This margarita recipe will have you wanting to throw a fiesta on a regular basis!
It is a delicious, tangy sweet cocktail recipe.
Our recipe for margaritas comes from a wonderful book that every home bartender should have on hand – The Cocktail Primer: All You Need to Know to Make the Perfect Drink
by Eben Klemm.
Eben Klemm has a long history of bartending and developing cocktail recipes.
He uses Triple Sec in his margaritas. I will let him tell you why in his own words:
“We concocted dozens of variations on this warhorse and found that this one was the hands-down favorite. This led us to two discoveries.
First, Triple Sec makes a better secondary spirit in a margarita than do higher-end liqueurs such as Grand Marnier and Cointreau. I think if you use a quality tequila – something that was nearly unthinkable even ten years ago but is quite possible now – a “better” secondary liquor is apt to overpower the primary spirit and mask the herb and fruit aromatics that make tequila one of the world’s great spirits. Neither Grand Marnier nor Cointreau works as well with lime as with lemon, either, and the relative blandness of the Triple Sec seems to be a strength.
Our second discovery was that a bit of lemon juice, certainly not traditional, seems to brighten up the drink. Although purists would rather a cocktail be called a margarita only when it’s made with lime juice, the cocktail remains unmatched as a drink for absorbing other fruit flavors.”
Margarita Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lime wedge
- Kosher salt
- 1 1/2 ounces 100 percent blue agave blanco tequila
- 1/2 ounce Triple Sec
- 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
- 1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 ounce Simple Syrup
Instructions
- Rub the rim of a rocks glass with the lime wedge. Spread the salt on a small plate large enough for the rim of the glass. The salt should be about 1/4 inch deep. Dip the rim of the glass into the salt to coat. Do not oversalt. Set the glass aside.
- Pour the tequila, Triple Sec, lime juice, lemon juice, and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice, cover, and shake vigorously 20 times. Fill the rocks glass with ice, strain the drink over the ice, and serve.
Notes
How to Make Simple Syrup:
Take 2 parts sugar and 1 part water. Bring the water to a boil. Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water, stirring constantly. Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat. (Note: Do not allow the syrup to boil for too long or the it will be too thick.) Allow to cool completely and thicken, then use it or bottle it.Variation:
- Strawberry, passion fruit, and fresh white peach are some great flavors to add to margaritas. Simply replace the lemon juice and its proportions with a fresh puree of your favorite seasonal fruit.
If you like Eban’s margarita recipe, have a look at his recipe for mojitos.
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