Tag: travel

Tinto De Verano is a traditional Spanish summer drink. Its name translates to “Red Wine of Summer”.  The drink is similar to sangria but much simpler to make.  Everyone I have made the drink for love it. I was first introduced to the drink on a trip to Spain in high school by the local kids I was with.  They explained that in Spain only tourists order sangria, local order Tinto De Verano.  The drink is very easy to make and it only really as 2 ingredients. I will explain more below.  On my return visit to Spain in 2010 I noticed that they even sell this in the grocery store now, premixed in large liter bottles.  I did not end up trying this as the real thing is so easy to make and I would guess tastes better too.The list of ingredients to make a Tinto de Verano  is very short and simple.  The main ingredients are red wine and a carbonated lemon soda.

The Wine:
While in Spain I asked about learning to make this and it was explained to me that any red wine will work to make the drink. They also said the cheaper the wine, the better usually.  In Spain we bought Liter boxes of wine for just a few Euro that worked great. This is a great way to get rid of red wine that you don’t care for is just cheap. Shiraz, Malbec, and blends containing Merlo and Cabernet Sauvignon also work well. The wine variety is really unimportant. I have found the Trader Joes famous Two Buck Chuck works pretty well.

The Soda:
In Spain two of the most popular sodas are La Casera Gaseosa which is low sugar lightly carbonated lemonade type drink. The other popular choice is Lemon Fanta.  The problem with these is that they are not widely available in the United States.  For example Lemon Fanta in the USA is not made with real cane sugar.  Anyone who has had a Mexican or European Coke will tell you there is a huge difference, the same is true with Lemon Fanta.   I will explain what I use to make the drink in the US below.

What I use to make Tinto De Veranos myself are Trader Joe’s wines.  The store recently opened in my area and they sell a couple varieties of house red wines under the label  Charles Shaw.  It sells in my area for $2.99 a bottle so it sure fits the cheap criteria.  For the soda I have found that Sunkist Lemon soda works really well.  They also have a diet variety that tastes good too.  I have read that a lemon lime soda like Sprite or 7-up also works but since these are sweeter and have lime with them it changes the flavor a bit.  I have not tried these as much.

If you want to make the drink a bit stronger you can easily add a shot of white rum. Be careful as this drink does a good job of masking alcohol so things can get out of hand pretty easily.

So now that you know about the drink here is how you make it.

Instructions:
Using a high ball glass fill the glass with several large ice cubes.
Fill the glass about 1/3 of the way full with red wine,  add optional rum.
Fill the remaining glass with the Sunkist lemon soda that has been chilled.
Stir and enjoy.

The drink should be light, refreshing and bring the fruit flavors out of the wine.  Depending on the wine being used it is acceptable to use a little bit of simple syrup or sugar to make the drink a bit sweeter if desired.  Optional garnishments include a slice of Lemon or Orange.