My Favorite Marg

Ingredients

• 1.5 – 2 oz Tequila
• 1/2 a lime squeezed
• 2 lime wedges
• 4 cucumber slices
• Sparkling limeade
• Club soda
• Ice

Step-by-Step

• Squeeze half a lime in a cocktail shaker, add cucumber slices and lime wedges, and muddle the ingredients
• Add tequila and shake ingredients together
• Pour mixture over ice
• Top off with sparkling limeade and club soda to taste and stir

Other Tips

This margarita base of fresh lime juice, sparkling limeade, and club soda is a great alternative to pre-made Margarita mix. It’s super refreshing, easy to make, and can be modified to accommodate different palates.

The recipe above uses cucumber but to make this margarita your own mix up the flavor and add fun ingredients of your choosing – these are some of my favorites:

• Jalapeño: Add fresh jalapeño slices (pith and seeds removed) to any margarita to spice things up. Taste your jalapeños before adding too many, the spice level varies pepper to pepper and you don’t want to burn the lips off your guests.
• Pineapple: Add a splash of pineapple juice when topping off your marg with limeade and club soda. Garnish with a fresh pineapple slice if you’re looking to impress and if you want more of the fresh fruit flavor consider muddling pineapple slices with the lime wedges.
• Grapefruit: Pay homage to the Paloma by adding, or substituting, grapefruit juice for the sparkling limeade. Very refreshing and tastes great with a salt rim.
• Mix & Match: Cucumber jalapeño and pineapple jalapeño are two delicious alternatives that will taste like a fancy craft cocktail that you’d pay $15 for at a rooftop bar.
• Tajin rim: If you’re making a spicy margarita consider using Tajin seasoning for the rim instead of the traditional salt. The flavor pairs great with the fresh jalapeño.

Manage your sweetness. One of the best parts of making your own margarita mix is being able to control how sweet it is. You can do this by adding more or less of the sparkling limeade which is the only added sugar in this recipe. If you like your cocktails on the stiffer side, go for more club soda than limeade. It’s a sliding scale so be sure to taste your cocktails to get the balance you’re looking for.

Mixing for a group? This recipe is easy to convert to batch form. I like to use a wide-mouth quart sized mason jar rather than a cocktail shaker when bartending for a group since you can shake up a lot more tequila. Keep the same ratios as the recipe above but duplicate for the number of servings you need. You can pour your mixture over a pitcher of ice. For serving I recommend pouring from the pitcher into a glass that is already filled with ice as most pitchers will lead with liquid when you pour.

Don’t be afraid to taste before serving. You can do this easily by putting the backend of a clean straw into the drink with your finger over the top hole. Suction out a sample and dispose of the straw when done. If you too are saving the turtles and don’t have straws, grab an extra cup and pour yourself a small sample off the top (making sure you’ve thoroughly mixed your drink first).