FROM CHEAP TO DELIGHTFULLY CHEERFUL

I never had a sangria I really liked.  It was watered down cheap wine and it tasted crappy.  To prove my point, I checked it out and found out the truth about "traditional sangria" in Spanish bars and restaurants.  It is a tourist thing.  They are the only ones drinking it and it probably goes for any Spanish bar at home too.  To the Spanish, sangria is a party drink and there is only one reason... to get you drunk cheaply.  There is generally no magical recipe to make sangria.  You take the cheapest red wine you can get, the cheapest brandy, whiskey, anything will do and the cheapest fruit that you have lying about ... stuff that is too mushy to eat.  It is tastes gross, which it usually will, so they add something to take the taste away like sugar and cinnamon.

The standard ingredients are a cheap bottle of red wine, a similar quantity of 7up, Sprite or other sparkling lemon drink, a glass of liquor like brandy, whiskey or cointreau, a peach, apple and an orange, some lemon and cinnamon.

It is no wonder I don't like it.  Don't like cheap wine or 7up.  As a matter of fact, I am a purist with gin and vodka.  Now if we are talking rum, the best is 10X Cane rum, like they use in good mojitos in Miami.  And I actually don't mind a rum punch in the islands providing it has bite to it.  I have a tendency to like everything in excess.  I like strong espresso and if I am having chocolate milk, I want a lot of chocolate.  So I know it doesn't bode well for diets but if you are going to do it, then do it the right way.

So, I am taking a bit of a twist on a sangria from "the shiksah that works in the kitchen" as she calls herself, from Zabar's Kosher Restaurant in New York.  She has a cool Rosh Hashana Sangria that might taste okay with a little bit of Ginafication.  This is untried but I am sure it will work.  and.... I don't care if they think that anything expensive would be a waste.  That's not my mantra.  So let's be adventurous and include this in your first Rosh Hashana recipe of the season.

ROSH HASHANA SANGRIA

Ingredients and my modus operendi

1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup water over medium heat until dissolved (this is your honey simple syrup)

Soak pomegranate seeds from one pomegranate, 1 apple thinly sliced, 10 oz. of seedless grapes in brandy overnight. 

For presentation reasons, you should strain the day-old fruit before preparing the sangria and add fresh fruit shortly before serving

On the day of, a couple of hours before serving pour a whole bottle of syrah or shiraz wine in a pitcher.  Add 1 cup of grape juice, 1/2 cup brandy and 1/2 cup of triple sec and honey simple syrup into the pitcher (forget the fizzy or lemony crap)

Add the ice and fresh apples and grapes.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Serve while listening to flamenco artists...  There is no science to making sangria... just what tastes best.  If it is worth your time and effort, don't cheap out. TV chefs never recommend you use cheap wine in cooking and I agree.  Also, what's with adding the pop? Yuck!