Illustration by Ashley Skoviera With Cinco de Mayo approaching, men who like their margaritas should buy a bag of limes and check their bar inventory to ensure they are ready to enjoy the holiday. My favorite recipe for the day stays as far away as possible from pre-mixed sweet and sour:
-4 parts agave Tequila (Cuervo 1800 or better)
-4 parts fresh lime juice
-1-4 parts Grand Marnier depending on taste - I like less rather than more
Shake the ingredients with ice to chill and pour into a martini glass that should be free of salt (salt is a custom originally intended I am told to obscure the taste of low quality ingredients). Garnish with lime.
Ice is unnecessary as the drink should be consumed before it has an opportunity to get warm. Enjoy.
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5 comments:
Your recipe sounds great, Will. Truly authentic to boot. I'd like to add, if I may, that Cinco de Mayo is when we kicked French butt in Puebla, thus ending their intervention. It is not our Independence Day like a lot of folks like to believe. There, I've put in my two pesos, like a true child of the Mexican Revolution.
Well done Will. So many folk are used to the sweetness used to cover up poor tequila they don't know what they are missing when using an 100% agave tequila.
For those that don't know, tequila is distilled from the agave plant, much like vodka can be distilled from grain or potato. A liquor can be called "tequila" that only has 51% real tequila in it. Jose Cuervo "Gold" is such a beverage. The remainder is comprised of water, a sugar-based alcohol to keep the proof up,carmel color to amke it "gold" and tastes like lighter fluid.
True 100% agave tequilas taste completely different and are MUCH smoother. Plato (silver) is aged in stainless steel and has a sharp flavor that is great for margaritas. Resposado is aged in oak from 2-11 months. Anejo has been aged in oak for over a year and has a smooth, rich, smokey flavor. Both of the latter are best suited for sipping neat. However, less expensive resposados (like Cuervo 1800, which just recently became 100% agave)might be a bit rough around the edges in flavor and best used in mixed drinks. The gold color of resposados and anejos comes from the aging in wood not artificial caramel color.
100% agave tequilas are a completely different spirit than the "51/49" liquors sold as gold tequila. The nasty hang over and potential for nausea are significantly reduced when one over does it.
Lastly, when making a margarita as you describe it is best to look for the sweetest limes possible. In Mexico limes run smaller and sweeter. If your drink comes out a bit bitter with limes from the US, try a splash of Roses lime juice or sugar...but not too much!
Here is a link with more details:
http://www.tequila.net/faqs/tequila/Types_of_Tequila_-_Classifications.html
Enjoy!
Steve
Ill put my two cents in as well. There are many agave plants used to make tequila and tequila like spirits. However, the blue agave is the prize winner. The best tequilas are 100% blue agave. Tequila is called mezcal or pulque or raicilla if it is not made in the tequila region in the Mexican state of Jalisco (near the town of Tequila) If it is not made in the region of Tequila, it can not legally be labled tequila.
Cheers to you all.
Will I love your blog. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
Salut
My favorite recipe is from cocktailians Gary and Mardee Regan:
3 parts silver tequila
2 parts Cointreau
1 part freshly squeezed lime juice
Serve very cold with salt on the outside of the rim only (if desired). With this recipe, I find subtle, premium tequilas to be a waste. I'm not recommending rotgut, of course; personally, I like Sauza silver.
Actually, the French marched on Mexico City after Puebla and established a puppet emperor. The intervention only ended some years later, basically when Napoleon III decided that Mexico wasn't worth keeping.
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