White Sangria in Suspension

A delicious, refreshing and incredibly smooth and velvety sangria with suspended fruit and mint leaves at different levels. As your guests sip this visually stunning sangria, they will get to enjoy the different delicate fruits in an elegant and classy way.

This is a technique created by Chef Ferran Adria. By slightly thickening the white sangria with xanthan gum, you can not only suspend solids such as fruit in it but also give the sangria a smoother and velvety texture that your guests will rave about. In addition to fruit, you can also suspend juice caviar for an additional popping effect.

But this technique can be used beyond molecular mixology. One of the creations of molecular gastronomy Chef Ferran Adria is a clear ham broth with suspended watermelon caviar.

With this technique it is important to use a clear liquid so you can showcase the beautiful suspended fruit. When thickening with xanthan gum you have to be careful with two things to make sure the liquid remains clear: air bubbles and xanthan gum quality.

Air bubbles will make the liquid cloudy so you want to minimize the creation of air bubbles or eliminate them if they form. The xanthan gum needs to be of high quality or the thickened liquid may turn cloudy. There are many grades and variations of hydrocolloids such as xanthan gum even though many vendors call them with the same name. Cheap versions tend not to be pure, manufactured for other applications or simply bad quality. The additives in our store are of the highest food grade quality and have all been tested in our kitchen to ensure you get the best results.

Ready to try this simple and fun technique?

Ingredients

White Sangria

- 1 bottle dry white wine

- 3 tbsp sugar

- 3 shots pear liqueur (or apple liquor)

- lemon peel from small lemon

- orange peel from half orange

- 1/2 green apple

- 10 strawberries

- 15 white grapes

- slice of red watermelon

- slice of pineapple

White Sangria in Suspension

- 600 g White sangria

- 1.7 g Xanthan gum (0.28%)

- Various fruit cut in small 3mm pieces (green apple, strawberries, watermelon, pineapple, red grapes)

- small mint leaves

Preparation

White Sangria

1- Cut fruit in small pieces as if you are making a fruit salad.

2- Mix the wine, liquor, sugar, cut fruit and citrus peel in a pitcher.

3- Let it infuse in the fridge for 8 hours.

4- Pass the sangria through a fine sieve covered with cheese cloth to remove all the fruit and impurities.

Thickening the White Sangria

1- Mix the white sangria with the xanthan gum. To prevent the creation of air bubbles and maintain the clarity of the sangria, we prefer to use a magnetic stirrer to do this. However, you can use a regular immersion blender and then let it rest in the refrigerator to remove the air bubbles. Using the latter method the end result may not be as clear as when using a magnetic stirrer.

2- Reserve in the fridge until serving time.

Assemble and Serve

1- Fill a martini glass with thickened white sangria.

2- Carefully arrange the different fruits and mint leaves in the white sangria at different levels. Apple tends to float at the top because it contains too much air so just be ok with it and don't keep pushing it to the bottom because it probably won't stay there.

3- Garnish glass with mint leaves.