Looking back, I can't remember what made us order Sangria rather than a ubiquitous Margarita or cerveza, but I'd guess there was one of those laminated tabletop signs with an attractive glass of red wine topped with floating fruit accompanied by an equally attractive price.
The waitress invited us to get some chips, salsa and other snacks from their free Happy Hour buffet, and the next thing we knew, we had eaten so many snacks while we sipped our Sangria that neither Julie nor I were hungry for dinner, so we skipped it.
We repeated this many more times, becoming quite adept at playing backgammon on the game tables in the cantina, but never managing to order dinner. It wasn't long before that business was forced to shutter its doors, unable to sustain such ravenous eaters who never ordered dinner, and it became difficult to find Sangria that good again anywhere else.
Occasionally, we would happen upon a Mexican restaurant that served a fruity wine that tasted great, but more often than not Sangria served by "professionals" was some weird concoction thrown together by a bartender who apparently had no clue what it was supposed to taste like, even at Spanish tapas restaurants that theoretically specialized in Sangria.
You will never need to suffer this trial and error process, because I will now tell you how to make a full proof Sangria at home.
Here is the simple recipe:
Put four cubes of glass in a wine glass.
Add equal parts of Sutter Home Sweet Red Wine, 100% fruit juice (some combination of berries or fruit punch flavored) and Crystal Lite Lemonade. That's one third of however much you're making per liguid ingredient, for those of you without a calculator nearby, adapted for whatever size your wine glass happens to be (and remember not to fill your glass to the rim or dropping in a cherry will cause it to spill).
To get fancy, you can add a Maraschino cherry, slice of orange and wedge of lime, or a piece of pineapple or any other tropical fruit you have laying around. It is, however, delicious simply mixing the three liquids. Perfecto!
And Quick?!?!?!!? Si! Si!
