Make this Cranberry Apple Sangria for the holidays! It's infused with orange liqueur, cloves, vanilla, and cinnamon. You can also warm it up and turn it into a mulled wine.

Photography Credit: Nancy Mitchell

If you’re looking for a cocktail to serve with Thanksgiving dinner, here’s a great option: a sangria packed with all the flavors of the season.

Red wine, apple, spices, orange, and cranberry come together to make a drink that’s sweet, rich, and fruity, with just a tiny bit of tartness on the finish.

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THANKSGIVING SANGRIA TO CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAY!

When putting together recipes for drinks, I often find myself inspired by food. When I saw a recipe on Serious Eats for cranberry sauce with apple and orange , I couldn’t help thinking, “I bet that would be good as a cocktail.” And it is!

We tend to think of sangria as a summer drink, but with spices and fall fruit it can actually be really beautiful in the colder months. Regardless, this sangria is almost like a chilled mulled wine. The wine does a really nice job of holding the flavors of the different fruits and bringing them together, so when you take a sip everything feels like it was meant to be.

What cranberry juice to buy

You can use either 100 percent cranberry juice (my preference) or cranberry juice cocktail; just know the latter will be sweeter.

Make-Ahead Sangria!

The best thing about this sangria is that all the prep can happen in advance—even 2 to 3 days ahead—so on the day of, all you need to do is serve and enjoy.

HOW TO SERVE SANGRIA

Sangria is also great in the sense that it garnishes itself, since there’s all that nice fruit floating around and probably making its way into your glass. If there’s still some left over after all the sangria is served, it also makes a great snack—although beware, it can be very potent. You can serve this sangria over ice, or heat it and serve it as a mulled wine.

For more information on apple varieties, check out our Guide to Apples.

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