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Adult margaritas
Silver Bullet:
Adult margaritas, as in margaritas for someone who appreciates tequila, not for someone who just wants a sweet drink with a little alcohol.
I’ve been making margaritas for 25 years. I had a recipe I liked a lot, but it wasn’t quite as good as some of the best ones in the restaurants: tequila, triple sec, fresh squeezed lime juice, and sweet-n-sour.
A couple years ago I came across a recipe by a well known chef who specializes in grilling and southwest flavors. His was very fundamental, very simple, and apparently well known, probably more a bartender standard than his own recipe:
8 oz tequila
4 oz triple sec
4 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
Notice there is no sweet-n-sour, which you can make your own with ½ sugar, ¼ lime juice, ¼ lemon juice. That’s a lot of sugar, and I’ve seen online margarita recipes that were half, or even more than half!, sweet-n-sour.
So I tried his recipe and it was much better. You can taste the tequila. So happy to be free from the sweet-n-sour.
Then I discovered a source for prickly pear syrup. Amazon (Cherie’s), among others. To the above recipe I added 1 tablespoon of syrup, and that was just enough to sweeten it a tad (you don’t want two tads) without making it a sweet drink; and just enough so I can taste the prickly pear. What a match, prickly pear cactus with agave (tequila). It’s terrific!
I tried 2 tablespoons in the 16 oz of margarita and that was too sweet for me. I settled on 1 tablespoon.
The first sip will seem strong if you’re used to Mex restaurant margaritas, but you adapt very quickly and the more you drink the more you like it. You’re really better off never trying this! =D
The margaritas in my local Seattle area Mex restaurants, some of which seemed really good before, now just seem like kool-aid with some tequila because of all the sweet-n-sour.
I found two restaurants in Phoenix that serve extraordinary margaritas. One serves a prickly pear margarita that I couldn’t tell from mine. The second https://www.theboulders.com/restaurants-and-dining/the-spotted-donkey-cantina.html has a margarita (El Pedregal) made with Double Barrel Herradura Reposado tequila, and I think it is the best margarita I’ve had.
Tequilas: I was using El Jimador for a long time as a fine tequila for budget prices. If I wanted to splurge I might go with 1800. Then I discovered the above mentioned Herradura, and that was in a different league. More recently I discovered Camarena, which is between El Jimador and 1800 in price, but is amazingly smooth for its price point. I have a couple bottles of Herradura Double Barrel, but it’s too expensive for my budget as a daily use margarita tequila, so I was very happy to discover Camarena, which I think is very underpriced.
Triple-sec: pay attention to the alcohol content, more is better. I like Bols.
Limes: get ripe Persian limes, the lemon-sized limes you usually think of as limes. Key limes (the little green golf balls that come in a bag) can be too bitter (in addition to sour), and they’re a pain to squeeze that many itty bitty limes. The ripe Persian limes are softer than the unripe, even a bit squishy. I can immediately identify the ripe limes by the very smooth thin skins, and lighter green, even yellow. I then follow up with a slight squeeze to verify. What you DON’T want are the ones that are hard, dark green, rough.
Ice: Yup, I even have an opinion on that. I make these big round ice cubes, about the size of an apricot. The idea is that the bigger the cube, the smaller the total surface area for the same weight of ice, and that means they melt (and cool) slower. Crushed ice would be the worst, your drink would get watered down very quickly.
zxcvbob:
I've also been making margaritas lately; a couple of weeks. I haven't gotten the ratio down exactly yet, but it's usually something like 3 ounces of blanco tequila (Kirkland Silver), 2 ounces of Tripel Sec (Dekuypers, which is the strongest I can find at 24% ABV besides Cointreau at 40% which is way too expensive.) You could also use Grand Marnier, but I think the brandy would be distracting. And about 1.5 ounces of lemon juice. I know it should be lime, but lemon works too. Much better when I used fresh lemon juice instead of bottled. I mix it in the glass I'm going to drink it from, Triple Sec first, then the lemon or lime juice, then the tequila, poured over ice cubes and stir it all up. Leave the ice in. If you want to get fancy, pour it ice and all into a new glass with salt on the rim. Now I need to get some fresh limes and might have to reduce the amount of juice to about 1 ounce because limes are more sour.
Blue Curacao (also DeKuypers @ 24%) also works and is a little sweeter than Triple Sec but I think the TC tastes better. If you want it a little sweeter just add a little more TC.
I'm about out of tequila, so might be making whiskey sidecars next. Basically the same thing with Canadian whisky or cheap bourbon instead of tequila.
ETA: If you can find fresh Meyer lemons, try using them instead of lime or regular lemon juice. I've never tried it but Meyers are sweeter.
Silver Bullet:
I looked at my Bols bottle: 21% alcohol.
I used to always read that the purpose of the cocktail shakers was to mix the drinks up with ice in order to cool down the drink faster than otherwise. The shaker has a strainer that then keeps the ice from being poured into a drinking glass.
Recently I read something new (to me). Another purpose of the shaker when used for margaritas (or other drinks with citrus juice) was to ensure the citrus juice was completely mixed with the other ingredients. If that's true, you might be missing out by stirring the drink instead of shaking. I don't know what the deal with citrus juice is that it resists combining with other ingredients, but that is a reason put forth by ... somebody. :lol:
Silver Bullet:
--- Quote ---I'm about out of tequila
--- End quote ---
What kind of excuse is that? Buy more tequila. =D
zxcvbob:
I dont have a cocktail shaker. If I did, I would shake these and not strain out the ice. They start out so strong you kinda want the ice to continue diluting it, and fresh ice wouldn't do that as well. I will work on stirring them better (use a small spoon instead of a finger :lol: )
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