Sangrita: What It Is and How to Drink It With Tequila

Sangrita is usually treated as a chaser, something to throw back after a shot of tequila to wash the taste away. That reading gets both the drink and the tequila wrong. In Jalisco, the state where the town of Tequila sits, sangrita arrives in its own narrow glass beside a glass of tequila, and the two are sipped in turn, slowly, so that each changes how the other tastes.

The name means “little blood,” a diminutive of sangre, and refers to the color. It has nothing to do with sangria, which is a wine punch.

How to drink sangrita with tequila

The traditional service uses two caballitos, the tall, narrow shot glasses common in Mexican bars. One holds tequila and the other sangrita, usually an ounce and a half to two ounces of each. A wedge of lime and a little salt are sometimes set alongside, although neither is required.

Take a small sip of tequila and hold it briefly, then take a sip of sangrita, and keep alternating until both glasses are empty. Neither glass should go down in one gulp, because the point of the pairing is contrast, and contrast disappears the moment the tequila is shot. Drinks designed to go down in one swallow are a different category, covered in our tequila shots collection. Sangrita’s acidity and salt refresh the palate after the alcohol, while its sweetness and chili prime the next sip of tequila, so that the agave reads as rounder and more vegetal than it would on its own.

For that reason the tequila matters. The conventional choice is a blanco or a young reposado made from 100% agave, which keeps the cooked-agave, peppery character that sangrita is meant to frame. Our guide to choosing 100% agave tequila explains how to read the label. A mixto, made with a substantial share of other sugars, tends to taste flat beside the sangrita.

Two styles: citrus and chili, or tomato

The older Jalisco style, as it is generally described, contains no tomato at all. It is built from orange juice, often from the sour Seville orange, along with lime, pomegranate juice and ground chili. Grenadine frequently stands in for the pomegranate. The result is bright, tart and only mildly hot, and the red tint comes from the pomegranate and chili.

The tomato-based style, now common in the United States and in many bars elsewhere, uses tomato juice or Clamato along with citrus, hot sauce and sometimes Worcestershire. It drinks more like a thin, spiced Bloody Mary mix. The Sangrita in our database follows this tomato line closely, combining Clamato, Worcestershire and Tabasco with Jose Cuervo Especial gold. It is a reasonable template for anyone who prefers a savory glass. The savory weight of tomato also stands up better to a reposado that has spent longer in oak.

A homemade citrus sangrita

This makes enough for about eight servings, and it improves after a few hours in the refrigerator, during which the chili infuses and the juices settle:

1. 1 cup fresh orange juice (or half orange and half Seville orange, if available)
2. 1/2 cup pomegranate juice, or 2 tablespoons grenadine for a sweeter version
3. 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
4. 1 to 2 teaspoons ground chili, or a few dashes of a Mexican hot sauce such as Valentina
5. A pinch of salt

Stir, taste, and adjust the chili before chilling. Bottled sangrita works when fresh juice is unavailable; Viuda de Sanchez is the brand most often found in Mexican groceries, although fresh citrus tastes noticeably brighter. Anyone short on an ingredient can enter what the kitchen does hold into CocktailBuilder, which lists the tequila drinks those bottles and juices already cover.

The bandera

The bandera, Spanish for “flag,” expands the pairing into three glasses whose colors reproduce the Mexican flag: green lime juice, white tequila and red sangrita. The drinker moves through them in turn, lime, tequila, then sangrita, or in any order. It is a fairly ceremonial way to drink a single measure of tequila.

The Banderas entry in our database uses white tequila, lemon juice and tomato juice for the three glasses, a simplified, tomato-style take on the idea. Swapping lime for the lemon and a citrus sangrita for the tomato juice brings it closer to the traditional version.

Common questions about sangrita

Is sangrita a chaser? It is usually called one. Because it is sipped alongside the tequila rather than after it, “companion” is the more accurate word.

Does sangrita contain alcohol? No. Sangrita itself is non-alcoholic, so a glass of it is a reasonable thing to offer someone who is not drinking.

How much tequila goes with one glass of sangrita? Equal volumes are standard. At one and a half to two ounces each, a single pairing holds a full measure of tequila, and it should be paced like one.

Can it be made ahead? Yes, and it improves overnight. Fresh lime juice starts to taste dull after about two days, at which point a squeeze of new lime revives the batch.

Sangrita in mixed drinks

Because sangrita already combines citrus, sweetness, salt and heat, it also works as a mixer. The Vampiro combines tequila, Viuda de Sanchez sangrita, lime and Squirt grapefruit soda in a salt-rimmed glass, where carbonation and grapefruit lighten what would otherwise be a dense, spicy drink. The Mexican Sangrita uses the same four elements without the salt. Proportions that suit most drinkers are roughly 1.5 ounces of tequila, 2 ounces of sangrita, half an ounce of lime and a top of soda.

The tomato style leads naturally to the Bloody Maria, a Bloody Mary with tequila in place of vodka: tomato juice, lemon, Worcestershire and Tabasco, with a lime wedge. The Hot Tequila, aged tequila with Tabasco and Worcestershire, compresses the same savory heat into a single shot glass. That makes it the nearest thing to tequila and sangrita poured together, and about as far as it is possible to get from the slow, two-glass ritual it comes from.

Last modified on October 25, 2026