I know im late for the 4th, but do you really need an excuse to drink?

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Red Sangria Recipe

Use tasty but inexpensive medium-bodied wine such as Merlot or Zinfandel. This is not the time to whip out the expensive stuff. Same thing can be said about the orange liquor, Triple Sec will do just fine. Save your Grand Marnier or Cointreau for the margaritas.

1 orange, sliced thin

1 lemon, sliced thin

½ cup raspberries

¼ cup sugar

1 bottle of red wine

½ cup fresh orange juice

¼ cup orange liquor

In a large non-reactive bowl, very gently mash the citrus with the sugar. The idea here is to release the essential oils
from the skin of the citrus while letting the sugar dissolve.

Add the wine, orange juice and orange liquor. Stir until the sugar is totally dissolved.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the chill box for at least a couple hours. The longer you let it sit the more incorporated and intense the flavors will be, so do not skip this step!

Stir before serving to re-distribute the fruit. Pour over ice, serve and enjoy!

White Sangria Recipe

Again, the same principal as the red sangria, use inexpensive light to medium white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. You can substitute lemon/lime soda (7up, Sprite, etc) for ginger ale. When using an acidic wine like Sauvignon, the soda helps to mellow out both the acidity and the booziness and, overall, brightens the flavor.

1 lemon, sliced thin

1 cup white peaches, sliced

1 cup melon, cubed

¼ cup sugar

1 bottle of white wine

¼ cup orange liquor

2 cups ginger ale

In a large non-reactive bowl, very gently mash lemon and sugar. Then combine the rest of the ingredients (minus the soda) and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for a couple hours to let the flavors intensify.

Right before serving, add the soda. Pour over ice, serve and enjoy!

Blue Sangria Recipe

Instead of Triple Sec, I used Blue Curaçao here. Curaçao liqueur is flavored with the dried peels of the laraha citrus fruit. The laraha is much more bitter than the orange, so the liqueur itself has varying degrees of bitterness. In short, it’s orange liquor with blue food coloring.

1 lemon, sliced thin

1 cup grapes

½ cup blueberries

½ cup blackberries

¼ cup sugar

1 bottle of white wine

¼ cup Blue Curaçao

2 cups ginger ale

Follow the steps from the white sangria recipe above, but using the blue sangria ingredient list.