Friday, June 13, 2008

Key Lime Margarita

Thinking of having a margarita? Thinking of using one of those jugs of margarita mix? Wait, there is a better way...

Fact is, it's so easy to make a real margarita that you might as well not use the pre-mixed stuff – especially when you can make a margarita as good as the Key Lime Margarita!

Here are the ingredients:

  • 1 ½ oz Tequila
  • 1 oz Key Lime Juice (Use the bottled stuff – see below)
  • 1 oz Cointreau (or substitute Triple Sec – again, see below)
  • 1 key lime (quartered)
Now, key limes are tiny, so juicing up an ounce of their juice is a fool’s chore us Drunks don’t need to bother with - especially since there’s a work-around.
The Work-Around
You can buy key lime juice in a bottle for about six bucks at the grocery store. No, it isn’t quite as good as fresh squeezed, but it’s close.
Close enough that if you quarter a key lime and squeeze the juice into your cup before you pour in your ingredients, the fresh juice from the lime combined with the oils from the peel of the lime will give it that fresh-squeezed lime taste – at a fraction of the work.
So, add the lime juice, tequila, and Cointreau to a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into your salted margarita glass with ice. Now, the trick is to maintain the presence of mind to salt the rim of your glass BEFORE you put the ice in the glass. That’s the ideal anyway.
If you are female or gay, then you can make a frozen margarita by putting your ingredients in the blender with ice. Pulse it a bit until the big chunks of ice get broken up, then increase the speed to produce a slushy consistency. If you’re a man, and you’re straight, then you’ll take yours “on the rocks”.
Note: If you don’t have Cointreau, then you can substitute Triple Sec or Grand Marnier. All are orange liqueurs. The difference between them is that the Triple Sec is sweeter, and more sugary. Whereas the Cointreau and Grand Marnier are higher quality, drier, more balanced liqueurs. Cointreau and Grand Marnier also cost about three times as much as your regular run-of-the-mill Triple Sec – so if it comes down to budget, choose Triple Sec. The lime taste of a margarita is so strong that you probably won’t notice the difference unless you taste the two side-by-side.
Remember there are thousands of Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide!

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