Everyone should make sure to make at least one toast this weekend to Cornell Days and the Cornell weather machine. Why else would the sun have been shining this week and the temperature have warmed up to frisbee and whiffle ball highs? This weather can only mean one thing: it's time to grill dinner and sit around drinking outside at night.

Anything chilled could really count as a “summer drink,” I guess, but sangria is really a summer specialty. A wine punch originating in Spain and Portugal (the word actually comes from “sangre,” meaning blood in Spanish), there is virtually no wrong way to make sangria. Even it its traditional form there are variations.

The only real requirements are that it include wine and fruit and be cold; red wine is generally used, but white wine provides a delicious variation sangria blanca – one which I actually prefer. Other ingredients can include honey, orange juice, sugar, brandy, triple sec, rum, other spirits, cinnamon or carbonated water. As you can tell, everything from the color to the alcohol content can vary based on who's making the sangria.

A Pretty Traditional Recipe

1 bottle (750 ml) dry red wine

1 lime

1 lemon

1 orange

1 ½ cups rum

1 cup orange juice

Chill fruit, wine, rum and orange juice. Slice fruit and place in a large pitcher. Pour in rum and sugar; chill in fridge for two hours to meld flavors. Remove from fridge and use a (wooden) spoon to crush the fruit slightly before stirring in the wine and orange juice.

Non-Traditional, Quick Sangria

2 cups lemon juice

2 cups orange juice

2 cups sugar

2 cups brandy

4 cups red wine

4 cups club soda

ice cubes

Combine juices and sugar in a pitcher until sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients and serve over ice.

A Fun White Wine Sangria

3 oranges

2 lemons

4 cups dry white wine

1 cup brandy

2 tablespoons honey

10 bottle carbonated water (e.g. Seltzer)

Squeeze juice from two oranges and one lemon. Mix with wine, brandy and honey in a bowl; cover and chill. Before serving, slice remaining orange and lemon and add to bowl. Mix in chilled carbonated water.