Tag: margarita

Cocktail of the Week: Honeydew Margarita

2014-09-21 19.04.14

Have you noticed anything different at your local grocery store? Specifically, in the produce aisle? Most of the stone fruit is gone, as is the citrus, and there are now a lot of apples and pears and if you were lucky for about a two-three week span the place was overrun with melons. So many melons! Watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydews, casabas, muskmelons! We have a friend who had been growing their own melons in a private garden plot and had more than he could handle himself and so gifted us some. More than we could normally eat before they went bad and so D and I went looking for alternative uses for melons. Cocktails immediately came to mind, and that is how this post ended up here today.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Honeydew Margarita

  • 2 ounces honeydew juice
  • 1 1/2 oz tequila
  • 1 oz fresh lime juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake. Strain over ice into glasses with either a salt or sugar rim (I used a mixture of sugar and chili powder to rim these glasses.)

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Wow! Wow! Wow! I’m a big fan of honeydew on it’s own but mix it with some tequila and lime juice and you’ve got yourself an amazing cocktail. The Honeydew takes center stage making the margarita sweet with only a hint of sour provided by the lime and almost no alcohol taste. Really refreshing. I’m sad I only found out about these now as there won’t be any melons in the fall or winter and margaritas aren’t really seasonal or appropriate again until spring… If you do happen to find a honeydew in the supermarket in the next couple of days though, grab it!

Cocktail of the Week: Cucumber Jalapeno Margaritas

2014-05-11 19.19.11

This probably would have been more appropriate last week. But, I’m not really big on Cinco de Mayo and margaritas are a great cocktail for any time of the year. D found this recipe and has been begging me to try it for a while now. I have to admit the mix of jalapenos and cucumbers had me intrigued… So, this weekend I made sure I had all the ingredients and go to work!

Most of the ingredients
Most of the ingredients

Cucumber Jalapeno Margaritas

  • 4 oz. tequila
  • 1 lime
  • 1 lemon
  • small cucumber
  • jalapeno simple syrup (see below)

Juice the lemon, lime, and cucumber. Cool the liquid in the refrigerator. Combine juice, tequila, and syrup in a large pitcher with ice. slices of cucumbers and jalapeno may be added as garnish. Serve in salt rimmed cups (margarita, martini, or whatever glasses you happen to have lying around.)

Jalapeno Simple Syrup

  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 jalapeno

Slice the jalapeno, removing seeds. Put water, sugar, and jalapeno slices into a pot. Boil the water on medium until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for about ten minutes with pot covered. Drain liquid through a fine mesh colander. Cool completely.

P.S. – if you don’t have a juicer getting liquid out of the cucumber could be a problem. I chopped it up and threw it in to the food processor and blended it into a rough paste and then put the puree into cheesecloth and squeezed the liquid out. Seemed to get the job down.

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This was a surprisingly good take on the traditional margarita. D says it might just be here favorite variation so far. Her exact words were, “A plus and five gold stars.” That’s quite the endorsement and I’m inclined to agree with her. I think I like the traditional margarita a little more but this is certainly my favorite twist on the drink. The jalapeno syrup brings the heat and the cucumber brings the cool. It’s a lovely combination.

Cocktail of the Week: Elderflower Margarita

2014-03-23 18.54.21

Spring is here! Spring is here! To celebrate the warm days and cool nights I decided to make Margaritas! But, I’d already made margaritas for this here project. So, what was I to do? No, a Daiquiri is not the correct answer! I made a different type of Margarita, one with St. Germain in it!

The ingredients
The ingredients

Elderflower Margarita

  • 1 1/2 oz. silver tequila
  • 1 oz. St. Germain
  • 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

Combine ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake until cold. Strain into chilled cocktail glass (salted rim if you like.) Garnish with lime wedge.

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Except I didn’t have silver tequila and I didn’t want to buy silver tequila. So, I used the tequila we already had. If you’re a real stickler you could call this a Golden Elderflower Margarita. I’m not a real big stickler though, so I won’t.

This was sweet and easy and delicious. A description that also describes springs here in Davis. So, it’s the perfect cocktail for this evening. D really liked them too and that is always a plus!

Cocktail of the Week: Spicy Grapefruit Margaritas

2014-02-23 19.02.25

Saturday was National Margarita Day (February 22) and so I decided to make a margarita despite featuring one recently. I couldn’t do just another plain ol’ margarita either. D had me covered though with this spicy take on the cocktail she had seen online. This take on the familiar cocktail used grapefruit instead of lemons or lime and substituted a simple syrup for triplesec. Not just any simple syrup though, this one has cayenne pepper in it.

I was skeptical when D described the recipe to me, but she prevailed on me to make it and now, after drinking it, I’m glad she did!

The ingredients
The ingredients

Spicy Grapefruit Margaritas

  • 2 oz. tequila
  • 1 oz. cayenne simple syrup (see below)
  • 4 oz. fresh grapefruit juice

Rim glasses (this cocktail is not usually served in a margarita glass, we used mason jars) with either salt or sugar (I use a sugar cayenne pepper mix.) Place ice in glasses, add tequila, simple syrup, and grapefruit juice. Adjust juice and syrup for your desired level of sweetness. Stir well.

Cayenne Simple Syrup

  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Combine the sugar, water and cayenne in a small saucepot and bring to a simmer. Stir so that all sugar melts then remove from heat and cool in the fridge. You’ll want to do this an hour or so before you make the drinks as you’ll want the syrup to be chilled before making the cocktail.

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I love the colors of this drink a deep ruby red at the bottom from the grapefruit juice and pulp shading lighter as you approach the mouth of the jar. Through out are little flecks of cayenne pepper. This is a delicious drink. Perfect for hot afternoons or warm evenings (the kind we’re having right now in California, sadly…) The sourness of the grapefruit is perfectly offset by the spicy sweetness of the syrup. A lovely drink. I’m thinking I’m going to have to keep some of this pre-made in the freezer as well…

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