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Summer is getting hot and we need some drinks for the parties. We need some drinks to deal with the heat during a BBQ, Pool Party, Garden Party, Family Luncheon or anything else. You got to have something refreshing for the ladies (for most of the guys too because when it is triple digits, I do not need to choke down tepid bourbon in order to impress anyone with my "macho choice of beverage)
I have made this recipe without the gold for the last few summers but after A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones went mainstream, I started to add in a little bit of gold and the Red and Gold look like the color of House Lannister.
Here is my main summer time party fuel "Rich as a Lannister Sangria,"
Ingredients:
Four bottles of medium bodied red wines (do not get super cheap wine but expensive wine is a waste, five to fifteen dollars per bottle is ideal).
One bottle of white wine (an inexpensive California or Spanish sparkling white or floral Chardonnay are ideal)
Eight to Twelve Navel Oranges
Two pounds of strawberries (fresh is ideal but frozen is very good for this recipe)
One pound of melon slices, Tuscan melon or Cantaloupe are my favorite but watermelon is very refreshing and good for extremely hot days
Three or Four large Lemons
One bottle of Orange Juice
One to two dozen cloves (wrapped in cheese cloth or in a tea egg)
Six to twelve large Cinnamon sticks
Three to Six Vanilla bean pods
Three to six whole mace fruit membrains (SE Asian stores are likely to have them, if not get whole nutmeg nuts from the Mexican spice section)
Three cups vodka or Everclear (extra alcohol with no extra taste)
Three cups brandy (more alcohol with highly concentrated grape flavor to match the grape flavor in the wine)
Three cups Cointreau (more alcohol with orange flavor to match the oranges and orange juice)
One Cup Lemoncello (optional) (omit if you do not like lemons and use lemon juice if you cannot find it but like lemons)
One quarter cup of rose water (easy to find in stores and communities that cater to Middle Eastern and South Asian customers)
One to Two Cups White Sugar
(for serving)
Eight Bottles of Reed's Jamaican Ginger Beer
Mint Leaves
Bucket Full of ice cubes
Extra Cinnamon sticks (one or two for every guest who you expect to have over and who you think will be drinking)
Indian confectionery gold flakes (optional) (surprisingly inexpensive, the gold is like the gold in Goldschlaegger, it is super thin but when floating in liquid it looks like there is lot of gold and the shine is authentic because it is real gold)
Ideally you can make this all in a large punch bowl, if you do not have a punch bowl or one large enough to take the incgredients, split up the recipe and use a plastic pitcher or glass pitcher but avoid metal unless it is silver because other most other metals will impart a metallic flavor while the mixture rests for several hours or longer.
To Make
- Chop the citrus fruit into disks and pill them into the vessel(s).
- Pour the bottles of wine over the orange and lemon slices.
- Add the liquors and liquers
- Add the sugar
- pour in the rose water
- Stir until the sugar desolves
- add the ciannmon sticks
- slice open the vanilla bean pod with a very sharp knife and scrape out the seeds with butter knife and add the open and unseeded pods
- place the cloves and mace into a tea egg or wrap with cheesecloth (if you have nutmeg nuts instead, simply place them into the Sangria whole)
- Put in the strawberries and melon slice and stir gently a few times
- Let the vessel(s) rest in the refriderator for a at least six hours, 24 hours is optimal. Give it one or two gentle stirs every four to six hours (or right before bed and righ tafter getting up)
- when it is ready to be served, remove the spice but keep in all of the fruit.
The main reason for making Sangria is to have something tasty, refreshing and something that call get you drunk. However, if you have a good punch bowl and some clear pitchers and large tumblers and/or English pint beer glasses (20 oz.) than you can make it look very posh with spending very much money.
Getting Ready To Serve
- Pour the wine into your punch bowl or into your large pitcher.
