Caramel Apple Sangria is a light, refreshing, delicious, and easy fall sangria recipe that’s perfect for crowds. This apple pie sangria is made with apple cider, caramel vodka, white wine, ginger ale, cinnamon, and fresh fruit in a pitcher. I call this my Thanksgiving Sangria because it’s Autumn in a glass, and it’s always a hit on holidays!
What’s in this Fall Sangria Recipe?
This apple sangria tastes like a slice of apple pie! You only need a few things to make this tasty caramel apple pitcher cocktail. It’s one of my favorite sangria recipes!
- Apple Cider: Apple cider creates a sweet, juicy, and fresh apple flavor for the base of this sangria. Use your favorite cider from the store or apple orchard, or try making Instant Pot apple cider.
- Wine: Use a white wine of your choosing–dry or sweet both work, depending on your taste preference. I recommend Pinot Grigio.
- Caramel Vodka: This is what adds that sweet caramel apple flavor to this cocktail. You can make this apple pie vodka instead.
- Apples: I love honeycrisp apples, but you can use your favorite type. These will sit in the pitcher of sangria and infuse more flavor.
- Pears: More fruit to infuse flavor into the sangria.
- Cinnamon: Cinnamon sticks will infuse a warm spiced flavor just by sitting in the liquid.
- Ginger Ale: Ginger ale adds a bubbly texture and a kick of ginger flavor.
Pro Tip: If you like sweet wines, try this caramel apple sangria with moscato instead! You could also use a sparkling apple cider to increase the bubbly effect.
Can I make this apple sangria with regular vodka instead?
Absolutely! If you use a regular, unflavored vodka, you’ll still have a delicious apple pie sangria recipe. If you don’t have caramel vodka but still want that extra flavor, add a generous amount of caramel sauce or syrup at the bottom of the pitcher with the fresh fruit.
For best results, I recommend making a caramel simple syrup, or use a caramel flavored coffee syrup.
This caramel apple sangria can be made with whichever wine you prefer, but it will change the overall flavor. I recommend a dry white wine like Pinot Grigio. A sweet white wine like moscato or riesling will, obviously, make it taste much sweeter and fruitier. A sparkling white wine will add a fizzy component.
If apple juice is all you have, you can use it instead, but I highly recommend using apple cider for the best flavor. Cider and juice are made differently, so cider has a much deeper and more authentic apple flavor, while juice is much weaker.
In order for all of the ingredients to mix and meld together, I recommend refrigerating your apple pie sangria for at least 2 hours before serving. The longer it sits, the more the cinnamon and fresh fruit flavors will infuse into the liquid.
How to Make Ahead and Store
This caramel apple sangria needs time to “marinate” in the refrigerator, so it’s best to make it at least 2 hours ahead of serving time. Combine ingredients, stir, and simply let it sit in the fridge. Leave the ginger ale out until right before serving.
If you have leftovers, store the pitcher in the fridge up to 2 days. The ginger ale will lose its carbonation, but it will still taste yummy.
Serving Suggestions
This caramel apple pie sangria recipe tastes amazing with all your favorite apple desserts and dishes. Serve it along with apple baked brie, apple butter and skillet bread, apple cake, or apple crisp. For dinner, it pairs beautifully with apple butter pork chops or apple ginger glazed ham.
If you make this recipe be sure to upload a photo in the comment section below or leave a rating. Enjoy!
Caramel Apple Sangria | Apple Pie Sangria
Ingredients
- 2 bottles white wine standard size white table wine or pinot grigio
- 5 cups fresh apple cider
- 1 cup caramel vodka (or make your own Apple Pie Vodka!) (see note)
- 4 honey crisp apples chopped
- 2 pears chopped
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 cup ginger ale
Instructions
- Cut the fresh apples and pear, and place in the bottom of your pitcher or jug.4 honey crisp apples, 2 pears
- Add white wine, apple cider, caramel vodka into the pitcher, and stir well.2 bottles white wine, 5 cups fresh apple cider, 1 cup caramel vodka (or make your own Apple Pie Vodka!)
- Let sangria sit in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
- About 1 hour before serving, add the cinnamon sticks into the pitcher of sangria. Stir well and refrigerate.2 cinnamon sticks
- Stir in the ginger ale just before serving.2 cup ginger ale
- Serve chilled or over ice.
- Enjoy!
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Becky’s tips
Nutrition Information
I’d like to start off by saying, I’m not a drinker. If I have 2 cocktails a year, that’s a lot. But OMG!! This recipe looks delicious l! I plan on making it for a large Halloween party that I’m hosting. Thank you for posting it! I’m super psyched and I can’t wait to try it!
This is GREAT for Halloween parties. I really hope you and your guests love it (even if it’s not your usual drink of choice).
If I make 16 servings of this, how many glasses with each person get if there are 20 people?
Each person should get about half a cup (4 ounces) from that serving size.
I make this for fall tailgates by the gallons and there’s never any left. I make it a day early to let the apples absorb some of the alcohol. I add extra cinnamon sticks too. One of my favorite cocktails!
Yum! Thanks for sharing, Melissa!
Was just wondering if this would be okay to make the night before?
Just keep cooled and add the cinnamon sticks an hour before serving!
Delicious!! Made this for my co-workers and everyone loved it!!
Thanks for sharing, Monica!
I love this recipe and want to make it as one of my signature cocktails for my wedding this fall! How much should I double this recipe to serve at least 80 people (this is the guesstimate of how many people out of 150 will drink it) thanks!!
Well this recipe makes 112 ounces…at 6 oz per glass that’s around 18 glasses. So 3 glasses per person winds up being 6 people per batch. That means you’ll need to plane for 13 batches. Certainly you don’t need the extra fruit.
2. 5 liter boxes of pinot grit
4 gallons of apple cider
4 750ml bottles of caramel vodka
4. 2 liter bottles of ginger ale
Add apples, pears and cinnamon as you like
This was easy and delicious! I LOVE fruit but the proportion of fruit to drink was way too much, or maybe my apples were huge.
Make it to your liking!
Love the container you have posted, where is it from? Probably won’t still have it but might have one similar. Thanks. Trying recipe today.
It’s been so long since I purchased it, I don’t remember!
Made this for my holiday party and it came out amazing. I made a small batch as directed the day before to try it out and ending up changing the amounts a little for the party as the wine was very overpowering and I wanted more apple and caramel to come through. I mixed 2 bottles of Pinot Grigio, two cups salted caramel vodka (only caramel vodka I could find), 5-6 cups Simply Apple juice (hard to find cider in my area and another review said it worked), about 4 Granny Smith apples cut up, with 6 cinnamon sticks. Let sit for about 6 hours and right before serving added 5-6 cups ginger ale and 2 cups cranberries. The entire thing was gone before the end of the night. Will definitely make again and hope to try with real ginger beer.
YUM!! I’m going to have to try it with your changes and see how it turns out!
This was a huge hit when I hosted Thanksgiving! Everyone loved it. So easy & very delicious!
I’m so glad to hear you all enjoyed it!!