077 – Sangria

A 2022 exploration of the ‘Sangria’.

What started as a Covid activity (during the 105-day Sydney lock-down of 2021), is now a continuing journey through the cocktail’s of the past. This time the famous ‘Sangria’.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ #Locktail the Sangria – party punch meets weekend cocktail.

METHOD – PREPARATION – Dice (into under 1cm cubes) a 240-gram selection of seasonal fruit and berries (traditionally apples, stone-fruit and berries, although also citrus and tropical fruits in some recipes). I have selected 60gm each of plum (or peach), pear, blackberries and raspberries. Soak the diced fruit in 180ml of fresh orange juice (or other citrus – I prefer Ruby Grapefruit) and 90ml of Brandy (or Cognac) and 30-60gm of Brown Sugar (or similar to taste) for around 2-to-4 hours and then chill until cold.

PUNCH – Add the prepared mulled fruit (including the sugar, juice and Brandy) into a punch bowl with around 250ml (grams) of ice (1-Cup) or more if the weather is very warm and then add a chilled bottle (750ml) of Spanish or Portuguese Red Wine (usually Tempranillo, Garancha or Rioja – although some people prefer white, rose or other lighter wines). Stir lightly.

SERVE – Transfer into wine, double-rocks or punch glassware, traditionally with a serve of the ice and fruit, although it can be strained if that is your preference.

HISTORICAL NOTES – The ‘Sangria’ has been around for over 2,000 years, potentially even 5,000-years before that in China, if your imagination suggests that the Chinese may have added fruit and spices to their early wine-making traditions. The Romans are recorded enjoying wine-based punch (called Hippocras), using Spanish wines from before 200 B.C. in the same style as a contemporary Sangria. Sangria, which translates as ‘blood-letting’ was a way of adding spoiling seasonal fruit to wine and spices and making a longer-lasting beverage come fruit-salad. The Spanish wine tradition ended in around the year 711 when the peninsula fell to the Islamic Moors. We think the 13-year US Prohibition was a long period of abstinence, but for Spain it lasted over 700-years until broad-scale wine-making returned in the late 15th Century. Somehow Sangria also survived this 30-generation hiatus.

Later it spread through Europe including the use of French and Italian wines, including the evolution of warm mulled-wines and in the 1700’s, Sangria recipes recounted in Jane Austen novels included added ‘bite’ with the addition of Brandy to the mix. The drink even made it into the West Indies and Caribbean, where Spanish seafarers made a drink with red wine or port called Sangaree in the 18th Century.

Today under European Law, Sangria must be made in Spain or Portugal (the wine at least) and be under 12-percent alcohol (ABV). That is just addressed if you add 90ml Cognac (40% ABV), with 180ml Citrus Juice, Ice and the Rioja (at around 13.5% ABV), as long as you wait for the ice to melt. So you won’t be able to sell this drink, without falling fowl of the 1991 EU regulation No. 1601/91.

The reason I have included the Sangria here, in the 1960’s cocktails is two-fold. Firstly, I didn’t start with any exploration earlier than the 1800’s and secondly, the Sangria appeared in the USA in 1964 at the New York World’s Fair. Following this introduction, it rapidly became a popular picnic, summer and party drink across the USA. Although technically a ‘punch’ rather than a ‘cocktail’, it has stayed in the contemporary drinks list around the world since this period of time and has strong connections to the ups-and-downs of modern cocktail culture.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – There is listing of Sangria by the International Bartender Association, as it is more punch than cocktail, although with recipes that include Brandy or Cognac it steps into that grey area in-between. The EU stipulate that the product must be made in Spain or Portugal and for that reason, a mix should use Spanish or Portuguese wine product. Beyond that, citrus juice, fruit and spices are basically a personal choice. The basic rule is chilled wine, citrus (usually orange) juice, sweetener, fruit pieces and the option of Brandy or other spirits or liqueurs.

TASTING NOTES – My first experience of Sangria was in the 1990’s in an authentic Spanish Tapas Restaurant in Melbourne, Australia. It was a hot Summer day, and the large jug was deep blood-red in colour, full of beautifully macerated and infused seasonal fruit and so icy-cold that condensed water was running down the outside and along the table – it was divine. My experience may only be 30-years old, but I can’t abide a Sangria that isn’t rich in colour, my resolve strengthened further by the etymological ‘blood-letting’ discovery. I’ve used true Spanish Rioja, with Jane Austen’s inclusion of Brandy (the end of my Hennessy Cognac bottle), my preference for Ruby Grapefruit over Orange Juice, and the best in-season fruit (plum, pear, blackberries and raspberries). I’m particularly wedded to the Blackberries that meet my aesthetic desire for a blood-like drink (colour not flavour). Plus cold, cold, cold – keep the drink cold and eat the Cognac infused fruit at the end.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – I’ve coupled my recipe changes with the tasting notes above.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is seventh cocktail from the 1961-1970 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. Full list in the index.