- open and pour out the chilled ginger beer into the Sangria (you add the carbonated drink at the last minute because the ginger beer would go flat during it time in the refridgerator)
- Cover a sturdy table with a table cloth ( got some red and gold sain to go with this Lannister theme but the most important thing is that you have a sturdy table because a full punch bowl will be pretty heavy)
- place the clear plastic (less mess) or glass cups (classy but messy) on one side of the table.
- have a large bowl for ice cubes with tongs for picking up the cubes
- have a medium bowl for small and skinny cinnamon sticks (they are mostly for garnish and to allow your guests to stir their drink)
- have a mortar and pestle and small bowl full of mint leave
- have a small bowl of Indian Confectionery gold flakes
Sangria is not a very formal drink. When my family has a formal event at our home, we have help to serve drinks and food. When Sangria is being served, we forgo any of that and we serve our guests so get behind the table and serve all of your guests their first glass of the Sangria. Play bartender, make something beautiful, intoxicating and use it as chance to breaking the ice with your guest and chat with them a bit and set up longer conversations once you are done serving the drinks and are free to work the room or the backyard in this case.
Serving it to Guests
- gently push down on a few mint leaves at a time in your motor and pestle
- put in the slightly muddled mint leaf pressing it releases the essential oils of the mint
- drop in a few ice cubes (if you want a particular guest to get drunk, put in no more than two), if another guest is no ta good drunk, give them a bunch of ice cubes.
- put some of the gold flakes on the ice cubes
- ladle out the Sangria and pour over the ice
- put in a cinnamon stick
Let the guests enjoy the aesthetic quality of the green mint, the red sangria and the flecks of gold. I like the Strawberries because they taste great and they are symbol of summer and they are a locally grown crop in Ventura County. Obviously, people in most parts of the US have to import their wine just like we import out spice and sugar. Aside from things that simply will not grow where you live, Sangria is best when you use crops that grow locally and that grow well in summertime where you live. In my case, citrus, strawberries, mint from my garden and wine from the same area code give my guests and I chance to sip on the best of what comes from the soil.
Sangria is also good because almost all red wines, almost all spirits and many white wines are vegan. Look into whether or not your white wine uses animal products because many white wines and about half of the beer makers use some form of animal products to purify and clarify their beer and wines.
Please share your potent, refreshing and unique summer time party drinks.
I have made this recipe without the gold for the last few summers but after A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones went mainstream, I started to add in a little bit of gold and the Red and Gold look like the color of House Lannister.
Here is my main summer time party fuel "Rich as a Lannister Sangria,"
Ingredients:
Four bottles of medium bodied red wines (do not get super cheap wine but expensive wine is a waste, five to fifteen dollars per bottle is ideal).
One bottle of white wine (an inexpensive California or Spanish sparkling white or floral Chardonnay are ideal)
Eight to Twelve Navel Oranges
Two pounds of strawberries (fresh is ideal but frozen is very good for this recipe)
One pound of melon slices, Tuscan melon or Cantaloupe are my favorite but watermelon is very refreshing and good for extremely hot days
Three or Four large Lemons
One bottle of Orange Juice
One to two dozen cloves (wrapped in cheese cloth or in a tea egg)
Six to twelve large Cinnamon sticks
Three to Six Vanilla bean pods
Three to six whole mace fruit membrains (SE Asian stores are likely to have them, if not get whole nutmeg nuts from the Mexican spice section)
Three cups vodka or Everclear (extra alcohol with no extra taste)
Three cups brandy (more alcohol with highly concentrated grape flavor to match the grape flavor in the wine)
Three cups Cointreau (more alcohol with orange flavor to match the oranges and orange juice)
One Cup Lemoncello (optional) (omit if you do not like lemons and use lemon juice if you cannot find it but like lemons)
One quarter cup of rose water (easy to find in stores and communities that cater to Middle Eastern and South Asian customers)
One to Two Cups White Sugar
(for serving)
Eight Bottles of Reed's Jamaican Ginger Beer
Mint Leaves
Bucket Full of ice cubes
Extra Cinnamon sticks (one or two for every guest who you expect to have over and who you think will be drinking)
Indian confectionery gold flakes (optional) (surprisingly inexpensive, the gold is like the gold in Goldschlaegger, it is super thin but when floating in liquid it looks like there is lot of gold and the shine is authentic because it is real gold)
Ideally you can make this all in a large punch bowl, if you do not have a punch bowl or one large enough to take the incgredients, split up the recipe and use a plastic pitcher or glass pitcher but avoid metal unless it is silver because other most other metals will impart a metallic flavor while the mixture rests for several hours or longer.
