Easy Holiday Sangria for a Crowd
Easy Holiday Sangria for a Crowd – so easy, fun, and very authentic. If you’re looking for spiked sangria made with cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, and red wine – you’ve arrived!
Easy Holiday Sangria For a Crowd Recipe
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Sangria is a delicious wine punch that originates in Spain and Portugal, now popular nearly everywhere. Sangria is generally made with red wine, seasonal fruits, and a bit of bubbly, such as club soda or citrus-flavored soda.
Sangria is quick to drink, easy to enjoy, and always a hit for parties since you can make it large batches for serving. We prefer to serve red sangria for cool Autumn gatherings and white sangria for summer parties.
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What to Love About This Sangria Recipe –
- It can be made ahead of time
- It’s great for a crowd
- No expensive wine is required
How to Make Easy Sangria for a Crowd in Just 4 Easy Steps
- Make the spiced syrup in a saucepan; reserve.
- Place the dried fruit into a pitcher, then pour the wine over the fruit; cover the pitcher and refrigerate.
- When ready to serve the sangria, strain the dried fruit; pour the sangria over ice in cocktail glasses; top with club soda, as desired.
- Enjoy at once!
Easy Recipe Tips for Spiked Sangria –
- Is it easy to make Sangria from scratch?
- What is Sangria typically made of?
- Does it matter what kind of wine do you use to make Sangria?
- What’s the best way to serve sangria to my guests?
- Can the fruit in sangria be eaten?
- Does sangria get better the longer it rests?
- What type of glasses should sangria be served in?
Sangria is super easy to make from scratch, just as you can see from this recipe. It requires few ingredients and can be dressed up or down.
Traditionally made of red wine and fresh or dried fruit, Sangria is often made with other added spirits, as well.
Use a red wine that you enjoy drinking on it’s own when you make sangria. Sangria is as sweet or as dry as you make it. Since it’s a fruity punch, it’s usually best to use a more dry red wine since you can always add a bit more sugar to the sangria or use a lemon-lime soda to add some sweetness.
Serve the sangria chilled and on the rocks. It’s also fun to put spiced sugar (I use a mixture of sugar and cinnamon) on the rim of each glass!
To keep sangria from getting diluted from melting ice cubes, freeze small fruits or berries and use them as ice cubes.
Fruit soaked in spirits is delicious and it’s perfectly acceptable to eat the fruit at the bottom of your glass.
So the fruit can properly infuse it’s flavor into the wine, it’s needs to rest overnight, if possible. And, yes, sangria gets better and better as it sits.
I prefer to serve sangria in wine glasses or hurricane glasses that have a wide mouth. Also, be sure to use a pretty glass pitcher for showing off your sangria.
More Cocktail Recipes to Enjoy –
- Refreshing Pitcher Margaritas
- Pitcher Mojitos
- Skinny Pitcher Margaritas
- Salsa Bloody Mary Cocktails
- Raspberry Lemonade Sangria
- Cranberry Moscow Mules by the Pitcher
- Instant Pot Apple Pie Moonshine
- The Best Bourbon Cocktails for Holiday
Printable Directions for Making Easy Sangria for a Crowd
Easy Sangria For a Crowd
Ingredients
Spiced Syrup
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 vanilla bean, cut open lengthwise
- 2 whole star anise
- 1 tsp. whole cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
Sangria
- 2 7-oz. packages mixed dried fruit
- 2 750 ml bottles red wine
- ginger ale to taste
Instructions
Make the Spiced Syrup
- In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, bring the sugar and water to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, drop in the vanilla bean, star anise, cloves and cinnamon sticks; cover and leave to infuse and cool. When cool, pour the spiced syrup into a glass container, cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use. Spiced syrup will keep for a week.
Make the Sangria
- The night before you want to serve your sangria, put the dried fruit into a large pitcher and pour in the red wine. Cover the pitcher with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8-12 hours.
- Just before serving, use a fine mesh strainger to strain the spices from the syrup, then stir the spiced syrup into the pitcher of fruit and wine.
- Serve the sangria over ice, if desired, topped with the desired amount of ginger ale. We prefer out sangria cocktails as 2/3 sangria and 1/3 ginger ale, but that's just personal preference - adjust as desired. You can add the ginger ale directly to the pitcher of sangria, but if it is not large enough, add the ginger ale to the sangria as you serve each one. Drop a few pieces of the dried fruit in each glass to garnish.
Notes
Nutrition
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This sounds delicious! However, I’m not really sure what “mixed dried fruit” to use. What kind/brand do you put in this?
Hey there Koressa Kemp!!! How are YOU??? Hope all is going great – I miss seeing your sweet face! As for the mixed dried fruit, there’s a Mariana Sun-Ripened Mixed Fruit that I usually purchase for this recipe, but if you can’t find that, I’d use a mixture of dried dates, apricots, cranberries and golden raisins – works perfectly! Hope you’ll try this recipe. xoxoxox, Alli