Sangria
This original recipe calls for a hearty amount of rum, either white or spiced. I recommend you start with half the rum specified and add more to taste. You can use almost any fruit in your Sangria. Have fun creating your signature blend!
This original recipe calls for a hearty amount of rum, either white or spiced. I recommend you start with half the rum specified and add more to taste. You can use almost any fruit in your Sangria. Have fun creating your signature blend!
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups orange juice
- 2 oranges, sliced
- 2 fresh pears diced
- 1 14-oz. can dark pitted cherries--tart
- 3 cups rum spiced or white (option: start with half and add to taste)
- 2 bottles red wine (spanish tempranillo, california red zinfandel, or australian sh
- 2 cans club soda or 7-up (optional)
- 2 apples, diced
- Carbohydrate 21.1542138388107 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.229107500105333 g
- Fiber 2.618149197347 g
- Protein 1.00943775036867 g
- Saturated Fat 0.0310753916793067 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (381g)
- Sodium 4671.18953836875 mg
- Sugar 18.5360646414637 g
- Trans Fat 0.103376500052667 g
- Calories 285 calories
Step-by-step
- In a large glass pitcher or container, mix the rum, wine, and orange juice.
- Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Next, add the fruit and refrigerate for at least two hours; preferably overnight.
- Serve over ice and garnish glass with half-slice of fruit.
- For a lighter, sparkling version, top off your Sangria with club soda or 7-Up just before serving.
Most people treat pitcher drinks as a catch-all for wilting produce, dumping everything in without considering how moisture barriers affect flavor extraction. Fresh pears and apples release cellular water rapidly when submerged in alcohol, diluting the base mixture if not properly managed. Preserved items like canned tart cherries contribute concentrated acidity and immediate color saturation without requiring structural breakdown time. Combining both sources requires understanding how sugar dissolves in cold liquids; stirring granular sugar directly into chilled wine leaves undissolved sediment at the base of the glass container. Dissolve the sugar in the citrus juice before adding any alcohol, since ethanol slows down sucrose solubility by roughly twenty percent.
Balancing Freshness and Preservation
Fresh citrus slices add essential aromatic oils from their peel, but leaving white pith attached introduces bitter compounds during extended refrigeration. Slice oranges thinly and remove the white pith entirely if the mixture sits longer than four hours. Canned cherries provide a reliable shortcut, yet their canning liquid contains heavy sugars that can overpower dry Spanish Tempranillo if poured directly into the pitcher without draining. Rinse canned fruit briefly under cold water to control the sweetness level before combining it with crisp diced apples and firm pears.Scaling and Rest Periods
Batch scaling requires careful adjustment of high-proof spirits, because alcohol does not evaporate when chilled and will taste increasingly sharp over time. Halving the spirit volume initially prevents the rum from completely masking the fruit notes during the mandatory two-hour resting phase at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Doubling the entire batch means extending the maceration window to twelve hours to allow the dense flesh of apples and pears to fully absorb the wine. Top individual glasses with chilled club soda at a one-to-four ratio just prior to serving to preserve carbonation.