To Make
- Chop the citrus fruit into disks and pill them into the vessel(s).
- Pour the bottles of wine over the orange and lemon slices.
- Add the liquors and liquers
- Add the sugar
- pour in the rose water
- Stir until the sugar desolves
- add the ciannmon sticks
- slice open the vanilla bean pod with a very sharp knife and scrape out the seeds with butter knife and add the open and unseeded pods
- place the cloves and mace into a tea egg or wrap with cheesecloth (if you have nutmeg nuts instead, simply place them into the Sangria whole)
- Put in the strawberries and melon slice and stir gently a few times
- Let the vessel(s) rest in the refriderator for a at least six hours, 24 hours is optimal. Give it one or two gentle stirs every four to six hours (or right before bed and righ tafter getting up)
- when it is ready to be served, remove the spice but keep in all of the fruit.
The main reason for making Sangria is to have something tasty, refreshing and something that call get you drunk. However, if you have a good punch bowl and some clear pitchers and large tumblers and/or English pint beer glasses (20 oz.) than you can make it look very posh with spending very much money.
Getting Ready To Serve
- Pour the wine into your punch bowl or into your large pitcher.
- open and pour out the chilled ginger beer into the Sangria (you add the carbonated drink at the last minute because the ginger beer would go flat during it time in the refridgerator)
- Cover a sturdy table with a table cloth ( got some red and gold sain to go with this Lannister theme but the most important thing is that you have a sturdy table because a full punch bowl will be pretty heavy)
- place the clear plastic (less mess) or glass cups (classy but messy) on one side of the table.
- have a large bowl for ice cubes with tongs for picking up the cubes
- have a medium bowl for small and skinny cinnamon sticks (they are mostly for garnish and to allow your guests to stir their drink)
- have a mortar and pestle and small bowl full of mint leave
- have a small bowl of Indian Confectionery gold flakes
Sangria is not a very formal drink. When my family has a formal event at our home, we have help to serve drinks and food. When Sangria is being served, we forgo any of that and we serve our guests so get behind the table and serve all of your guests their first glass of the Sangria. Play bartender, make something beautiful, intoxicating and use it as chance to breaking the ice with your guest and chat with them a bit and set up longer conversations once you are done serving the drinks and are free to work the room or the backyard in this case.
Serving it to Guests
- gently push down on a few mint leaves at a time in your motor and pestle
- put in the slightly muddled mint leaf pressing it releases the essential oils of the mint
- drop in a few ice cubes (if you want a particular guest to get drunk, put in no more than two), if another guest is no ta good drunk, give them a bunch of ice cubes.
- put some of the gold flakes on the ice cubes
- ladle out the Sangria and pour over the ice
- put in a cinnamon stick
Let the guests enjoy the aesthetic quality of the green mint, the red sangria and the flecks of gold. I like the Strawberries because they taste great and they are symbol of summer and they are a locally grown crop in Ventura County. Obviously, people in most parts of the US have to import their wine just like we import out spice and sugar. Aside from things that simply will not grow where you live, Sangria is best when you use crops that grow locally and that grow well in summertime where you live. In my case, citrus, strawberries, mint from my garden and wine from the same area code give my guests and I chance to sip on the best of what comes from the soil.
Sangria is also good because almost all red wines, almost all spirits and many white wines are vegan. Look into whether or not your white wine uses animal products because many white wines and about half of the beer makers use some form of animal products to purify and clarify their beer and wines.
Please share your potent, refreshing and unique summer time party drinks.
