Spanish cocktails for your destination wedding| Sparkling Summer liquid refreshments
Whether your Spanish wedding is taking place on a sandy beach, a traditional pueblo village, a historic city or a hilltop olive grove, you’ll want to keep your guests cool and refreshed with top-notch Spanish cocktails that capture the flavors and feelings of Spain.
Just imagine, your guests mingling in their best wedding-ready attire, beneath twinkling lights and floral arrangements, a Spanish guitarist softly strumming in the background as they sip on a fruity liquid refreshment, typical of the land that surrounds them.
The scene has all the makings of an exotic Spanish wedding that your guests will never forget.
In fact, Spain is famed for delicious cuisine and is home to some of the richest seafood, wines and beverages in the world.
Today, Sunshine Weddings Spain takes a look at some spectacular Spanish cocktails to add sparkle (and class) to your wedding day.
Seville Orange Gin
For a Gin and Tonic with a twist, the Seville Orange Gin, made with essences of Spanish oranges and blossoms, is a must.
The secret of this spirit lies in the uniquely bittersweet and zesty taste of Seville oranges balanced with the complexity of a dry gin, making it a wonderfully tangy beverage for your special day. Best served in a tall glass, a splash of tonic, plenty of ice, a wedge of orange and you are swept away to the streets of Seville.
Sangria
Sangria is a wine punch made up of ingredients that can vary in terms of fruit, liquors, and the presence or absence of soda water. Sometimes it is made with white wine instead of red. A white sangria is an exotic, cosmopolitan and refreshing version of the drink, perfect for a summer wedding.
In some areas of Spain, sangria is called zurra and is made with peaches.
‘Sangria’, gets its name from the Spanish word ‘sangre’ meaning blood, and refers to its dark color.
El sorbete
El Sorbete de Limon al Cava (Spanish Lemon Champagne Sorbet) is one of Spain’s signature wedding desserts—a frozen drink made by mixing lemon ice cream or lemon sorbet with cava.
The most common sorbete is the lemon sorbet, but other popular varieties include tangerine, lime, or mango.
Funnily enough, at weddings, rather than serving the sorbet as a dessert, it is often served between the fish platter and the meat platter as a palate cleanser.
El Cava
Supreme Spanish sparkling wine made using the Champagne method and principally in the Penedes region of Catalonia, though Cava is also produced in other parts of Spain outside Catalonia, such as Requena, Haro or Viana.
The reason this is such a popular wedding drink is pretty self explanatory, it’s time to pop open a bottle of bubbly and toast to your marriage.
Wine
Not a cocktail as such, but it’s the drink par excellence in Spain, whether it is red, white, rosé or sweet wine and can’t be overlooked.
Each region of Spain has its own characteristic wine, due to the variety of climatic conditions and it’s made from the fermentation of grape must or grape juice.
Mocktails
Aguas frescas (Spanish for “cool waters”, or literally “fresh waters”) are light non-alcoholic beverages made from one or more fruit, cereals, flowers, or seeds blended with water, lime, and sweetener. A drink popularised in Central America, but it can also be found in Spain and is a good alternative for those who opt for non-alcoholic drinks. The variety is endless, with delicious flavors including: watermelon, cucumber, pineapple, mango and peach.
Another popular non-alcoholic beverage often served at weddings in Spain is ‘Horchata’, a typical Spanish drink made with tiger nuts (chufas in Spanish).
After dinner coffee, liqueurs, etc.
Just before you hit the dance floor, you can offer your guests coffee (café sólo, café cortado, or café con leche) and liqueurs.
The liqueurs at a Spanish wedding are typically served in tiny shot glasses, but they are not meant to be taken as a shot, rather drunk slowly to savor the taste.
You might also like to have some orujo, a pomace brandy obtained from the distillation of marc, the solid remains left after pressing of the grape, served after your wedding breakfast. Or perhaps some pacharán, made by distilling the spirit of the aniseed plant, colloquially known as sloe, pacharán or arañón, but, unlike wine, beer or cider, it isn’t a fermented beverage.
In essence, a typical Spanish wedding will have delicious cuisine and a varied drinks list followed by several hours of dancing and merrymaking, providing a lifetime of memories for you and your guests.
