Recently I’ve gotten many questions from people asking what should I serve my sangria in when throwing a party.

We’ve had lots of opportunity to make sangria for parties. We’ve tried many different containers. Below are a few that we think are the best.

1) For large quantities of sangria we recommend the following:

The container comes in multiple sizes. Of course we bought the largest. We cut out a notch at the top to let us hook a ladle on and still keep the lid closed. The ladle is handy for fishing out the tastes pieces of fruit. Now keep in mind we wouldn’t use this for a formal gathering or any sort of fancy party. This would be used for your average backyard BBQ.  You can buy it at the Container Store: Click Here

2) For a normal quantity of sangria we recommend the following 

These containers are real usefully to lug around but it are not ideal for fishing out the fruit. I normally don’t put fruit into these containers. If I use these containers I’ll stick the fruit into a wide mouth plastic jar where you can spoon the fruit from.   You can buy it at the Container Store: Click Here

3) A more sophisticated serving container

Now this is a clean and stylish way to present and server a good amount of sangria.   You can buy it at Crate & Barrel: Click Here

I have to take a quick minute and talk about our challenge with ice. We’ve been pounding the pavement the last couple of weeks meeting up with local wine shops and other retailers. You would think that our toughest challenge would be getting the retailers to like our product but in fact it is the ice. 

There have been a few days where it has been very hot (high 90’s). We need to carry ice around with us so that we can serve our sangria but with these high temperatures the ice melts quickly. I had one instance where I was pouring out the ice and only water came out for the container. That was funny and it sure broke the ice (no pun intended) with the retailer we were meeting with.

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been pounding the pavement meeting with many wine & liquor retailers. Every time we walk in the door, people look at us with a strange expression. They seem a bit perplexed on how sangria in a bottle can taste good. Their body expression is tense almost as if they are going to drink something bad. 

Then they take a sip and their whole expression changes. They become relaxed and smile, at that moment they realize the mission that we are on. Every time I see that smile I get goose bumps. It truly makes me feel like we are onto something big.

This past June we went to the Portuguese Feast in Newark NJ. This is a great event. All of Ferry Street in Newark is closed down and there are local merchants and restaurants out on the street with there stands. Each stand is serving up something different. This is a good opportunity to get a taste of all the different foods that are available in this area of Newark.

There was music playing everywhere. You had everything from live music to DJ’s mixing it up for the crowd. The city of Newark did a great job of keeping it safe for everyone to enjoy.

In addition to the food vendors there were vendors selling merchandise (ceramic plates/pitchers, jewelry, cloths, etc…). You could definitely feel the sole of this city.

One thing you can see carried throughout the feast are jugs of sangria. Sangria was being sold everywhere. Of course we had to try it out for our selves. The sangria was fantastic. It hit the spot as we walked through the feast. Surprisingly it was legal to drink liquor on the street.

As we walked around we gathered some ideas for Senor Sangria which we’ll be sharing with everyone in the near future.

After a while we stopped to eat. I don’t know if it was the sangria but we had the best chorizo and BBQ’d chicken I have ever had.

If you are ever in NJ/NY during the month of June you should look to hit the Portuguese Feast. It is a 3 day event starting on Friday through Sunday. Every year the date is different but add this event to your must do list.

I’ll look for some online articles to share with you as I find them.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to take a minute today and give you a quick update on what’s happening in the Senor Sangria world.

Last week we met with our first restaurant owner in the Iron Bound area of Newark here in New Jersey. The guy enjoyed our sangria. He gave me some great feedback. In fact he’d be willing to serve our sangria in his restaurant. Now this means a lot to us because he makes his own sangria today.

It has taken much longer then I expected to complete the product. We are down to 3 things that we are waiting on before we are able to sell our product.

1. Formula Approval by the government
2. Label Design & Approval
3. Wine Wholesale License Approval

We hope to have all this complete by sometime in September. I’ll keep you updated over the next few weeks on the progress of each item above.

As for now I’m going to go enjoy myself a nice tall glass of sangria on this sunny and hot day in NJ. Stay tuned this week as it will be a busy one with multiple posts.

Cheers!

On my last post I mentioned that I stopped someone coming out of the liquor store who had bought one of our competitors (Carlo Rossi Sangria). I gave her a sample of Senor Sangria and never thought that I would hear back. I pleasently surprised when I got an email this morning.

Below is the message I received…

Hi Rick,

You gave me a bottle of your sangria to test last weekend at the Wine Shop (Morris Turnpike) - it was delicious! I will definitely purchase your sangria in the future. It has just the right amount of sweetness and is very refreshing! Fantastic recipe!

Thanks

I also took a screen shot of the email to show as proof. I now know the secret to selling our sangria. We need to stop everyone who buys one of our competitors products and have them sample our product. Sounds like a lot of work but we’ll do it!

Yesterday I was at the liquor store buying a few things. As I was checking out I noticed the person next to me had a jug of Carlo Rossi Sangria. I’ve always wondered who bought that stuff. It is on the shelves of every store but I’ve never seen anyone buy it.

So I go to my car and notice that the person who bought the Carlo Rossi parked behind me. I was so intrigued about this purchase that I went up to the woman, gave her my business card and asked her a bunch of questions. I also gave her a sample of our product and asked her to try it and give us a review.

After thinking about what I had done the woman probably thought I was crazy. She probably drove off and threw our sangria and business card out the window.

Keep an eye out for the crazy sangria guy… I hear he makes you drink tasty bottled sangria…

Question: Have you ever bought Carlo Rossi Sangria? If so let us know how you serve it?

This is just a quick note to everyone before the weekend officially starts.

I’ve been invited to be part of the launch of an entrepreneur small business radio talk show. The show will air on Monday June 23rd at 6pm on WVNJ 1160AM (http://www.wvnj.com/).

If you want to listen in via the web click on this link: http://xrl.us/sangria-radio

It should be a great time. I hope to share our sangria story and be able to get other people fired up about starting their own business and following their dreams.

Have a great weekend!

THANK YOU!!! We were extremely surprised and happy by the amount of feedback we received with our prior post. We got many comments on our site and many more emails. I’ve said it before and now I’m going to write it down for everyone to read it.

            “The sangria revolution has begun!”

When it comes to sangria one thing has become clear. People who drink it are passion about it. I’ve seen this in the comments and with each of the tastings we have done.

Unlike beer or wine sangria is something you drink with your friends and family. You normally won’t sit down to have a glass of sangria on your own. Because of this you are always surrounded with people you love and those memories are engrained in your mind.

Take this test, the next time you are around a group of friends tell them that you are in the mood for sangria. You’ll see smiles form on their faces, they’ll turn to you and tell you where they were the last time they had a glass of sangria.

Now my question to you is… When and where did you have your last glass of sangria?

Click on the “Leave a Comment” link below to leave your answer.

We reached a major milestone in sangria history last week.

Tuesday, May 20th we bottled our first official samples. It felt as though we were waiting for a baby to be born. We patiently paced back and forth as the bottling line was prepped and our formula was blended. Finally when it was time the sweet aroma of sangria flowed throughout the bottling room as the line came to life and bottles began to fill.

To share this excitement we’ve posted some pictures below. I hope you enjoy them and can feel the same excitement we are experiencing.

I can’t thank everyone enough for their support & encouragement over the last few months. It has motivated our team to keep pushing forward.

With our samples in hand we now need to make retailers and distributors as excited about the product as you are. If you know any retailers or distributors who you think would be good candidates for carrying our product please let us know. We need all the help we can get in building our network.

We want to hear from you. Please leave us a comment below…