Costco Frozen Fruit Does Double Duty For Effortless Sangria Pitchers

We've all found ourselves wandering the aisles at Costco, eating samples and buying cheese in bulk. Part of the warehouse store's charm is just how much it has to offer shoppers. Amongst the many goods are the big bags of frozen fruit the store sells. 

Giant bags of mango chunks, blueberries, and strawberries are just a few choices you have when standing in front of the cavernous freezers. But unless you're big into baking pies or making smoothies, they may not seem like something worth purchasing. The great news is that frozen fruit has another use that you've probably not thought of (but won't forget).

Frozen fruit isn't great to eat plain when defrosted, but it's a great tool behind the bar. The secret to making the most of those big bags of berries and melon chunks is introducing them to your next batch of sangria. There's no reason to spend time meticulously chopping fresh fruit for that carafe of wine — bulk frozen fruit is the answer.

Sangria means "blood" in Spanish and is most often associated with Spain and red wine. But the drink has a history much richer than that. The first occurrences of a drink like sangria date back to the early Greeks and Romans mixing their wine with fruit and spices. Spain was producing a similar drink, thanks to its abundance of grapes. However, both wine and sangria faced a downturn in the 700s that would last until 1492 before starting to come back.

Later, sangria spread in popularity across Europe and into America in 1964 at the World's Fair. Americans have grown to love the fruity drink, and it's become a regular offering at restaurants and wine bars across the country. There's something about the mingling of fruit, wine, and alcohol that makes people happy. The dependence on simple ingredients also makes it a breeze for entertaining guests. It's a drink that is incredibly easy to tailor to the occasion, and it gives you a lot of room for fun.

The many variations of sangria today are part of what makes it so great. The most painstaking part of the process is dealing with the fruit, which is why Costco's bulk frozen option is such a win. Instead of getting out the cutting board, you can just retrieve the chilly morsels from the freezer.

If you're going for a traditional red sangria recipe, fruits such as oranges, apples, and red berries complement the heavy body of the wine. Of course, you can also make a lighter sangria. For white or rose versions, reach for stone fruits. Peaches, plums, and raspberries will infuse delicate notes of summer into your wine. There's a lot of room to play around with flavor combinations, and the process is certainly tasty. 

That frozen fruit has another perk, too. It can act like an ice cube to keep the sangria nice and cool without diluting it.