Maria Jola Sangria - NEW PACKAGING!

Guys, summer time is here, and you know what that means...

SUMMMMMMER!!!  Vacation beach jump - Poipou Beach, Kauai, Hawaii 

SANGRIA AND SUNSHINE!!!

I just made a trip to Trader Joe's to stock up on sangria (the sunshine was already provided by Mother Nature :) ).  I got a little nervous when I didn't see the brightly colored Maria Jola bottle of yore.... 

This is from LAST YEAR, when I was ever so excited to grab a bottle of sangria!! 
I thought I would find this same bottle on the shelf today, but no luck...

But then I found THIS cutie patootie:

New packaging!! 

The TJ's employee assured me it is the same sangria, just in a newly designed package.  I have to say, I think this is a big improvement over the old bottle!  The dots are FUN, fun, fun and the whole thing just looks, oh, I don't know, classier I guess.  It is still made of plastic so you can easily toss it around for picnics or travel without worrying. 

Our local TJ's did not have the white sangria version today, which was a-ok with me because we think that kind tastes like bathroom cleaner.  And if there is one thing I do NOT want to sip on a warm summer night, it is bathroom cleaner... 

Original review of both the red and white sangrias here:  Maria Jola Red and White Sangrias

I am planning on making a batch of this tonight and sitting out on the front porch for dinner and drinks.  Ahhhh, summer!

Price:  $5.99 (though I am not certain the bottle holds the same amount as the old one)
Rating:  we haven't drunk it yet to be SURE, but if the TJ's person was correct that it is the same product, I will stick with our previous rating of 4.25

HAPPY SUMMER!

Maria Jola Sangria (Red AND White)

This is an unusual review, in that I am going to actually review TWO products in ONE review.  But I feel I must put them together, to save you the sadness that befell us.  Therefore, this review will cover:

RED Sangria

and

WHITE Sangria

Consider this a Public Service Announcement…  In my mind, SUMMER SANGRIA SEASON IS NOT OVER YET.  I refuse to believe that autumn is right around the corner.  So read these reviews, then rush to TJ’s and stock up on (red only) sangria.

BUY THIS BOTTLE!!
(Well, not THIS bottle, we already drank this one, but a bottle that looks just like this one!)

Let me say this right off the bat – we loved the red Maria Jola sangria (which I shall review first!).  We loved it so much, that after we drank it, the next time we were at Trader Joe’s and saw the WHITE version, we thought, “Hey!  The red was soooo tasty, the WHITE kind has to be delicious too, right?”.  Oh man, were we suckers.

First review – RED Maria Jola Sangria

We lugged a bottle of red sangria with us from Virginia down to Florida (land of “no Trader Joe’s near where we stay…”).  One lovely Florida day we swam in the ocean, rehearsed David’s show on the back patio (which makes a great “stage”), then I capped off the day by making a pitcher of SANGRIA!  I put the bottle of red sangria in a pitcher and added fresh orange slices, fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries, and a little bit of Meyers lemon from our very own fruit cocktail tree (whose name is Trixie!).*  I refrigerated the whole shebang for a while to let it chill.  My opinion is that the longer the fruit is in the sangria the better the whole thing gets (though our opinions might have been skewed by the increasing amount of sangria we put into our systems as the night wore on…).

Us on the BEACH!  (This was pre-sangria, we were not day drinkin'...)

And speaking of the fruit, it tastes super delicious to munch on after it has stewed a while!  When you pour this make sure everyone gets fruit in their cups!  It is like a healthy (??) little serving of fruit with your drink.    

Anyway, this red sangria is really good, especially if it is very cold.  It is a great summer time drink. 

Trixie the Fruit Cocktail Tree loaded down with Meyer Lemons

It may LOOK like a lime but it is a Meyer Lemon

David’s take on it: “I agree with what Susan said completely.  This is much better than I expected.  I have had a lot of sangrias that just take like not very good wine with fruit thrown in them, but this is (maybe because of how Susan prepared it!) very, very nice and fruity.  It is the way I think a NICE sangria you might get somewhere in Spain or Europe somewhere would taste, or at a nice restaurant.  It tastes very summery – the strawberries and lemons taste fantastic, too!   I like that it isn’t too strong – it lets you drink more of it!!  (Editor’s note:  the label says the alcohol content is 7%.)  I give this red sangria a 4.25.”

Susan:  I agree with that score – a 4.25.  It is not too sweet, it is not chemically tasting…  It tastes a bit PUNCHY (and, we both agree, if you drink enough of it, YOU GET A BIT PUNCHY!).

Price – $6.99

Rating – 4.25

* If you do not a fruit cocktail tree to pick your own Meyer Lemon off of, you can find them in season at Trader Joe's!  Excellent review of them from day 3 of this blog here: Meyer Sweet Lemons 

Second review – WHITE Maria Jola Sangria

I added raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and orange slices in this sangria.  As you just read above, we really dug the red sangria, so I was excited to have this white one!   I like white sangria when we order it at restaurants!  We thought this bottled version of white would be juuuust as tasty as the red one.

(I hate to keep bringing up the RED SANGRIA, but geez Louise,
it is yummy!  We brought it to a dinner the other night...)

We were wrong.

When David first tasted it he said it was “perfume-y”, and I think that is the right term.  There is too much “perfume”-like scent to it.  When you raise your glass to take a drink, it smells too much like PERFUME, and then you TASTE the perfume…  And somehow, to my “sophisticated palate”, that “perfume-y” taste makes it takes like BATHROOM CLEANER.

To be perfectly transparent here, I have never drunk bathroom cleaner.  And I am not saying this product tastes TOXIC or anything…  It just tastes too much like it smells…   Do you know what I mean?  It is hard to describe.  I would say you need to taste it to understand what I am trying to explain, but that would mean you have to actually taste it, and I don’t want you to have to do that!

I give this a 2.25 rating.  I MUCH PREFER the red version.

Obviously I get excited over the red version....

David’s opinion: “This white sangria is too sweet and too perfume-y so it overpowers the fruit.  I can’t even really taste the fruit as much as I would like.  I think would be a better sangria if it were made with a more “transparent” white like a vino verde or something.  It is WINE, and it is not UNPLEASANT, but if I went shopping for sangria again I would get the RED instead of this one. I would give this white sangria a 3.5.” 

Price – $5.99 (a dollar cheaper than the red, but spend the extra buck, trust me!)

Rating - 3