Summer. Sangria. They go hand-in-hand. A cooling mix of wine, fruit, and some liquor really hits the spot on a hot day. When we lived in Washington DC we’d enjoy some sangria and tapas at a great Spanish restaurant, Taberna del Alabardero. With the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup I found myself fondly remembering the Spanish restaurant, the World Cup, and our wedding, and decided to make some sangria using an old Wall Street Journal article about Taberna’s.
Every four years around this time, in pretty much the rest of the world, everything stops for the month-long soccer (or football) tournament: the World Cup. Cheryl and I are passionate soccer fans and it’s something which has occupied a large amount of our time together especially since we met each other playing on a co-ed soccer team back in DC. And though we didn’t intend to, we even got married during the World Cup four years ago, so this year’s World Cup marks 4 blissful years of marriage for us. Yup we mark our time together by soccer. For example, we’ve watched two European championships (also a quadrennial competition) and now two World Cups in our time together. As you can see, soccer an important part of our lives.
During wedding week back in 2010, our families gathered in DC on the opening day of the World Cup and we ended up having an impromptu Happy Hour at Taberna where they have a half-price tapas happy hour. It was nice to be able to spend time with everyone and mingle without having to deal with the wedding responsibilities. Good food, good drink, good company. Anyway, that pre-wedding World Cup happy hour is a fond memory for me, thus the reason I wanted to make some this week.
Taberna’s sangria is really good and I suspect the WSJ tinkered with the recipe. Still, it makes a very refreshing drink. Of course, being a tinkerer myself I’ve made my own slight changes to the WSJ one. First, I upped the amounts of liquor. I did this not because I wanted more alcohol but because there’s a pretty good amount of fruit used which can soak it up so there’s not too much danger of making it too boozy. Second, I increased the amount of OJ and lemon soda, which also helps the sangria stand up to a few more ounces of alcohol. Also, instead of Spanish brandy I used some Calvados. Because I just don’t have Spanish brandy. I think it makes sense too since the liquor now matches the fruit in the sangria.
Sangria (adapted from WSJ which adapted from Taberna del Alabardero so no idea how close it actually is at this point)
- 1 bottle Spanish wine (grenache)
- 3 oz Calvados
- 3 oz Cointreau
- 3 oz peach liqueur
- 1 peach, ½-1 green apple (depending on the size of it), and 1 orange, all peeled and diced
- 1 pinch cinnamon
- 6 oz orange juice
- 8oz San Pellegrino Limonata (or Sprite or 7UP)
Cut up all of the fruit and place in a large pitcher. Add the Calvados, Cointreau, and peach liqueur (you’ve got that bottle of peach schnapps sitting around for all those fuzzy navels you make right?)
Let the fruit soak in the liquors for the day.
Add the wine, cinnamon, OJ and San Pellegrino and stir to mix. Add ice to glasses and pour!
The Roaming GastroGnome 