Drink of the Month: Tropical Red Sangria

I love Sangria!  Not the nasty stuff you find in a plastic bottled labeled, "Sangria," but real hand-made Sangria prepared with a good bottle of wine.  

White Sangria has always been my Sangria of choice.  I like Red Sangria, but I always found it to have a weird flavor that I just wasn't a fan of.  I finally realized what the flavor was, it's Brandy.  It seems like most Red Wine Sangrias call for Brandy, and I do not like the stuff.  So I set-out to make one that didn't involve Brandy.
  
It took a couple years, and a few failed attempts that went down the drain, but I finally concocted the perfect Red Wine Sangria for me.  

Most Sangrias are comprised of four main ingredients: wine, liquor, sugar, and fruit.  
*Wine is the easy one, I prefer a dry-spanish wine in Sangria, but most any red wine will work.  
*For the liquor component I used spiced rum instead of brandy.  
*The sugar was no sugar at all, it was Simply Tropical by Simply.
*The fruit was slices of orange and lime (because it's what I had on hand at the time).

Finally, a Red Sangria that I can drink all Summer long.  

Drink of the Week #7: Coffee Cubes

 A few years ago, while enjoying breakfast at Brewed in Fort Worth, I came across a coffee drink on the menu that I had never seen before, Coffee Cubes with Milk.  For starters, I am not a milk drinker, but I do enjoy Almond Milk and Soy Milk.  I decided to order the drink, which they have in limited supply, with Soy Milk.  It was delicious...I was hooked...I made it at home.  

Coffee Cubes are by far the easiest drink to make, and it is perfect for those mornings where you realize you have no more coffee in the house, you are running late getting out of the door, or you need an afternoon pick-me-up.  

I like to use leftover coffee I have in the pot, instead of brewing a new pot.  I purchased a cheap ice cube tray and filled-it with leftover coffee, then simply stuck it in the freezer.  The next day the coffee was perfectly frozen into cubes, and they were very easy to remove from the mold.  

With a milk of your choice poured over the cubes, I tried a new flavor, Almond Coconut Almond Breeze.  I typically buy regular non-sweetened Almond Breeze, but the addition of Coconut Milk intrigued me; especially with the health benefits of each.  The milk was great, the Coconut flavor was more prominent than the Almond flavor, but added such a tasty tropical component.  

My favorite thing about the coffee cubes is that they last for hours, because the cubes melt as time goes by; and the drink becomes stronger.  I personally like more coffee cubes and less milk so I have more of a coffee flavor, but be careful, too many coffee cubes and it might as well be espresso with milk.