Red Sangria

We use to frequent this restaurant called "La Bodega" a lot. It's a Spanish tapas restaurant downtown and it has the best sangria ever (not to mention food). We could order pitcher after pitcher and our conversations would only get louder and louder. Pat and Ali were able to convince the waitress to give them the recipe.

Years ago, I had copied this recipe from Ali on 3 separate occasions. Each time (perhaps due to drunkenness from the Sangria) I lost it. Embarrassed, I never asked Ali again and thankfully, one day while sober I stumbled upon one of the copies. I quickly filed it away and reminded myself to make it for the next girls night.

On the day of my party, I tucked it away in my pocket to go shopping for the ingredients but took it out while chatting with Andrea on the phone at work and forgot it on my desk. So when the party started, I had to use my aging memory to try and remember what was on it.

I put Tricia to work on this. Here is what I told her:
1/2 bottle of the 1.5 Litre cheap red Californian wine
2 shots triple sec
2 shots st. remy's brandy
2 shots orange juice
2 shots lemonade
6 shots 7-up

We used an orange and an apple as our fruits. We put it all in the pitcher which I think was a mistake because it ended up being really hard to pour. 1/4 of each would have been fine. The apples were sliced super thin too which was also a mistake because once they were saturated, they just kind of crumbled apart. And once I found my recipe at work, I realised we also forgot the lemons.

All mistakes aside, everyone enjoyed it. I made the third batch to which I added a shot of peach liquor and Mela really liked that version but Nica hated it. Ivan G uses that in his sangria and personally, I think it adds just a little more sweetness.

Make it again? For sure!
Things to change: Use less fruit in the pitcher and remember the lemons, slice apples thicker, chill the red wine before it's served (or add ice cubes to the mixture)
Rating: 9 out of 10.