When I heard that a friend of mine, Jan Boyer, was flying to visit his mother in her native Spain, I asked him to bring me back something from his trip — his mother’s recipe for Sangria. Boyer soon sent me an e-mail from his mom’s house, where a heated debate on the merits of competing recipes had just ended. Also visiting Boyer’s mother was an old friend of hers from Mexico, where sangria is a quite different concoction than it is in Spain. The recipe championed by Jan’s mom was solidly in the Spanish tradition — wine, brandy, assorted sweet fruits, sugar and soda. Her friend insisted on wine, lime and sugar. Who was right? We’ll see.
MAKE YOUR OWN SANGRIA
Spanish sangria
* Ingredients
1 bottle Spanish Grenache wine
2 ounces Spanish brandy
2 ounces Cointreau
2 ounces peach liqueur
1 peach, 1 green apple, and 1 orange, all peeled and diced
1 pinch ground cinnamon
6 ounces orange juice
4 ounces Sprite or 7UP
* Directions
Combine brandy, Cointreau and peach liqueur in a pitcher.
Add fruit.
Soak fruit in the liquor mixture for up to a day.
When ready to serve, add wine, cinnamon, orange juice and soda. Pour over ice into tumblers.
Mexican sangria
* Ingredients
Half a bottle of good Spanish red wine
Juice of 3 limes
The peel of one lime, grated
2 tablespoons sugar
* Directions
Combine in a pitcher with a dozen ice cubes, and let sit until all the ice is melted.
