'Tis the Season for toasting!
I love a holiday recipe that gets the whole house smelling wonderful. This is definitely one of those. A little like mulled wine ... but a little sweeter and more refreshing.
Holiday Sangria
Sangria in it's basic form is sweetened red wine with fruit. I have an awesome Autumn Sangria recipe, and this one is very similar and just uses seasonally inspired more festive fruits.
One of those is Carambola, otherwise known as starfruit. It looks sort of like a little melon and when sliced creates little 5 point star shaped pieces. It tastes like a cross between citrus and melon, but not quite as tart or sweet and it makes an excellent garnish for the holidays.
The other two fruits I used were raw cranberries and tangelos. I chose tangelos since they're a little smaller than oranges and easier to add to a glass or pitcher.
In addition to spicing up your holidays, this sangria makes an unique gift for friends, neighbors or party host. All you need is a sealable jar, similar to the juice jar I have pictured.
Here's what you'll need ...
Ingredients
2 bottles Merlot
1 bottle ginger ale
1 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground clove
4 to 6 oranges or tangelos
6 to 10 cinnamon sticks
1/2 bag of cranberries
Directions
In a medium pot, combine Merlot, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Let simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved.
Pour immediately into a sealed pitcher or other container. Chop apples and add them along with the cinnamon sticks to the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Add ice and ginger ale to serve.
For a more carbonated punch or mimosa, add the ginger ale to the wine after it's cooled ... then it will keep the fizz.
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I was just mentioning to someone that I needed to make my winter sangria! This looks great!
I’ve never thought of a holiday sangria, but it makes perfect sense as it’s already the cousin of Swedish glogg. The star fruit is a very sweet touch
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I love the starfruit! Don’t see enough of that here, and never used it in Sangria before. Would be fun to try!
Sipping Sangria in the summer, it never crossed my mind to carry it over into the Holidays. Sounds wonderful and looks festive, too!
This sangria looks tasty! I’ve never heard of a Carambola. I’m going to have to look for them in my markets. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Definitely take a look for carambola. It’s also sometimes called star fruit.
I just wanted to let you know that I made your Holiday Sangria and it was a big hit for Christmas day. I had 30 family members over and they absolutely loved it. I even found some star fruit. My PC crashed and was recently fixed that’s why I’m so late with this message.
Thanks for a great recipe that I will use again and again.
The link to the autumn sangria isn’t working
I love this and want to use it for a party tomorrow, so I hope I get a reply back before then… Can you tell me how how many this serves?
Thank you! I am so happy I found this I have been searching for a week now on something to serve at a party coming up.
You don’t say what to do with the cranberries?
The cranberries are just for garnish. =)
In the directions it says to “Chop apples and add them along with the cinnamon sticks to the mixture”. What are the apples for, and how many do you need? Just was a little confused!
Hello Kelsey! The apples and cinnamon sticks are just for garnish … though … the apples taste mighty good after soaking in the sangria for awhile. Enjoy! =)
Is it a 2 liter of Ginger ale? That seems like a lot, so I’m thinking no?
I want to make this for a party tomorrow night, what size bottles do I need for wine and ginger ale?
This was delicious when we added a bit of brandy! Made it way better! Apples are not on the ingredient list. It doesn’t say how much ginger ale. It doesn’t say when to add the cranberries so I waited until the 2nd day. Delicious!!!