Spiced Sangria
Spiced Sangria is 60ml of dark rum and 30ml of Aperol built over plenty of ice in a highball, topped with 150ml of Fever-Tree Refreshingly Light Spiced Orange Ginger Ale, with a cinnamon stick and a squeezed orange wedge. About 2.7 UK units. There is no wine in it. It is Fever-Tree’s serve, and the measures are theirs. Each part takes over a job the wine does in a jug of sangria. The rum gives body and depth, the Aperol gives bitterness and a little grip, and the ginger ale brings orange, spice and length. Their recipe asks only for rum. We pour a dark one, because its caramel and oak fill the space red wine leaves. The ginger is what keeps the glass from tasting like a rum punch: its heat dries the finish against the Aperol’s sugar and sits easily with the cinnamon.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Orange wedge and Cinnamon stick
Ingredients
150ml
The published serve names the Refreshingly Light version, which has no alcohol. Its ginger brings the heat that dries the finish, and the orange and cinnamon on top carry the sangria’s fruit and spice.
60ml
At 40% ABV. Fever-Tree’s recipe says only rum; we use a dark one for the caramel and oak that stand in for the wine’s body. A white rum makes a lighter, sharper glass with the Aperol further forward.
30ml
At 11% ABV. It brings bitter orange and a little of the grip red wine would give. With a white rum, pour 20ml so the bitterness does not lead.
1
Whole, and given a minute in the glass. Ground cinnamon is no substitute: it clouds the drink and tastes dusty.
Fill the glass
Cubed, and plenty of it. Aperol and ginger ale both carry sugar, and a glass that warms up turns heavy.
Instructions
Fill a highball glass of about 42cl with cubed ice.
Add the dark rum and the Aperol.
Top with 150ml of the spiced orange ginger ale.
Squeeze the orange wedge over the drink and drop it in with the cinnamon stick.
Stir once and leave it for a minute before drinking.
Source: the producer's own published serve (Fever-Tree). Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Give the cinnamon stick a minute in the glass. Whole bark releases slowly, so a drink poured and drunk at once tastes of ginger and Aperol with a stick sitting in it. Snap the stick in half if you are in a hurry; the broken ends give up their oil much faster. Squeeze the orange wedge before it goes in. Wine brings acidity to a sangria, and nothing else in this glass does. A squeeze of juice puts back a little of the sharpness the recipe gave away. For a jug, mix the rum and Aperol ahead and keep the ginger ale cold and sealed until the glasses are poured. Opened early, it goes flat long before the jug is empty.
Behind the Spiced Sangria
Flavour Profile
Fever-Tree’s Sangria Without Wine
This is Fever-Tree’s published serve, written around its spiced orange ginger ale: 150ml of the ginger ale, 60ml of rum and 30ml of Aperol in a highball over plenty of ice, with a cinnamon stick and an orange wedge. Its own notes say plainly that the red wine is missing.
The serve is recent and has no story of its own. It borrows the name of a much older drink and earns it by doing the same jobs with different bottles.
Where Sangria Comes From
Sangria is Spanish and Portuguese: red wine with fruit, sugar and often brandy, served cold from a jug. The name is usually traced to sangre, Spanish for blood, after the colour, and the drink is usually said to have reached a wide American audience at the New York World’s Fair of 1964.
What Replaced the Wine
In a jug of sangria the wine brings body, a little tannin, acidity and a fermented depth that juice does not have. Each of those needs covering if the wine is to go.
Dark rum covers the body and the depth, with caramel and oak in place of grape. Aperol covers the bitterness and some of the grip. Acidity is the one thing left out, which is why the orange wedge is squeezed rather than dropped in.
Ginger Gives It a Spine
Rum, Aperol and an orange soda would make a pleasant drink with one note. Ginger changes that: its heat lands at the end of the sip, exactly where the Aperol’s sugar would otherwise settle.
Ginger and cinnamon read as one warm flavour rather than two spices, and the orange in the ginger ale ties both back to the Aperol. Three bottles that could easily argue end up pointing the same way.
