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Festive drinks abound at this time of year, from midday mimosas to afternoon egg nog. They’re all fun, but sometimes it’s nice to mix things up a little — like with this cheerful cranberry apple sangria from Damn Delicious.
Perhaps best of all, the cocktail has an alcohol-free option so everyone can raise a glass and toast the new year!
Damn Delicious blogger Chungah Rhee suggests making the cocktail mixture in advance, then adding your preferred wine or other mixer when you’re ready to party. Meanwhile, we suggest hitting up your local spice store for the freshest, most flavorful ingredients to make this drink a holiday hit nobody will forget.
Since this is a sangria recipe, there’s plenty of fruit in it. Get out the cutting board and start chopping cranberries, apples and oranges.
Once the fruit’s ready to go, it’s time to make the tasty syrup that flavors the cocktail. On the stovetop, dissolve sugar into cranberry-apple juice over medium heat, then set aside.
Now comes the fun part: Toss the cranberries and oranges into the syrup, then add in the warming holiday spices. Rhee suggests cinnamon sticks and rosemary sprigs, plus whole cloves and star anise pods. Basically it’s the stuff you’d use to make mulled cider or wine.
Let those ingredients hang out in the syrup for a bit, then discard the rosemary and cloves.
Pour the mixture into a pitcher (a big one). Add apples and a little more cran-apple juice. Make sure to refrigerate the mix for at least four hours — you’ll want that extra time for all the flavors to get acquainted.
When party time arrives, pour the sangria over ice, saving room for a glug of pinot grigio. Or, if you’re going alcohol-free, Rhee offers a lemon-lime soda, like 7-Up, as an alternative. (We could also see plain club soda or seltzer working well!)
Isn’t she lovely?
Head over to Damn Delicious to get the full recipe. Here’s to another year!
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