Sangria Alternatives and in Spain

Mixing wine with other things is very popular in Spanish bars - doing it the Spanish way (i.e. avoiding the sangria) will keep the costs down and win you kudos with your Spanish drinking buddies. Read more on the Secrets of Sangria in Spanish Bars.

See also: Sangria Recipe

Alternatives to Sangria

There are few ways in which the Spanish mix wine in bars:

• Tinto de Verano Red wine mixed with...
• ...Lemon Fanta (or equivalent*) The most common and the nicest. To make sure you get this, ask for 'tinto con limon'.
  *Always a cloudy, yellow sparkling lemon drink. Never Sprite or 7Up.
• ...gaseosa or casera Akin to sweet club soda. Offered in cheaper bars. Avoid this.
• ...orange Fanta (or equivalent) Not very common, though if you happen to like it, order 'tinto con naranja'.

You can make any of these at home using any cheap wine. However, for that authentic Spanish feel, a wine from Spain would be best.

Tinto de verano is always taken with ice. It is a very light drink, nominally half wine and half lemonade but the wine goes in after the ice and then topped up with lemonade, so there is more lemonade than wine. Tinto de verano is very common in Spain, especially in Andalusia. Many bars serve it instead of sangria, assuming you won't know the difference, which most people won't.

• Calimocho Red wine and Coca-Cola, a popular drink with the young, the metalheads and the young metalheads in Spain. A precursor to vodka and Red Bull, the alcohol and caffeine combination is popular with all-night revellers and is often sold very cheaply at rock concerts and nightclubs. Originally from Basque Country, it is written as 'kalimoxo' in Basque but pronounced the same as in Castillian Spanish.
• Rebujito White wine or sherry and 7-Up or Sprite. Spritzer to the rest of us. Popular in some parts of Andalusia and occasionally found in the rest of Spain.

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