by Veronica James

Created on: March 27, 2009   Last Updated: March 29, 2009

This delightful, crisp and refreshing drink will charm it's way into your 'anytime' collection of recipes. It is particularly lovely on a warm sunny day, and a perfect accompaniment to barbeque meat or fish and crisp salad. Served at any occasion, it will impress your guests and become a firm favourite.

Ingredients

2 75cl bottles of dry white wine (try a nice chardonnay)

4 tbsp of cointreau (or other orange liqueur)

4 tbsp of brandy 250ml of peach schnapps

125ml of orange juice

Pour all of these ingredients into a large container ready for adding the following: (remember the container needs to be big enough to also hold the fruit)

4 tbsp of golden sugar

4 cinnamon sticks

8 whole cloves

3 white peaches - pitted and sliced

2 sliced oranges

2 sliced limes

2 sliced apples a handful of small seedless white grapes a handful of small seedless red grapes

Add these to the liquid ingredients and stir gently - place a clean cotton cover over the container and refrigerate - the cotton cover will allow the ingredients to breathe - (best left for 24 hours to allow the mixture to blend all of it's flavours)

To serve: remove and disgard the cinnamon sticks and cloves. Stir gently to ensure the sugar has dissolved.

Ladle into individual glasses (to include some of the fruit) - add ice and soda water. Place a small sprig of fresh mint on top and add a drinking straw to the glass.

Depending on the occasion, or if you simply want to spoil your guests, you could frost the rim of the serving glass with white sugar.

To frost: rub a slice of lemon or lime around the rim. Place the sugar into a shallow dish and dip the rim - do not be tempted to swirl the glass. This works better on pre cooled glasses, if you do not have ample room in your freezer to house the glasses for an hour.

Simply place them carefully into a sink of cold water (the cold water method will take longer as each rim will need to be wiped dry before rubbing with citrus juice)

Presentation can be as important as the ingredients.

Try adding a cocktail stick threaded with glacier cherries (the cocktail stick can be used to pick up the sangria fruit from the glass) Colourful paper parasols are still a favourite, especially with the ladies, for perfection, pick one colour from the parasol and match the drinking straw colour to this.

Please remember, as with all alcoholic beverages, do not serve to those beneath the legal drinking age, particularly a sangria or punch mix that can be quite potent.

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