them across to me, will definitely feature them here or you can just add them in to the comments below.

Recently had this one at TLR in Hauz Khas, Delhi - cucumber was an ingredient in this one - not sure I agreed with it at all