Rosé Sangria

Serves: 4 (optimistically) or 1 if you’re me

6 oz raspberries
6 oz strawberries
4 oz watermelon
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 50ml bottle raspberry liqueur
1 50ml bottle watermelon and rose infused vodka
1 bottle rosé wine
Seltzer to top

Quarter strawberries and cube watermelon so all the fruit is approximately the same size.
In a pitcher, combine fruit, salt, sugar, and liqueurs. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Add bottle of rosé. Stir and let sit in the fridge for at least an hour, but ideally overnight.
Serve in wine glasses over ice, topped with seltzer.

TTA (Tips, tricks, and alternatives)

You almost can’t mess up a sangria: combine wine, fruit, sweetener, liquor and serve over ice (or not) topped with something bubbly (or not). But if you’re looking for the perfect sangria, here are some things I’ve learned after years of intense research.

First off, I almost universally prefer a red wine sangria, so if you do too, you can trust me when I say, this rosé sangria is dope. It’s very refreshing and it deserves a chance.

The longer you let the fruit, sugar, liquor mixture sit, the boozier your fruit will be when you inevitably shake it into your face from the bottom of the glass after the wine is gone. You could skip the salt in this step, but I find it helps to draw the juices out of the fruit so they contribute extra flavor to your sangria.

Tragically, the key to good sangria is patience. The longer you let the mixture sit once you’ve added the wine, the better it will be. You can drink it right away, but it tastes like a wine and fruit cocktail – which is certainly not terrible – but if you can manage to let it stew overnight, that’s when it really tastes like sangria.

You can use cheap wine that you wouldn’t drink on it’s own, but I’d recommend upping the other ingredients to compensate.

The smaller you cut the fruit, the easier it is to drink. The larger you cut the fruit, the lazier you can be with prep. Don’t worry, you can always fish it out with a fork or spoon.

Experiment with the extra liqueurs. For this recipe I just tried out a couple of those airplane size bottles you can get at the liquor store, but you can use whatever you might have in your house already. Some of my favorite pairings are brandy for traditional red sangria, rum with citrus fruits and mint for white wine mojito sangria, and vodka for sangria that you don’t want to remember in the morning. Experiment with all the ingredients to find your favorite combo!

Don’t want to water down your sangria? Me neither. Instead of ice cubes, try freezing some extra fruit or fruit juice to throw into your glasses. Instead of seltzer, top your sangria with sparkling wine.

Story time

It seems only fitting that I should start my food blog with one of my favorite food categories: alcohol! To me, sangria is the quintessential summertime sipper (up there with the mojito, margarita, and just straight up rosé). And oh man… do I have sangria stories.

Do you know which fruit holds its alcohol the best? Well, I do. Okay, I haven’t tried every fruit in the world, but I did do a highly scientific experiment a few years ago on the 4th of July.

I had some friends over to celebrate the good old USA (where I was residing for graduate school) by BBQing various food substances and drinking on the patio. In preparation, I made both a red and a white sangria. Fast forward several hours and a few glasses of sangria later, a couple of friends and I started fishing the fruits out of the bottom of the sangria pitchers trying to determine which ones were the booziest. I’m pretty sure there were oranges, lemons, apples, and pears in the mix, and although I’m sure I’m forgetting some, what I’m not forgetting is the winner of the boozy badge of honor: PLUMS!

Did you see that one coming? Because I did not.