Ahh…Sangria. Sangria is a really great summer drink that you can serve at pretty much any party, especially outdoors. This was one of the first drink recipes I came up with and I designed it to be very easy to make in massive quantities! This recipe can easily handle a party of 10-12 people, with NO measuring of ingredients! (A lot of sangria recipes are complicated or take a lot of time to marinate.) Not mine! In just a few short minutes you’ll be enjoying some of the best party juice you’ve ever had (and the ladies LOVE it)!

Here are some simple ingredients that you’ll need to pick up at the grocery and liquor stores:

Large tub for mixing, either a styrofoam cooler, or a plastic cooler works great

5 L box of Burgundy wine (…you know the Franzia boxes you can find in the grocery store)

375 mL bottle of Brandy

375 mL bottle of Triple Sec or Orange Curacao

2 L bottle of Sprite or 7up

2 Quart container of Orange Juice (pulp or no pulp, your choice)

Fruit: 2 oranges, 2 lemons, 2 limes, 2 green apples, 2 pears

Ice

One thing I will caution you on with your container choice is to get something that can either be cleaned or thrown away. The sangria will stain a lot of plastics because of all the red wine, so don’t spend a lot of money here if you aren’t sure you can clean it up and reuse it. The styrofoam coolers are really cheap at the grocery store and they can just be thrown away…however, let me warn you when you mix this up in styrofoam always transfer it to another container after the party and put it in the fridge because if you forget and leave it overnight the sangria will leak through the porous styrofoam and you’ll have red wine all over your floor in the morning!!

When you have assembled all your ingredients the only work involved with this recipe is cutting up the fruit. You can do this in 10 minutes before your party. First you can mix all your liquids and get them chilling though. Open up the box of wine and pour the entire box into your mixing container. Next pour in all your other liquid ingredients. That’s right I said EVERYTHING. No measuring…just pour all the bottles of brandy, triple sec, Sprite, and orange juice into the mixing container, mix them up with a large spoon or ladle and put some ice in there. One word on the ice: A good idea is to buy the large gallon sized Ziploc bags and put all your ice in those before adding it to the drink…that way the ice doesn’t melt in the drink and dilute it!! No matter if it is the first drink or the last it will have the same potency and flavor!

Next, cut the lemons, limes, and oranges in round circles so that they will float on top of the liquid. We do this after mixing because you don’t want the fruit sitting out and getting brown while you do everything else. Dice up the apples and pears into small chunks…they will float too and give you a nice snack to nibble on as you are drinking! I love getting the apples and pears as a snack at the bottom of my glass (after they soak for awhile they get pretty potent too)! After you are finished cutting up your fruit, throw them into the mix and you are done!

Now, kick back, enjoy your drink and your guests will love it too!