Blood Orange Margarita

Not that you need an excuse to chill with a tasty cocktail, but since today is Cinco de Mayo, we'll go ahead and name that as the reason for enjoying one before noon.  I think I've mentioned before that the Cinco de Mayo celebrations in our family mostly revolve around birthdays!  My youngest son was born today.  My mom was born today.  One of my nephews was born today.  Celebrate!

I know, I know.  You're probably saying "but your husband is from Mexico..." (you're totally saying that, right?).  True.  But he is not from Puebla, and Cinco de Mayo is more of a regional celebration celebrating the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

That said, we do live in America and here we like to throw fiestas and consume many plates of Mexican food and many glasses and bottles of Mexican cocktails and beer on this day.  Our town even has an annual event with traditional dance and music to accompany the food.  It is really a celebration of Mexican heritage.

So, for whatever reason you choose to celebrate today...you might as well do it with style.  And carrying out a pitcher of these jewel-hued margaritas would definitely qualify.  Salud!

Blood Orange Margaritas

by Heather Schmitt-González

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: n/a

Keywords: beverage blood orange alcohol Cinco de Mayo Day of the Dead Christmas Mexican

Ingredients (6-9 cocktails)

margarita

• ⅔ c. fresh lime juice
• ¼ c. superfine sugar
• ¾ c. water
• 1 c. silver tequila
• ½ c. Cointreau or Triple Sec
• 2 c. freshly squeezed blood orange juice (or store-bought, if you like)

to finish

• lime half
• coarse salt and/or superfine or coarse sugar
• ice cubes

Instructions

In a large pitcher, stir together the lime juice, sugar, and water until sugar has dissolved. Mix in tequila, cointreau (or triple sec), and blood orange juice. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, ~1 hour.

Moisten the rims of your glasses with the cut side of a lime. Spread coarse salt and/or one of the sugars (on separate plates) and upend the glasses to crust the rims.

Next, you can finish up one of two ways. Either fill a cocktail shake ~¾ full of ice and add ~1½ c. of mixture to it. Shake and pour into glasses. Or you can simply shake the mixture around in the pitcher and bit and pour it over ice in your glasses to drink it on the rocks. Really this depends on the type/size of glasses you're using. Either way...ENJOY!

notes:

Obviously freshly squeezed blood orange juice is going to taste the best and give you the best, deepest color for your cocktail. Unfortunately, blood oranges aren't always readily available everywhere. The ones I found this time were on the tail-end-out and didn't contain much juice. So I bought a jug of blood orange juice to use in their stead. I really wanted some. It still tastes pretty fantastic, but the color isn't as brilliant.

adapted from Fiesta at Rick's

Powered by Recipage

I am sharing this post with:
IHCC theme: Cinco de Mayo