09/01/2017
This Summer Sangria recipe is light and packed with fruity flavors! It’s a great batch cocktail that mixes rose wine with vodka and a cornucopia of stone fruits.
I love a big batch pre-mixed cocktail that takes the fuss out of making sure everyone’s drinks are full and keeps the vibe feeling laidback. When we decided on this month’s Summer Sangria recipe, Smirnoff promptly challenged us to a blind vodka taste test!
Eek!
It made me so nervous! What if our results didn’t confirm Smirnoff as the winner?! They were confident, though, and had zero hesitations! Katie and Britt from our team gladly obliged and the results are in! Keep reading for details from our taste test and this delicious Stone Fruit Summertime Sangria recipe!
How To Make This Summer Sangria – Step by Step
- In a medium size bowl, muddle together honey, peaches, blueberries and lime juice. Pour into your punch bowl (or pitcher if using a pitcher– if you’re using a pitcher instead of a large punch bowl, you’ll likely want to cut the recipe in half or by two thirds.)
- Add Smirnoff No. 21 and rosé. Cover and allow to sit for at least 8 hours.
- Before serving, add the bottle of sparkling water then top with remaining peach slices and grapefruit and orange slices for aesthetics.
- To serve, fill a glass with half ice, a spoonful of fruit from the punch, and ladle the punch on top until the glass is full. Enjoy!
Smirnoff In This Summer Sangria
When you’re serving a big batch cocktail for a crowd, there’s an obvious motivation to use a less expensive alcohol to keep costs down, but what about the taste? Smirnoff was so confident that we would blindly choose the taste of their No. 21 vodka over competitors that were nearly double and triple the cost, that they didn’t blink when we told them we would post the results no matter what. (I was the only one that was nervous!)
Britt was sure that she knew which was her favorite vodka and it happened to be one of the bottles we were tasting against Smirnoff, so I was extra curious to see if she could pick it out in a blind line up.
A good vodka should be tasteless– clean and crisp on the palette, odorless– should not smell harsh or too strong, and smooth– not rough or grainy. It also shouldn’t linger. Sample A was the $30 bottle, Sample B was Smirnoff (at $12 a bottle), and Sample C was the $20 bottle.
The conclusion? Both Katie and Britt picked Smirnoff as their favorite and the $30 bottle (sample A) as their least favorite! Crazy right?! At 2.5 times the price and with a fancy brand name that everyone knows, I definitely did not expect sample A to come in last.
Summer Sangria – A Crowd Pleasing Batch Cocktail
Now, should you find yourself with a big crowd to please that would prefer not to sip their vodka straight, this Stone Fruit Summertime Sangria is the perfect solution! (And now we all know which vodka you should use!)
You can whip up a batch in no time and it’s great for guests to self serve and keep them well oiled (obviously responsibly! 😉
Can Sangria Sit out Overnight?
Most sangria recipes call for the wine to rest overnight, or at the very least, for a few hours in the refrigerator. This lets the fruit infuse the wine, letting its juices get in the mix and sweeten up the drink. Sangria gets better and better as it sits.
Top Tips For This Summer Sangria
- Large blocks or rings of ice melt slower than cubes and will keep your punch cool without diluting it too much. Some dilution is desirable, but the larger the ice and the colder the ingredients, the longer it will take to reach the point of being too diluted.
- If your tap water tastes funky, use spring water when making your ice blocks and boil it first, which will yield clearer ice.
- Will be a long evening? Consider adding the punch in parts over the course of the gathering and replacing the ice when it becomes too small. If the punch becomes too diluted from melted ice, adding fresh punch and ice will revive the bowl.
- When serving a crowd, it helps to prepare your garnishes ahead of time, cover and refrigerate. When you’re ready to serve the punch, have the bowl of garnishes ready so they can easily be added to each glass.
Check Out These Other Great Cocktail Recipes
- 10 of the Best New Year’s Eve Cocktails Worth The Effort
- Cocktail Hour || Sidecar Cocktail Recipe
- Vanilla Pumpkin Spice Mules
- Cocktail Hour || Springtime Whiskey Sour Recipe
Have you tried this Summer Sangria? Feel free to leave a star rating and I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Stone Fruit Summertime Sangria
Ingredients
- 1 750 ml bottle of Smirnoff No. 21 vodka
- 2 750 ml bottles of dry rosé
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 12 peaches sliced (two set aside for final garnish)
- 2 c. blueberries
- 1/4 c. lime juice
- 1 grapefruit sliced in thin circles for garnish
- 2 oranges sliced in thin circles for garnish
- 1 32 oz bottle of sparking water
- plenty of ice
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl, muddle together honey, peaches, blueberries and lime juice. Pour into your punch bowl (or pitcher if using a pitcher-- if you're using a pitcher instead of a large punch bowl, you'll likely want to cut the recipe in half or by two thirds.)
- Add Smirnoff No. 21 and rosé. Cover and allow to sit for at least 8 hours.
- Before serving, add the bottle of sparkling water then top with remaining peach slices and grapefruit and orange slices for aesthetics.
- To serve, fill a glass with half ice, a spoonful of fruit from the punch, and ladle the punch on top until the glass is full. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Photography by Katie Jameson
This post is sponsored by Smirnoff
Jennifer
09/01/2017
I could use a drink of this sangria right now!
Jennifer
Effortlessly Sophisticated
Jen Pinkston
09/07/2017
That makes two of us!