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Sangria

Hi guys. I am home sick today and cruising the boob tube. Michael Chiarello just made a sparkling sangria. I made sangria for a party last summer and it was just pathetic. Who has a blow your socks off sangria tip???

15 Comments:

No recipe from me, I'm interested to see what the responses are. I think a lot of junk gets poured under that name. In Barcelona last year, we found that sangria seems to always have a little brandy in it.

@lemons - I hear what you are saying about what passes as sangria, my own attempt included. What did you find memorable about sangria in Barcelona?

What I remember particularly about it is that brandy! It gave the sangria more body, rounding out the flavors nicely. Hilary's pal Maxine's recipe looks pretty significant on that score. I am sure that the absolutely cheapest brandy probably would detract more than it adds, but there are, in Spain at least, some Spanish brandies that I think would be nice, but darned if I recall the names.

Yep, the brandy for sure. Here in Wisconsin, we're serious brandy drinkers, but I've had pretty decent sangrias with even mediocre brands.

The crappy sangrias I've had are ones where people were afraid to add sugar, thinking it would be too sweet. There's no need to go insane with it, but a little sugar rounds out the flavors and makes it much more enjoyable to drink, in my opinion.

I looked at Maxine's post and it does look promising. I don't know that I would look for the cheapest brandy and I will look for a Spanish brandy. Hopefully we will see some additional viewpoints.

Brandy and sugar, no additional viewpoints needed.

@nelson - ;-D

Though I haven't tried it (yet), there's a delicious-sounding/looking recipe for sparkling sangria in Cooking Light this month.

Otherwise, a good Rioja is the way to go for a red sangria, DEFINITELY do not leave out the brandy, and adding a little club soda, ginger ale, or 7up gives it a nice zing.

i loved the sparkling cava sangrias I had when I was in Spain last year. they're my favorites...

I've never been a brandy person, so never in my house we've used brandy to make sangria. But a sangria without a soda, sparkling water or 7UP it's just not a sangria.

Rioja wine or Cava + orange juice + lime juice + sparkling water or lemon/lime soda + sugar + sliced fruit.... that's it!!!

Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking..

I'm not much of a brandy person, either. It was only when I started mentally discarding other possibilities for the rounded flavor that I figured it out. It's sort of like vanilla, the way it pushes other flavors forward.

I took Bobby Flay's recipe from FoodTV.com:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_154,00.html

I get invited to a lot of parties now, that's all I'm going to say.

Instead of brandy + sugar, I use Grand Marnier or Cointreau. Covers the sweetness and the alcohol push one gets from brandy, as well as spiking up the citrus flavor. Cheers!

Personally, it's the quality of the wine that makes a Sangria for me. If I liked the wine by itself, then I'll like it in my sangria, but if I didn't like it by itself, the sangria was bound to be disappointing as well.

Our sangria is always poor man's sangria: orange soda and box wine. It's not half bad!

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