California Burgundy Refresher

Cheers!

I’m not sure when we started drinking proper Sangria in California, but I've read that it was introduced to the US at the 1964 World's Fair. Clearly, by 1968, we were mixing up versions of this delightful Spanish beverage with wine, fruit and sometimes juice. This recipe comes from the adorably earnest 1968 publication: “Gourmet Wine Cooking The Easy Way” which was put together by the Wine Advisory Board in San Francisco and is something close to sangria, called a “refresher”. Proper sangria also includes cut up fruit and often brandy or another strong liquor, and sits overnight so the flavors really mix, but this fast version is delicious too. It’s a little more of a punch, which was big for 100 years prior, but begins to use uncomplicated local ingredients and you can see it’s a step towards the Gourmet Food movement of the 1970s.

Gourmet, the easy way...

I love spritzers and sangrias in hot weather, and rarely consult a recipe for them but often just mix up wine, alcohol and fruit, whatever I have around. To serve, I usually add ice and sparkling water to dilute it, but juice is nice as well. In this case, I used pomegranate juice rather than cranberry-apple “drink” (PS I don’t buy anything called “drink”!) and I also garnished my glass with a lemon as well as the called-for mint. It’s yummy but next time, I will mix up a big pitcher-full and add light rum or brandy, and sparkling water. Also, crushed ice - giggle! How 50s!

A note on drinking sangria and punch in general: Since you usually don’t pay close attention to the quantity you’re drinking like you do with cocktails, make sure you dilute with sparkling water or juice, and try to count the times you refill your glass… you’ll thank me later, when you can still stand after guzzling the deceptive concoction all day long in the sun!

Crushed Ice

2 cups California Burgundy

2 cups cranberry-apple drink

Mint sprigs for garnish

The board doesn't seem to exist any longer, but you can rent office space in this building, built in 1907 and which has been LEED certified. Hello, California!

Champagne Cocktail

In celebration of my first year of blogging, I decided to make a Champagne cocktail. Easy enough to just pour out, and delight in, a glass of Champagne, but that hardly requires a recipe, and therefore doesn’t qualify for a blog entry, and we just can’t have that, now can we? Nope. So I pulled out a little bottle of bubbly, and had a look through my recipe books.

This “Bar Guide”, listed as “Authentic and Hilarious” was published by True, The Men’s Magazine, in 1950. (I love the oh-so-50s sayings and bizarre illustrations by Vip!) I picked this recipe for the Champagne Cocktail not because it is any different from those in any of my other drinks books, but because there is a truly “authentic and hilarious” introduction to the entire section on making cocktails with Champagne:

The Champagne cocktail, often known as Chorus Lady Milk, is the aristocrat of wine cocktails. However, those who don’t like chorus ladies consider it a waste of good Champagne. There is only one way to drink Champagne, they insist – neat, from a lady’s slipper. They urge that rather than ruin a bottle of good vintage Piper-Heidsieck in a mix, use any grade of domestic Champagne, say Old Rainspout, 1951.

They, of course, are the spoilsports. To be able to step up and say stiffly, “Two Champagne cocktails, please, Louis Rodier ’26, brut! Throw the rest of the bottle away!” is something to have lived for. To be able to pay for it is even more worth while.


Champagne Cocktail

1 cube Sugar
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Champagne

Place sugar in glass and saturate with bitters. Pour chilled Champagne over and serve without stirring.


“Here’s Champagne to our real friends, and real pain to our sham friends.”