Make Margaritas with a good-quality tequila: they deserve it! Some bartenders feel that salt covers up inferior ingredients. Photo by Eugene Bochkarev.
April 2007
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Cinco De Mayo Cocktail Recipes
Party On With Margarita & Maria
The holiday of Cinco De Mayo commemorates the 1862 victory of a small and poorly-equipped Mexican militia led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin over the much larger French army at The Battle Of Puebla. It temporarily stopped the French invasion of the country. Today Cinco de Mayo is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state of Puebla on May 5th. It is actually a bigger event in the United States than it is in Mexico, thanks to American promotional know-how, a large population of Mexican-Americans and other Americans who like Mexican food, music and a good celebration.
The Margarita is the most common of tequila-based cocktails. Its origin can be traced to Mexico in the late 1930s. There are a few different creators and scenarios to claim credit. One of the leading contenders used Triple Sec and lime juice, the other used Cointreau and lemon juice—so it may have been spontaneous creation. Silver or blanco tequilas are generally preferred for margaritas, though some people use the higher-quality reposados or “gold” tequilas.
You can start your celebration with these cocktail recipes courtesy of Freshies, makers of delicious, all-natural cocktail mixes that are so tasty, they can be drunk as a juice drink by guests who don’t want the alcohol.
Historical note: While Ernest Hemingway may be the most famous consumer of Mojitos (he drank them at La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana) and Margaritas (in Key West); his favorite drink was the daiquiri.
Original Margarita
Ingredients
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2-4 ounces 100% blue agave tequila (e.g. Cazadores, Patron)
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6 ounces Freshies Margarita Mix (Fresh Lime, Peach-Mango or Strawberry-Kiwi)
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Crushed ice
- Lime wedge
- Kosher salt for rim (table salt can be substituted)
Note that although salt is a tradition, it is often omitted with today’s superior tequilas so the finer flavors of the spirit can be enjoyed)
Directions
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Mix ingredients and shake well. Pour into a glass with a salted rim.
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Squeeze a wedge of fresh lime into the drink.
Mixology Tips
If you aren’t using a Margarita mix, you can mix the cocktail from scratch with tequila, Triple Sec or Cointreau and fresh lime or lemon juice. Use any of the following proportions:
2:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:1:1, 1:1:1
The higher the percentage of orange liqueur (e.g., 3:2:1 or 1:1:1), the sweeter the drink. You can play with the proportions until you find the one that you prefer.
Other types of orange-flavored liqueur are sometimes used, such as Patrón Citrónge and Grand Marnier (which is often called a “grand,” “royal” or “Cadillac” Margarita; Blue Curaçao yields the “blue margarita.”
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Photo by Eugene Bochkarev.
Smokin’ Margarita
This recipe uses both tequila and mezcal. Some people think they are the same spirit, but they are as differentiated by the production process and taste as American, Canadian, Irish and Scotch whiskeys.
- While both spirits derive from varieties of the agave plant (known in the indigenous Nahuatl language as mexcalmetl), Tequila is made from only agave tequilana Weber, the blue agave variety. Mezcal can be made from five different varieties of agave.
- Tequila is double-distilled (a few top brands are triple-distilled to remove the maximum amount of impurities), while mezcal is often only distilled once.
- Most mezcal is made in the Mexican state of Oaxaca; Tequila is produced in the northwestern state of Jalisco and a few nearby areas. Almost every village in the state of Oaxaca has its producers of local mezcal. Rare mezcals that are difficult to produce are made in tiny quantities in remote villages.
A historical note: The Spanish Conquistadors learned the art of distillation from the Moors in 800 A.D., and Cortez and his troops brought the technology to Mexico in 1519. Shortly thereafter, the Aztecs began to distill agave into mezcal. Agave is not a cactus: It is a succulent, and was once classified in the same family with lily and aloe. Today it is classified in its own family, Agavaceae, which consists of more than 400 species.
Ingredients
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Agave. Photo courtesy of Del Maguey mezcal. |
*You can use any brand of tequila you have. El Tesoro Silver, in particular, has hints of citrus that blend well in Margaritas.
Directions
- Shake tequila, Cointreau and Freshies mix over ice. Strain into a frosted martini glass.
- Float the mezcal on top. Garnish with lime.
Smokin’ Maria
Ingredients
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2 ounces top-quality mezcal (try Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal [Chichicapa])
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3 ounces Freshies Original Bloody Mary Mix
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2 ounces Freshies Habañero Hot Bloody Mary Mix
- Celery or fennel stalks for garnish
Directions
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Shake ingredients together. Pour into a highball glass with ice.
- Garnish with celery or fennel stalk.
Mojito
The mojito (mo-HEE-toe) is a quintessential Cuban cocktail. The name derives from the African voodoo term mojo, to cast a small spell. According to Bacardi® Rum, the drink can be traced to 1586, when Sir Francis Drake and his pirates unsuccessfully attempted to sack Havana for its gold. His associate, Richard Drake, was said to have invented a mojito-like cocktail known as El Draque that was made with aguardiente, a crude forerunner of rum, sugar, lime and mint. Around the mid-1800s, when the Bacardi Company was established, rum was substituted and the cocktail became known as a Mojito.
Ingredients
Directions
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Shake rum and mojito mix together with ice. Pour into a highball glass and top with a splash of club soda or seltzer.
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Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint, wedge of lime and a sugar cane stalk.
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Mojito. |
To make a Mojito without a mix, here’s the authentic recipe from La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana:
Ingredients
- 2 ounces white rum
- 2 ounces club soda
- 1 teaspoon powdered sugar†
- Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
- 4 mint leaves
- 1 sprig of mint for garnish
- Crushed ice
Directions
- Place the mint leaves into collins (highball) glass and squeeze the juice from a cut lime into it (a single lime may provide more than 2 ounces).
- Add the powdered sugar, then gently smash (muddle) the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long stainless steel device pictured below, though you can also use the back of a fork or spoon).
- Add the ice, then add the rum and stir; top off with the club soda. Garnish with a mint sprig.
†Simple Syrup Recipe
While powdered sugar is the original ingredient, it is no longer used in most situations because simple syrup dissolves more readily in a cold beverage. You can make simple syrup easily and keep it on hand:
- Using the proportion of 2 parts sugar to three parts water, fill a bottle almost halfway with sugar; add hot water.
- Cover the top and shake well.
- Store in a cool, dry place.
You also can find guarapo, sugar cane syrup, in Latin markets. Natural food stores also carry organic cane syrup. |
Buy a muddler for crushing mint and other cocktail ingredients.
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