Sangria

đź“ť Robert Brooks

Updated 4/21/2021

Someone pouring sangria into a glass on the Slope

Photo by Melissa Shao

I had to become resourceful. And like many freshmen, I resorted to stealing from the dining halls. At Appel, I stuffed my backpack with fruit. At Okenshields, I filled empty water bottles with juice. And at Risley, I concealed a week’s worth of dessert in Tupperware. Wanting to make a cocktail that utilized many of these stolen ingredients, I realized Sangria made the most sense, primarily because I could throw whatever I wanted into red wine and it’d still taste good. My goal with this recipe is for you to apply the same mischief to your meal plans. There’s an unspoken thrill of taking more than what you should from a dining hall. So, I hope you all have a little fun as you come up with your own ways of thefting these ingredients from Cornell Dining.

Ingredients 

Serves: 2 people tipsy or 1 person significantly inebriated 

  • 1 bottle red wine 
  • 1 tbsp. cinnamon 
  • 16 sugar packets (about â…” cup)  
  • 1 apple, diced
  • 1 pear, diced
  • 4 oranges, squeezed (about 1 cup of juice) 
  • Optional but recommended: ½ cup of schnapps (peach or apple)


Equipment 

  • Pitcher - Using a Brita Filter (without the filter attachment) works great. 
  • Microwave-safe mug 
  • Knife and cutting board


Directions 

  1. Empty sugar packets into a microwave-safe mug. Add â…” cup of water. Mix and microwave for 2 minutes. Mix cinnamon into sugar syrup.
  2. Dice apples and pears. Juice the oranges. 
  3. Add sugar syrup to the pitcher and mix in about ¼ bottle of wine. Add the rest of the wine, orange juice, fruit, and schnapps (if using). 
  4. Let sangria sit overnight in the fridge so the flavors can infuse the wine.

Notes

This recipe was developed pre-COVID, when it was much easier to steal large quantities of items from a dining hall. Since dining halls are no longer self-serve, you will need to abandon all sense of shame to ask for 16 sugar packets. 


It shouldn’t be too hard to find oranges, apples, and pears. But cinnamon is a tricky ingredient to locate. Becker always had cinnamon pre-COVID. 

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