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Sara’s Purple Passion
A good friend asked me to help create a cocktail for her son and daughter-in-law’s wedding celebration. The groom enjoys whiskey so they served a whiskey ginger ale cocktail which was called “Whiskey Chaser.” Not to be left out, their dog Sarge had a cocktail called “Sarge’s Swamp Water” which was a Bootleg. The bride likes tequila and the color purple so I tried a few different ideas and this is the final recipe I created, which is essentially a bright purple margarita.
If you like the fun purple color, you need to order Butterfly Pea Flower Powder. I ordered mine from Amazon. Mix 1 teaspoon of powder into 4 ounces of blanco tequila. Mix well and then pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove any little pieces of powder that didn’t dissolve. The tequila will be blue, but it will turn purple when you mix it with citrus.
In a glass with ice, combine:
2 parts Sweet & Sour (I don’t typically use a pre-made mix, but asking a venue to make a scratch cocktail in large quantities isn’t practical. You can also use my scratch margarita recipe and by adding the butterfly pea flower powder you will achieve the same bright purple margarita.)
1 part Cointreau or Triple Sec
1 part fresh lime juice
Mix to combine.
Pour 1.5 parts of the butterfly pea flower tequila into the glass and watch the blue tequila turn the drink purple. (If you don’t care about the “show” of watching the drink turn purple you can just add the butterfly pea flower powder to a cocktail shaker with all of the margarita ingredients and ice, then shake well until the powder is dissolved.)
Stir and enjoy.
Cheers to Chase & Sara!
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Hibiscus Margarita
It’s almost Cinco de Mayo so get your margarita fixings ready. I’ve already posted three margarita recipes on my blog, click on the links for those recipes and pick the one that appeals to you. My all time favorite Scratch Margarita recipe here, my Refreshing Margarita recipe with Suja juice here and my Grapefruit Margarita recipe here. I love all of these recipes, and you’ll see they all have the same basic ingredients, but I wanted to branch out a little and try something new this year. (Click on any blue words in the post for recipes or more information.)
Hibiscus Margarita Ingredients First, make a hibiscus concentrate. If you can find hibiscus flowers that’s great, (available on Amazon) but if not, just pick up a container of natural hibiscus tea at the grocery store. The Republic of Tea is a good brand.
Boil 1 1/2 cups of water
Add 1/4 cup of hibiscus flowers or several tea bags
Let steep for at least 10 minutes until the concentrate is a dark red.
Strain out the flowers and discard. Refrigerate the concentrated tea for up to one week. (I like to store my fresh juices and concentrates in Mason jars.)
To make your drink extra special you can make a hibiscus rimmer for your glass. Grind equal parts sugar and dried hibiscus flowers together with a mortar and pestle. The sugar will help break down the hibiscus petals. Then add salt to taste.
Pour a little Cointreau in a plate to wet the rim of your glass and then dip the glass in your hibiscus rimmer. Fill your glass with ice and set aside.
Hibiscus Margarita To make the margarita, combine in a cocktail shaker filled with ice:
1 1/2 oz Patron Silver tequila, or your favorite brand of tequila
1 oz Cointreau
2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1 oz hibiscus concentrate
Shake well and strain into your glass with the hibiscus rimmer and ice.
Salud!
For a non-alcoholic drink with the hibiscus concentrate try: 1 oz fresh lemon juice, 1 oz Hibiscus concentrate and 5 ounces of club soda over ice.
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Suja Margarita
I had trouble coming up with a name for this margarita… “Yummy Margarita” seemed a little subjective. I’m pretty sure the alcohol offsets any of the probiotic properties of the Suja, but trust me when I say it’s too tasty to care.
1 1/2 ounces Patron Silver or tequila of your choice
1 ounce Cointreau
1 ounce fresh lime juice (If I’m juicing multiple limes, I’ll juice 1 lemon as well to make an unsweetened sour mix.)
2 – 3 ounces Suja Vibrant Probiotic (Ingredients include strawberry, raspberry, tart cherry and lemon juice.)
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well. Salt the rim (if desired) of a tall glass and fill with crushed ice. Strain over the crushed ice.
For those of you who haven’t discovered Suja juices yet, you can find them in the refrigerated fresh juice section / produce area of Target or Whole Foods.
Cheers!
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Grapefruit Margarita
Such a dilemma this week on what cocktail to post… a Margarita for Cinco de Mayo or a Mint Julep for the Kentucky Derby.
Just kidding. It wasn’t that big of a dilemma… I love margaritas and I don’t like whiskey.
1 1/2 parts Casamigos Blanco
1 fresh jalapeño
1/2 part Cointreau
1/2 part fresh grapefruit juice
1/4 part fresh lime juice
3 shakes of Grapefruit bitters per cocktail
Simple syrup to taste. If pink grapefruit is in season, you probably won’t need any simple syrup.
Quarter and seed the jalapeño. Place into the bottle of tequila for several hours (or overnight.) If you forget to do this, or you don’t want to spice up your entire bottle of tequila, just muddle a slice or two of seeded jalapeño with your tequila before adding any ice.
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well. Strain into a salted-rim glass filled with ice.
Garnish with lime and a slice of jalapeño.
Salud!
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Margarita
Who doesn’t love a scratch margarita?1 1/2 ounces blanco tequila (I use Patron or Casamigos)
1 ounce Cointreau
1 ounce orange juice
1 – 2 ounces fresh lime juice
agave or simple syrup to taste
(simple syrup: heat 2 parts sugar with 1 part water until dissolved, chill in fridge for up to 6 months)If you like salt on your rim, pour a little Cointreau onto a plate, dip the rim of your glass in the Cointreau (the high sugar content will make the salt stick better than using lime juice), then in salt.
Fill your glass with ice.
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake well and strain into your glass.
Enjoy!