Friday, January 01, 2010

Crazy for Cocktails: Margarita

I welcomed in the New Year with my favorite cocktail, Margarita. I began my hunt for a recipe at the Jose′ Cuervo site where I was directed to use a Margarita mix. I think I’ve been very clear how I feel about pre-made anything. So I hopped over to my new favorite site, About.com: Cocktails and wasn’t disappointed. Colleen has recipes for all kinds of mixers for cocktails.

She also offers the alternative of sugar, instead of the usual salt, to rim the glass. I don’t eat a lot of salt, so I have always ordered my margaritas with it, but I have to admit that I am intrigued by the idea of using sugar.

Now a word about tools. Other than the alcohol, I haven’t wanted to invest a lot of money in my little cocktail experiments. Instead of running out and buying a lot of fancy gizmos that I may or may not ever use again, I’ve just been using whatever I have on hand. For a stirrer, I’ve used a chopstick. Instead of a shot glass, I’ve used my measuring cup. For the margarita, I needed a cocktail shaker which I don’t have, so I substituted a Ziplock container. Glassware has also been a problem. I’ve substituted plain old drinking glasses for rocks glasses and in the case of the margarita, I used an old-fashioned wide champagne glass:




How Not To Make A Margarita


My first margarita tasted a little “off”. I decided that it must be too much triple sec. My measuring cup starts accurate measurements at 2 ounces. Anything less than that such as the ½ ounce of triple sec has to be guesstimated. I guessed that I guesstimated a little on the heavy side. The second one tasted better with less triple sec. I still have lots of mixer left so I’ll probably be trying margaritas again some time. Maybe with sugar on the rim.


Margarita
(source: About.com: Cocktails)


1 ½ oz tequila
½ oz triple sec
Dash of lemon or lime juice
3 oz sour mix
Lime wedge for garnish
Salt or sugar to rim the glass (optional)

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes.

Shake well.

If desired, salt the rim of a chilled margarita glass.

Pour contents, with ice, into the glass.

Garnish with the lime wedge.

Recycle: tequila bottle, triple sec bottle

Compost: lime

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