I tried 3 celebrity chefs' recipes for white sangria, and the best was also the prettiest

• I tried three celebrity chefs' recipes for white sangria to find my go-to for the summer.
• Rachael Ray's option was refreshing, light, and reasonably quick to throw together.
• While Bobby Flay's recipe requires eight hours of rest, Trisha Yearwood's needed more time to sit.

Sangria is an alcoholic beverage typically consisting of red wine, fruit, and spices, but a lighter twist on the classic uses dry white wine instead.

Since the temperatures are rising, I decided to test a few simple recipes for white sangria by celebrity chefs Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, and Trisha Yearwood to find an option to enjoy all summer long.

Read on to find out how each drink stacked up, and which one I plan to sip by the pool this summer.

Ray's sangria includes a rainbow of fruits

To accompany her famous "30 Minute Meals," this 15-minute sangria is about as easy to make as I expected.

The recipe calls for apple liquor and sparkling water, which I respectively swapped for apple brandy and club soda, as well as dry white wine, sugar, and a variety of colorful fruits.

The majority of the work involved cutting the fruit

I started by washing and cutting all of the fruit.

The recipe calls for fresh, ripe peaches, but they weren't quite in season yet, so I opted for frozen slices and saved myself a few minutes of prep work.

From there, I added the fruits, apple brandy, and sugar to a pitcher, then covered the mixture with white wine and moved it all to the fridge to let the flavors meld.

Once the sangria had chilled for a few hours, I used tongs to place some of the fruit in the wine glasses and topped it all with club soda, which watered the drink down a bit but not in a bad way.

This sangria was very light and easy to drink

This drink was very light, and the varying colors of the green apples, peaches, raspberries, limes, and lemons really made this option stand out.

The peach flavor came through the strongest, but I still tasted hints of the apple and citrus.

Flay's sangria needs at least 8 hours to rest

Food Network star Flay is well-known for his grilling and barbecuing skills, so I imagined his sangria would be a lovely addition to an outdoor family dinner.

His white peach sangria calls for 25 minutes of prep work plus eight to 48 hours of chill time, so this is ideal to make ahead of an event.

I couldn't wait to try the peach puree

The recipe calls for making your own peach puree and simple syrup, but since I almost always have the latter on hand and ready to go, I was able to save time on that step.

I love peaches, so I was excited to try a sangria with the added puree, and using frozen slices saved me the time I'd spend peeling and pitting the fresh alternative.

Since I bypassed the most time-consuming steps, this sangria quickly came together.

I just blended some frozen peaches and water to make the puree, then added that to a pitcher full of peach, orange, and apple slices.

I added apple brandy, orange liqueur and juice, pineapple juice, simple syrup, and dry white wine, then let the mix sit in the fridge overnight.

After the sangria rested, I moved some of the fruit to a glass and poured the drink.

I'd skip the juices next time

Although this drink was OK, I mostly just tasted the orange and pineapple juices rather than the wine.

This sangria was very sweet, so I wouldn't mind making it again with less - if any - juice and a lot more peach puree.

Yearwood's sangria takes 5 minutes to make and can be enjoyed immediately

Unlike the other two recipes, Yearwood's fruity white sangria requires no chill time. Instead, she adds ice and recommends serving it immediately.

This sounded great at first, but I started to worry that this might water down the mix since ice is so quick to melt, even in a cold drink.

The recipe calls for colorful fruits - like blueberries, raspberries, mango, orange, and apple - as well as white wine, apple brandy and juice, and ginger ale.

This was another quick drink to make

As expected, this recipe was as easy as washing and slicing the fruit, then adding everything into a pitcher filled with ice.

I also added some of the fruit into the wine glasses before serving.

I wasn't a huge fan of this drink's flavor profile

I'm not a big fan of apple juice, so the taste of that in this sangria wasn't ideal. And although I like both ginger ale and white wine, all three of these flavors didn't work together well and were the only ones coming through.

The fruit is mainly for show since this sangria didn't chill in the fridge for a few hours, so there wasn't enough time to let the flavors infuse.

This sangria looked pretty and gained major points for how easy and quick it was to make, but flavor-wise, it just wasn't for me.

Ray's sangria was my favorite

I can see myself sipping Ray's white sangria by the pool this summer. It wasn't too strong or sweet, offering a good balance of flavors and a light feel thanks to the carbonated addition on top.

With the wide variety of fresh ingredients added to it, this sangria looked nice and was also the happy medium in terms of chill time - it's not served instantly, so the fruit has time to enhance the flavor of the drink, but it also didn't have to sit in the fridge overnight before I could enjoy it.

The other two recipes' main issue was the addition of store-bought juices, which just didn't work well with the wine flavor, so I'd go for the freshly squeezed alternative next time for a better taste.

And of course, I'd be happy to add generous amounts of Flay's peach puree to any of the options.

Click to check out the other celebrity-chef recipes we've put head-to-head so far.