Honey blood orange red sangria with apple and grape

This blood orange sangria is perfect for National Wine Day today. It is fruity, tart and very hearty for this lovely spring weather. I learnt recently that sangria is typically made with Spanish wine like Rioja wine. I used to make red sangrias with Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir. Spanish wine has a slightly spicy vibe than other wines in my opinion. Frankly, I don’t think it really matters in the end, because you will dilute the wine with tons of stuff like soda, rum or brandy or fruit juice.

I used grapes and apples as my choice of fruit. But you could also use strawberries, mangoes, kiwi, blueberries or apricots. The key to any good sangria is to leave all the ingredients to steep for at least 5 hours to bring out the medley of juices. Any sweet apple type will do the trick such as Granny Smith apples, Honeycrisp or gala apples. For the grapes, I removed the stems so as to let the wine penetrate the fruit. Honey was my choice of sweetener in this blood orange sangria because I wanted something different from simple syrup. I also added a splash of rose water for some fun, floral notes to this spring cocktail.

Once everything has been refrigerated for a good amount of time, serve this blood orange sangria over ice. You can use a big serving spoon to scoop out the fruit out from the sangria first. However, I’ve found that the fruit falls naturally into the glass as you pour the sangria as log as you chop it into small bits. Other sangria favorites of mine include this berry & pineapple red sangria and my fall sangria. For a non-alcoholic blood orange beverage, check out my blood orange green iced tea.

Honey blood orange red sangria with apple and grape

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Servings: 6 Prep Time: 5-12 Hours

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

1 lemon, squeezed

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup rum or brandy

750ml bottle dry red wine like a Spanish red wine

Splash of rose water (optional)

750ml blood orange soda

2 blood oranges, sliced

2 cups grapes, stems removed

2-3 apples, cored and chopped into small cubes

Tray of ice cubes to serve

Fresh mint sprigs to serve

Instructions

1. In a 2L or 3L-capacity jug or pitcher, mix the lemon juice, honey, rum until the honey dissolves.
2. Then add the chopped apples, grapes, blood orange slices followed by wine and rose water (optional) and 2 cups of blood orange soda. Leave the remainder of the blood orange soda for serving later.
3. Also, placing the fruits towards the bottom of the jug prevents any big splashes.
   

   

4. Cover the jug and refrigerate it for at least 5 hours or even better overnight for a tastier sangria.
5. Pour the refrigerated cocktail 3/4 way into wine glasses filled with ice and top each glass with the remainder blood orange soda. Garnish with fresh mint.
   

   

6. Serve chilled. Any leftovers would get even sweeter so this tastes awesome for the next few days.