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!

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Barbados Punch

Captain Morgan, Lime, Triple Sec and Pineapple Juice. I'm not sure what could possibly go wrong with that combination of ingredients. Even if you messed up the proportions; most likely it would still taste great.

Right now, pineapples are a buck each at my grocery store, and I almost never need a reason to buy a bottle of rum. So, it just seemed natural to make this drink today. Then make another one. And then a third for desert.

The Barbados Punch is tangy-sweet, and refreshing with the ice slushy effect. A great way to plus this drink up is to substitute some chunks of pineapple for the pineapple juice. It creates this frothy sweet, lime citrus drink. Oh man, it's good.

I find when I make these blended drinks that it helps to prep the ice before I put the rest of the ingredients in. So I put the ice in the blender first and whack it around on low speed for a bit - pulsing on and off. Otherwise you end up with big chuncks of ice and the rest pulverized into liquid.

Of course, I'm just a Drunk and I don't have a fancy blender. Probably if you have one of those great bar blenders you don't have to worry about it.

Anyway, here's what you need:

• 1 oz Spiced Rum (That's Captain Morgan for most of us)
• 1/4 oz Triple Sec
• 2 oz Pineapple Juice (or better yet, throw some chunks of pineapple in the blender instead of the juice)
• 1 oz Lime Juice (fresh squeezed is always best, but use what you have)

Instructions: Put a cup of ice in the blender and crack it up a bit. Then add all the other ingredients and blend it up well. Pour into a highball glass, and garnish with a slice of your pineapple and a lime slice. Drink it responsibly (whatever that means).

Remember there are thousands of Cocktail Recipes on the Drunk Man's Guide!

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - The Hurricane

If you've ever been to New Orleans then you can probably appreciate the benefits of a strong Hurricane. And no, I'm not talking about Katrina or Andrew. I'm talking about the kind of Hurricane every drunk should know how to make.

Now, there are some fancy pants bartenders who aren't from the Big Easy who get stingy with the booze. I've seen recipes for Hurricanes that only include one ounce of liquor in a big glass of juice. Sorry, that's not how you make 'em.

When you order your Hurricane from one of the open, walk-up bars on Bourbon street , the drink is strong. Like "knock-you-on-your-a$$-strong". I mean, it's called a Hurricane, not a "drizzle". Hurricanes destroy things, so it follows that if you drink one, you should be likewise destroyed, right?

But you don't have to go to Louisiana to get a good Hurricane because you're a Drunk and you can make your own. Here's how to do it:

• 1 oz Vodka
• 1 oz Amaretto
• 1 oz Gin
• 1 oz Light Rum
• 1 oz Triple Sec
• 1/2 oz 151 Rum
• 1/4 oz Grenadine Syrup
• Pineapple Juice
• Grapefruit Juice

Directions: Pour the liquors into a Hurricane glass (or pint glass, or collins glass, or whatever big glass you have) 3/4 filled with ice and stir. Fill the rest of the way with equal parts of the juices. Enjoy.

Remember there are Thousands of Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide!

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Mint Daiquiri

Minty and sweet - that’s what we’re looking forward to this evening. The perfect drink to sip as you gaze out at your yard and think about all that mowing you are going to be doing tomorrow morning. Yeah, it’s spring alright. The yard work, the pollen, the Rum drinks!

Here’s how to make a Mint Daiquiri:

• 2 oz of Light Rum
• 1/4 oz of Triple Sec (or another kind of Orange Liquour)
• 4 Mint Leaves
• 1/2 oz Lime Juice
• 1 tsp Powdered Sugar
• 1 cup of ice

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend it until it’s smooth. Keep in mind a couple of tips:

1. Try and get as much of the stems off the mint leaves as possible. They can make the drink a little bitter. It doesn’t hurt to use a knife to cut the spines out of the leaves.
2. Make sure you blend it enough to really pulverize those mint leaves down so that they are just specks of green in the drink. If you don’t blend them enough they will get little green flakes caught in your teeth, and that isn’t cute.

More Mixed Drinks and Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide