There’s something about a festive drink that matches the mood to get you into the spirit of whatever you happen to be celebrating. A frosty margarita just makes you want to throw on a swimsuit and hit the pool. A flute of bubbly champagne often invokes our inner Gatsby as we raise toasts in our finest cocktail wear. A cold beer is appropriate on many occasions, but especially at a baseball game, with a piping hot, mustard-slathered hot dog in the other hand.
And this fall sangria, complete with autumnal fruits and flavors, will put you into the most festive of pumpkin-picking moods. So, as the weather starts to cool and stores are flooded with everything orange, mix yourself a batch of these delicious fall cocktails. You can consider it a reward for all the hard work of raking those leaves.
Sangria is traditionally a Spanish cocktail that’s made by mixing wine (either white or red) with fruit juices. The combinations are endless, and people have been enjoying countless versions of this delicious drink for ages. One of the fun elements of this punch is that it can be customized according to the season. In the summer, a sweet white wine like Riesling is delicious when combined with warm-weather fruits like pineapples, mangos, watermelon, or berries. In colder months, a zippy pinot noir can be mixed with winter fruits such as cranberries and clementines, spiced with cloves or ginger.
But this time of year, when leaves are changing, temperatures are only just starting to cool, and there are so many gorgeous and delicious fall fruits available, these sangria recipes are the absolute best.
Autumn harvest fall sangria recipe
(From Inspired by Charm)
When selecting fruit for your sangria, be sure to look for pieces that are ripe, but still somewhat firm in their texture. They’re going to be submerged in liquid and shouldn’t be so overly ripe that they’re falling apart. Of course, feel free to add any other fruits that strike your fancy. Be creative!
This recipe also calls for a cinnamon simple syrup. Simple syrup is a wonderful ingredient used often in cocktails, as well as desserts. It’s essentially just equal parts sugar and water, cooked down together until they form a sweet “syrup.” This syrup can be flavored with basically anything. In this case, it’s cinnamon. But feel free to experiment with different flavors like orange, mint, rosemary, lavender, or lemon, to name just a few. Use these syrups to moisten cakes, sweeten your coffee, dress up a fruit salad, and of course, mix into cocktails.
You can store your simple syrups in a glass jar in the fridge for about a month. When they start to get cloudy, it’s time to toss them.
Ingredients:
- 1 bottle of light Spanish wine, such as Rioja
- 2 cups apple cider
- 1/2 cup pear or apple brandy
- 1/4 cup cinnamon simple syrup (recipe below)
- 1 apple, diced
- 1 green pear, diced
- 1/2 orange, quartered and sliced
- Seeds from one pomegranate
- 3-4 cinnamon sticks
Method:
-
In a large pitcher, mix all of the ingredients.
- Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.
Cinnamon simple syrup
In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to a boil. Cook until the sugar dissolves and the liquid starts to thicken. Transfer to a glass jar and add 6 cinnamon sticks. Chill for at least 4 hours.
That’s it — now you’re ready to enjoy a delicious drink by the fire while roasting pumpkin seeds or to serve as the signature drink at your Halloween party.
If you’re into fruit, try this fall sangria
If you’re really into fruit, you could try this fall sangria recipe from Food Network’s Bobby Flay. It starts out very similar to the previous recipe, but it incorporates two different kinds of apples, as well as two different types of pears. Hey, there’s so much fruit in this cocktail that you could almost fool yourself into thinking it’s good for you!
Ingredients:
- 1 bottle cabernet sauvignon
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons apple brandy
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pear brandy
- 1/4 cup cinnamon simple syrup
- 2 soaked cinnamon sticks (from cinnamon simple syrup)
- 1 small Gala or Fuji apple, cored and thinly sliced
- 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
- 1 small red pear, cored and thinly sliced
- 1 small green pear, cored and thinly sliced
- 1/2 small pomegranate, seeded
- 1/2 orange, thinly sliced and each slice halved
- Ice for serving (optional)
Method:
- Combine the wine, apple cider, apple brandy, pear brandy, cinnamon simple syrup, and fruits in a large container with a lid and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. You can refrigerate it for up to 72 hours ahead of serving.
- Transfer to a pitcher before serving.
- Serve in red wine glasses over ice.
