A few weeks ago was my best friends baby shower. When she told me she was having her first baby I was super excited for her!
I mean, here I was popping out kids left and right – well only 2, haha – since we’d known each other and I finally had a friend that was having a baby.
Now that I think about it, I don’t have many friends that already have kids. Weird.
Anyway, I originally wanted to plan the whole shower, but another mutual friend of ours swooped in and started planning before I had the chance to. Honestly, it was a blessing because planning a baby shower with three of my own kids would have been rough.
So instead, I was put in charge of food. Which I happily said yes to.
I started brainstorming all the different foods that I could make and came up with a pretty sweet list of things (like these beer pretzels I made into bites and these blue velvet cupcakes). One of which was this blackberry sangria.
I know that most people don’t usually have alcohol at their baby shower, but when I was thinking back to my first baby shower (over 10 years ago), I definitely had alcohol. I didn’t want it to be a boring shower where we just played silly little games and then ate a few things and then watched mommy-to-be open presents and then everyone left. I wanted an actual party where people stayed and mingled and hung out for a while despite the fact that it was a baby shower. So wine and beer were provided for guests.
I proposed this idea to my bestie and, of course, she was totally on board with the idea of having a sangria present next to the typical mocktail punch.
It was mid-February when I went shopping to start testing and meal planning recipes for the shower and Meijer had these gorgeous blood oranges on sale. Immediately I knew that I had to make a recipe with them. Then I remembered that I had some fresh (frozen) blackberries from when we went to the u-pick farm down the street last fall.
And sangria magic was born.
I have to say that this might be in the top 3 sangrias that I have ever made. The blood oranges and blackberry flavors meld together so perfectly with the red wine, it’s just a match made in sangria heaven.
This sangria was a such a hit at the party that I ended up having to make a second batch because it disappeared so quickly. Luckily I was smart enough to bring extra ingredients just in case that happened – even though I was hoping to save them and make a batch for myself. But oh well… the baby shower was a hit. And everyone loved my sangria… that’s all that matters.
Then I went to Meijer right after and bought more ingredients for myself. hehe
Blackberry Sangria
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups blackberries fresh or frozen
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 (750ml) bottles red wine
- 1 cup brandy
- 1 cup chambord
- 1 cup blackberry simple syrup
- 4 cups lemon-lime soda
- 1 cup blackberries fresh or frozen
- 1 cup raspberries fresh or frozen
- 2 blood oranges sliced
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, heat blackberries, sugar, and water over medium heat. Stir and crush blackberries with back of large spoon. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until reduced and sugar is completely dissolved.
- Pour mixture through fine mesh strainer to strain out blackberry seeds and pulp. Discard pulp and seeds and let syrup cool completely.
- In a large pitcher, pour red wine, brandy, chambord, blackberry syrup and stir to combine.
- Add blackberries, raspberries, and blood orange slices and stir. Gently pour in lemon-lime soda.
- Serve immediately.
