Just Use Frozen Fruits in Your Sangria
There are a lot of fruits in the season now, but you won’t find them in my sangria. High season food can be a little pricey, but in most cases it’s just disrespectful to shade the scent of perfectly ripe, sun-kissed and (possibly) freshly harvested blackberries or peaches with “bold” red wine. This is a job for frozen food.
While I’m sure none of you are guilty of giving up fruit, some people have a tendency to leave wine-soaked sangria in a jug, and I refuse to do so with a five-dollar pint of a puppet or beautiful white nectarines. Frozen fruit is cheap, tastes great, and doesn’t cause guilt when drowned in booze.
But beyond value, frozen fruit is simply more practical. No washing, no cleaning, no chopping. You just dump and walk away. Freezing and thawing softens the fruit – the water expands during freezing, destroying the cell walls of the fruit, which greatly simplifies maceration and mixing of flavors. Plus, frozen fruits are very cold, making your sangria very cold, which is (obviously) what you want in a summer drink.
Of course, there are a few exceptions to my “frozen only” sangria rule, and those are apples and oranges. I’ve never seen either of them alongside frozen fruits, but both taste pretty good regardless of the season. In addition, citrus oils add depth to the drink. Plus, if you’ve overdone it on a u-pick farm, or happen to live next to a regular blackberry bush (which is insanely fertile), sangria is a good choice for the many extra berries that are about to go bad. Berries that are too soft to eat right away are perfect for sangria and we hate to waste them.