Sangria, frozen and rocks

Photo by Katie Kay

Red wine is an essential part of life, and Sangria is the best way to enjoy it in the summer!  We love to sit outside on Sunday evenings (and Saturday evenings, and Friday evenings, and sometimes Tuesdays, okay Wednesdays, too...) and sip fun drinks while we watch the kids swing, ride bikes, or invent paint by mixing water with chalk dust by the pound and destroying our driveway.

Part 1: Frozen

At my sister's Bachelorette Party we went to a winery called Dry Comal Creek in the Texas Hill Country and discovered a fantastic Frozen Sangria.  The best I've ever had.  Amazingly enough, they shared the recipe with us!  They recommend using 1 bottle of their Foot Pressed Red, but I believe in doubling the wine content and cutting the price in half, so I use whatever cheap 1.5L bottle of Cabernet I find for under $10.  Really, you can't taste the quality of the wine anyway.  In fact, I've dumped in already opened, week-old bottles (and older) before, and couldn't tell the difference.

We've also experimented with adding brandy or port with excellent results.  Just make the recipe as stated below, then add a few glugs of either one!  It's hard to mess this one up.

Frozen Sangria

1 can limeade concentrate, thawed

1 can orange juice concentrate, thawed

1 liter grapefruit soda (Fresca or Squirt)

2 bottles dry red wine

In your largest pot or bowl, blend limeade and orange juice with 2 cans water.  Add wine.  Add soda and stir.  Pour into pitchers (this fills 2 for me) and freeze.  Make sure you leave room for the liquid to expand.  Take out of freezer 20 minutes before serving.  Serve slushy.

Part 2:  Rocks

Photo by Katie Kay

I found 3 recipes I liked for traditional Sangria on ice.  Two were Food Network recipes and the 3rd was Martha Stewart.  I picked this one below because of the simplicity, and because I liked the combination of ingredients.  Plus, I had everything on hand.  Sold! I didn't like the sound of the club soda in the original recipe, and I thought Fresca would taste better.  We did a blind taste test to see which we liked most.  Matt and I could both instantly tell which one was which.  The club soda tasted drier, and the Fresca seemed like it had better depth of flavor and sweetness.  For us, Fresca won by a landslide. Traditional Sangria
2 bottles red wine 1 cup brandy 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice 1/2 cup sugar 2 oranges, sliced into circles 3 limes, sliced into circles 1 apple, diced into 1/2 inch chunks 2 cups cold grapefruit soda In a large pot or bowl, combine wine, brandy, orange juice and sugar.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add sliced and diced fruit, then refrigerate until chilled.  Add soda and serve over ice. Slightly adapted from:  Emeril Lagasse