Sangria on the Playa

[Jgladdy]

Question - so our camp, which usually serves wine during daytime happy hours, was playing with the idea of pre-making sangria for the playa.

Has anyone else ever done this? Any advice on how to do it?

We were debating pre-making it the week before and freezing it, then as it melts serving it. The one thing I'm worried about is the fruit, I'd think it'd get nasty being frozen and then thawed.

I'd rather not add a bunch of work on playa cutting and serving fruit for sangria the day or night before we serve.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[FIGJAM]

Experiment now using fruit jucies instead of fruit and see if that will work.

Could be a new sensation!

[VultureChow]

Don't bother with the pre feezing issues.

Use Goya (or other) fruit nectars and some fruit liquors to add to the cheap cheap wine. Then bring fruit that lasts reasonably well at room temp. Oranges, apples, pineapple.

I like white sangria made with mango nectar and mango rum. Normally I would add nectarines and those yellow cherries, but for the sake of this exercise, apples and oranges would work just as well.

The nectars add the fruitiness you need. The rum adds the kick lost by "watering down" the wine with the juice.


Edit: regarding the cutting of the fruit. Apples and oranges are super easy to deal with, but in the event you don't want to, hit Costco and pick up a few big bags of frozen fruit. Peaches and mango would work well. Berries tend to get too soft. Night before just fill cooler with wine, juice, liquor and frozen fruit. Maybe use a bottle or two frozen with water to the mix to keep it cool without watering down the mix. Before serving, add ice. I find slightly watered down drinks, especially fruity ones, to be spectacular out there.

[theCryptofishist]

Yeah, it's gonna be difficult to freeze alcohol...

One of the more offensive moop sites I've ever seen was damp playa with bits of citrus and other fruit mushed into the playa. I took out some but gave up after a while. Those fuckheads.

You will not be able to get a health permit to gift this sangria--the Pershing County health department will be utterly unable to inspect the kitchen where you are making the stuff.

[Eric]

Note on the cutting of fruit, even for sangria:
Fishy is right - you must have a food permit from Nevada if this is being served to the general public, and you need to have a station set up to Nevada health dept standards to do so - which means it has to be on playa so they can inspect it. This is true even if you're just cutting lime wedges to toss into a drink. You also need a plan to deal with all that nasty, soggy, left-over veggie matter when the sangria is gone.

If you use premade cans of fruit nectars & are merely mixing them, this regulation may not apply (I would still ask them though).

[VultureChow]

Yeah, it's gonna be difficult to freeze alcohol...

One of the more offensive moop sites I've ever seen was damp playa with bits of citrus and other fruit mushed into the playa. I took out some but gave up after a while. Those fuckheads.

You will not be able to get a health permit to gift this sangria--the Pershing County health department will be utterly unable to inspect the kitchen where you are making the stuff.

Good point about the health dept. I would guess that using frozen commercially packaged fruit would make everything go down easier.

[Dr. Pyro]

Yeah, it's gonna be difficult to freeze alcohol...

That's not entirely accurate. We placed a bottle of Bombay Blue Sapphire Gin on a block of dry ice and it froze the entire bottle solid. Gincycles.

[theCryptofishist]

I said difficult, not impossible...

[BoyScoutGirl]

The Lamplighters will be doing our famous Sangria Soiree again this year (Monday: 10pm - 2am).

I wasn't around for previous incarnations of the event, but apparently all the fruit slicing was laborious and messy, so we've switched recipes. The new concoction will be using lemonade and orange juice concentrates, frozen fruit slices, and mandarin orange slices (sold in cans).

[trilobyte]

What Eric said on the health permit. It's not too late to file the paperwork on that, if you're up for it.

It's also worth noting that the health department is not going to be cool with pre-making stuff, unless you can document that it was prepared in a commercial kitchen.

All red tape aside, I agree I think freezing the fruit would give you less than ideal results. I think it's that the water expands as it freezes which breaks up the cell structure, and what you get once it's thawed is not only mushier, but doesn't seem right. I'd say bring the fruit and cut it on site when making your batch (setting up a designated 'prep area' and meeting health dept requirements shouldn't be too tough).

[Boijoy]

[lemur]

many pains in asses were had for the previous above mentioned lamplighters sangria parties, mostly due to the large volume of it produced at once in one batch, over 125 gallons (which was, by some accounts.. enough to make it the first 'real' party event during the burn for many years.. enough to serve way over 1000 people).. which meant a crapload of prep work..

no matter which way ya do it, some pains in asses will be had if youre making sangria.

s0 yeah, in the past we had /some/ experience with the sangria thing.. we took a year off in 2012 but by popular demand its back in 2013 ..at like 1/4 of its previous volume ..but still, there will be labor involved even without going the fresh fruit route... and it will be a pain in someones ass

where in the past we used fresh oranges, and apples.. with canned pineapple and limeade/orangejuice concentrate.. this year, in an effort to make it easier we are doing canned mandarin oranges, frozen pineapple and peach chunks and more frozen lemon/orangejuice concentrate.

even without all of the 'chopping stuff up' labor ..there will still be lotsa labor involved.. and as mentioned, it is probably better to happen on the playa, for various reasons..

if youre at all apprehensive about the prep work and the serving work required its probably not the best drink to make.