Happy Hour: Sangria Flora

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Last weekend I hosted my first outdoor dinner of the season. While I had grand plans to serve a crazy new cocktail, in the end, I went with a crowd-pleasing standby, sangria.

Sangria is one of my favorite drinks to pour at a party because it's wildly refreshing, can be made in advance, and serves a large group. From white to red to sparkling to rosé, there's hundreds of recipes, so I rarely make the same variation twice. This time, we sipped a white-wine sangria spiked with elderflower liquor. It was wonderful! It's slightly sweet and floral, incredibly fruity, and highly drinkable. My guests went through three pitchers in a matter of minutes.

If you're planning a warm-weather get-together, put this easy concoction on the menu. To give the fruit time to flavor the alcohol, assemble several hours in advance. For the recipe, read more.

Sangria Flora

Sangria Flora

Ingredients

One 750-milliliter bottle Sauvignon Blanc
1 1/2 cups St-Germain elderflower liqueur (or elderflower cordial)
1/4 cup Cointreau
6 strawberries, sliced 1/4 inch thick
6 raspberries
2 peaches, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 orange, thinly sliced crosswise
1 pound green and red grapes
Ice

Directions

  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a pitcher and let stand at room temperature for 3 hours, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
  2. Serve in wineglasses over ice.

Serves 6-8.

Note: Peaches weren't in season, so I left them out of the sangria. There was a buy one get one free sale going on at my grocery store for strawberries and instead of using raspberries, I doubled the amount of strawberries.

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