Every time we have dinner at Patrick’s parents’ house, his mom always asks me to make cocktails. Half of the time I respond with, “Don’t you have plenty of wine? Should we just do that and save cocktails for next time?”
It’s not that I don’t like making group cocktails, because I really do. It’s the lugging of all of my cocktail equipment that is the real hassle here.
Our most recent family dinner was Christmas, and I knew there was no getting out of tending the bar.
We’re a big Red Wine family, so I decided to amp up a red sangria recipe I used to know from tending the bar at P.F. Chang’s. It was a real PiTA to make when bartending, but damn was it delicious. The recipe below is for a single glass, but you can make it in batches and save it in glass jars to make in advance. (Although this didn’t stop me from bringing all of my cocktail equipment.)
Let ye be warned: You can’t really taste the loads of alcohol in this sangria (good problem? bad problem?), so be careful because it goes FAST.
Ingredients
- 2oz Red Wine (dealer’s choice – we prefer merlot)
- 1oz Vodka (Absolut Mandarin adds a nice touch)
- 1oz Simple Syrup
- 2oz Fresh OJ
- 1oz Fresh Pomegranate Juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
Do This in This Order
- Combine liquid ingredients in shaker over ice
- Add cinnamon stick, an orange slice, and a few cranberries to the shaker
- Roll everything back-and-forth from the shaker to an empty glass 4-5 times
- Pour into a wine glass
- Sip. Enjoy.
Photo creds:
Header photo by Amanda Vick on Unsplash
Additional photo by Frank Zhang on Unsplash