Beside Our Sangria and the Spritz
Spiced Sangria beside our Sangria and our Aperol Spritz, by the glass
Base
- Spiced Sangria
- 60ml dark rum
- Sangria
- 120ml red wine, 25ml brandy
- Aperol Spritz
- 90ml prosecco
Orange
- Spiced Sangria
- 30ml Aperol
- Sangria
- 30ml fresh orange juice
- Aperol Spritz
- 60ml Aperol
Sweetener
- Spiced Sangria
- From the Aperol and ginger ale
- Sangria
- 15ml simple syrup
- Aperol Spritz
- From the Aperol
Lengthener
- Spiced Sangria
- 150ml spiced orange ginger ale
- Sangria
- None
- Aperol Spritz
- 30ml soda water
Citrus
- Spiced Sangria
- Orange wedge, squeezed
- Sangria
- 15ml fresh lemon juice
- Aperol Spritz
- Orange slice
Contains wine, so sulphites
- Spiced Sangria
- No
- Sangria
- Yes
- Aperol Spritz
- Yes
UK units
- Spiced Sangria
- About 2.7
- Sangria
- About 2.6
- Aperol Spritz
- About 1.7
| Element | Spiced Sangria | Sangria | Aperol Spritz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 60ml dark rum | 120ml red wine, 25ml brandy | 90ml prosecco |
| Orange | 30ml Aperol | 30ml fresh orange juice | 60ml Aperol |
| Sweetener | From the Aperol and ginger ale | 15ml simple syrup | From the Aperol |
| Lengthener | 150ml spiced orange ginger ale | None | 30ml soda water |
| Citrus | Orange wedge, squeezed | 15ml fresh lemon juice | Orange slice |
| Contains wine, so sulphites | No | Yes | Yes |
| UK units | About 2.7 | About 2.6 | About 1.7 |
Our Sangria and the Spritz both rest on wine, and so both contain sulphites; the Spiced Sangria takes none from wine. It is also the strongest of the three by a little, because 60ml of rum outweighs a glass of red.
How to Serve It
In a highball packed with ice, the cinnamon stick and squeezed orange wedge in the glass, and a minute’s wait before the first sip. It suits an afternoon outdoors and scales to a jug without trouble, provided the ginger ale goes in by the glass.
For the wine original, make a Sangria; for Aperol with prosecco, an Aperol Spritz.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Spiced Sangria?
Is it really sangria without wine?
How do I make it in a jug for six?
Does the cinnamon stick actually do anything?
Which rum should I use?
Can I use a different ginger ale?
How strong is a Spiced Sangria?
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Sangria
Sangria, by the glass, is 120ml of young red wine, 25ml of brandy, 30ml of fresh orange juice, 15ml of fresh lemon juice and 15ml of simple syrup, rested in the fridge with sliced orange and apple, then poured over ice in a wine glass. About 2.6 UK units a glass. A 750ml bottle makes about six. Rest it for at least an hour, overnight if you can, and never past a day. The fruit gives up sugar and oil to the wine and takes up wine and brandy in return; after a day it starts to break down and the citrus dulls. The name comes from sangre, blood, for the colour. Every household in Spain and Portugal fills the recipe differently, with cava in some and peaches in others, and these measures claim only the proportions. Ours has no soda or lemonade: it is wine, brandy, citrus and time.
Dark ’n’ Stormy
A Dark ’n’ Stormy is 60ml of Gosling’s Black Seal rum floated over 100ml of ginger beer in a highball full of ice, with a lime wedge. About 2.4 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and the name is a Gosling Brothers trade mark tied to Black Seal. Gosling Brothers say the drink was first mixed in Bermuda just after the First World War. The usual story puts ginger beer from a Royal Navy officers’ club with the local black rum, and a sailor is said to have called the colour that of a cloud only a fool or a dead man would sail under. Gosling’s has held a US registration on the name since 1991 and uses it to stop the drink being sold under that name with any other rum. The same build with another dark rum is a rum and ginger beer, and a sound one.
Aperol Spritz
An Aperol Spritz is three parts prosecco, two parts Aperol and one part soda: 90ml prosecco, 60ml Aperol and 30ml soda water, poured in that order into a large wine glass packed with ice, with an orange slice to finish. That is the International Bartenders Association’s Spritz, with its splash of soda measured. Aperol is an Italian aperitivo at 11% ABV, bitter orange with rhubarb and gentian, launched by Luigi and Silvio Barbieri in Padua in 1919. The spritz habit in the Veneto is older; the usual account traces it to Austrian soldiers adding water to the local wine. Pour the prosecco first and the Aperol mixes as it goes in. A glass holds about 1.7 UK units.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Dan Freeman · Updated 11 October 2026