Healthy Recipe: Non-Alcoholic Holiday Sangria

Refreshing as it is in the heat of summer, a pitcher of sangria fits right in with a holiday spread as well by adjusting the fruits and flavors to the season. This recipe shows how you can easily turn that concept into a healthy mocktail by swapping pomegranate juice for the red wine and supplementing with freshly brewed tea and cinnamon sticks. Vary the fruits to your desires:

cranberries, grapes, pears, pineapple chunks.

Cranberry juice could be used instead of pomegranate for the base, as could apple juice for a mock white sangria. Mix in ginger beer instead of club soda for extra depth. Served in a clear-glass pitcher, it makes a beautiful presentation with a taste as complementary to the menu as any wine selection.

Serves 8-10. – Susan Puckett

Ingredients

• 2 cups water

• 2 black tea bags, or 2 teaspoons loose-leaf tea in an

infuser (decaf, spiced apple or other fruit-flavored

herbal tea will also work)

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 3 cups pomegranate juice

• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

• 1 thinly sliced orange

• 1 thinly sliced lemon

• 1 thinly sliced lime

• 1 medium apple, cored and sliced thin or cut into

small chunks

• 3 cups cold sparkling water or club soda

Instructions

1. Place the water in a small pot and bring it to a boil.

Remove it from the heat, add the tea bags and

cinnamon sticks, and let them steep for 5 minutes.

Discard the tea bags (but not the cinnamon sticks) and

stir in the sugar to dissolve. Allow the spices to steep a

while longer in the warm tea if desired. They will infuse

the cold liquid as well – just not as quickly.

2. In a large pitcher, combine the tea, cinnamon sticks,

pomegranate juice, orange juice, and cut fruit.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.

3. Just before serving, stir in the sparkling water. (Or

set out a bottle of sparkling water and let guests add

their own.)

Serve in glasses over ice.

Susan Puckett is an Atlanta-based food writer and

cookbook author.