Use your favorite white wine in this irresistible apple cider sangria. You’ll love the way it bursts with fall’s best flavors like apple, citrus, cinnamon, and pear. I recommend making a batch ahead of time to maximize its flavor.
I adapted this apple cider sangria recipe from one of my favorite fall recipes: honeycrisp apple sangria. Here we’ll use white wine instead of red and add a few extra ingredients. The recipe is totally customizable—use whatever in-season fruit you love. No matter what, it’s always a hit especially when served with a cinnamon stick as the leaves begin changing.
If you love this fall sangria, be sure to try my champagne sangria next! For a sweet summer treat, here is my honey sweetened strawberry lemonade.
Tell Me About This Apple Cider Sangria
- Texture: Bubbly, light, and loaded with fruit, which gets nice and boozy the longer it sits.
- Flavor: Filled with fall’s glorious flavors like apples, oranges, pomegranate, pears, and cinnamon.
- Ease: Preparing all the fruits takes a little bit of time. Still, this is the easiest big-batch cocktail, perfect for fall entertaining. It tastes best if made ahead, which saves time when it’s cocktail hour.
- Time: Takes just minutes to prepare once the fruit is chopped. Get your pitchers ready!
Choosing the Right Ingredients for Apple Cider Sangria
- Apple Cider: Apple cider serves as the foundation of this beverage. If desired, you can even make your own homemade apple cider in the slow cooker. And if you have leftovers, be sure to try my skillet apple cider chicken and baked apple cider French toast, too!
- White Wine: Any mild white wine is perfect for apple cider sangria. It doesn’t have to be super fancy or expensive. I usually use Pinot Grigio.
- Brandy + Orange Juice + Lemon Juice: These flavorful additions make a truly spectacular sangria. Don’t leave them out.
- Fall Fruits: Use your favorite seasonal fruits like apples, pears, oranges, and pomegranate. You can mix it up and focus on your favorites.
- Cinnamon Sticks: A must to truly capture that fall flavor. Pick up a few extra to use as garnish in each glass.
- Club Soda: My secret to keeping the fizz in this drink? Add a touch of club soda right before serving. Club soda gives the apple cider autumn sangria a little extra pop. Avoid sweetened carbonated drinks like 7-up or Sprite as these could make the sangria too sweet.
Sangria Is a Make-Ahead Cocktail
Here’s the best part: sangria is the ultimate make-ahead cocktail. I recommend keeping the apple cider sangria in the refrigerator for at least 6-8 hours (but a full day is best) before serving. The longer the sangria sits before drinking/serving, the more the fruit will infuse its flavors and the more the booze will soak into all the fruit slices. It’s a win-win-win. Let’s toast to that!
Looking for More Fall Treats?
- Honeycrisp Apple Sangria
- Pumpkin Bars & Pumpkin Bread
- Apple Cider Donuts
- Lighter Pumpkin Frappuccino
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
And classic apple pie and pumpkin pie, of course!
Print
Apple Cider Autumn Sangria
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 5 minutes (or overnight)
- Yield: serves 6-8
- Category: Drinks
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Irresistible white wine sangria filled with fall’s best flavors like apple, cider, citrus, cinnamon, and pear.
Ingredients
- 2 cinnamon sticks, plus more for serving
- 2 medium apples, thinly sliced (I prefer Honeycrisp)
- 1 medium pear, thinly sliced
- 1 medium orange, thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1 (750 ml) bottle white wine (I suggest a Pinot Grigio)
- 2 cups apple cider
- 1/2 cup brandy
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- club soda, for serving
Instructions
- Place the cinnamon sticks and fruit into a large pitcher. Add wine, apple cider, brandy, orange juice, and lemon juice. Allow to sit in the refrigerator for 3 – 24 hours (6-8 hours is best!).
- Pour the sangria and fruit into glasses. Add a splash of club soda. Garnish with a cinnamon stick, if desired.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Large Pitcher | Wooden Spoon
I want to make this recipe but don’t have any brandy on hand and rather not purchase just for the recipe. I do have good quality dark rum but I’m not sure how that would pair with the white wine. Perhaps your other Honeycrisp sangria recipe using red wine would be better? Please advise!
Hi Aly, You can leave the brandy out or substitute it with another liqueur. Cheers!
Starting my Thanksgiving planning. I am not a wine drinker but when I do it’s moscato. Would that work or would the fizz cause a problem with it sitting overnight?
Hi Dawn, the moscato would start to lose its carbonation overnight. There are some varieties of moscato that are less bubbly than others—you could try using one of those instead, and then add the club soda the next day for the fizz. Hope you enjoy it!
Do you have a suggestion for type/flavor of Brandy? There are so many and different flavors. I’d like to know which one you suggest. Thank you!
Do you have any breakdowns on sugars, etc. for this drink?
Hi Ginny, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Can I use apricot brandy which I already have on hand?
Hi Diane, that should be fine. The taste will, of course, be different. Enjoy!
Quick question: Can I use Prosecco instead of club soda or would that make it too “boozy”
Hi Liz, it’s just a splash, so that should be okay!
I can’t wait to make this for Thanksgiving. 2 questions- do you recommend a brand of brandy and will a 30oz. Pitcher be big enough?
If you have a slightly larger pitcher, that would be great. I don’t have a great brandy recommendation, as I’m not much of a brandy connoisseur. I usually buy a Spanish variety… and the first one I see!
How much club soda? Just a splash to each glass, a 12-oz. can to the pitcher, or a different ratio? Thanks!
Hi Faith, we recommend just a splash to each glass right before serving. Enjoy!
Hi! I’m making this for a large crowd, can I add the club soda beforehand or is there a reason it should only be added right before serving?
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Samantha, we recommend adding it right beforehand so the club soda stays nice and fizzy/carbonated.
DELICIOUS!! Make it exactly as the recipe states. The club soda definitely rounds it all out when serving. We love this sangria.
Can I omit the Brandy?
Hi Melissa, definitely! You can leave it out or substitute it with another liqueur. Cheers!
This was a massive hit at our thanksgiving this year! Doubled the recipe and made two small additions—added about 12 whole cloves in with the fruit (i studded them in an apple slice, which i pulled out before serving), and added a can of ginger beer right before serving (in lieu of club soda). The additional spices made it extra-autumnal!
Hi,
This is a gorgeous drink! I’m having a hard time deciding between your Honeycriap Apple Cider and this one for a party. Is either one a little less sweet than the other? Appealing to a wide range of tastes…
Hi Shauna! This apple cider sangria is definitely sweeter than my honeycrisp apple cider. I usually serve this version to a large crowd!
Most sangria I know of incorporate more than one alcohol, was wondering how hard cider would go with this, wicked D’s baked apple cider? It’s sweet and kind of creamy
That sounds incredible and I’m sure would work well in this sangria.