Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, Blood Orange Margaritas! Paging Aristus!

[niyad]

Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, Blood Orange Margaritas!
Matthew Hooper
March 17, 2023 04:20 PM
Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, Blood Orange Margaritas!


?width=1200&height=800&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C168%2C0%2C168
Tajin is so awesome on the rim of a margarita.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. At the moment, it is bitterly cold and snowy here in Ohio. I am desperate for warm weather, but March is having none of it. Time to pull out the big guns and start making some margarita variations. I’ve got a hankering for a rich, smoky, complex margarita, something that reminds me of barbecue. Let’s make Smoky Blood Orange Margaritas. Here’s the recipe.
Blood Orange Margarita

1 oz El Jimador Tequila

1 oz Peloton de la Muerte Mezcal

1 oz Stirrings Natural Triple Sec

½ oz lime juice

½ oz blood orange juice

1 oz honey syrup

Shake all ingredients but the blood orange juice. Pour into an old fashioned glass. Slowly pour the blood orange juice into the cocktail. Garnish with a lime wheel and a half rim of Tajin.

I haven’t made a margarita like this since late summer, and I’m shamelessly indulging in my personal favorite twists on the classic. I love the combination of fruit, smoke, and honey. As with any of my recipes, feel free to omit or swap ingredients as needed. This drink leans hard into summertime flavors in defiance of early March snow and frost. If you’re in warmer climes, you might prefer something more refreshing.

This is also an opportune moment to talk about the difference between mezcal and tequila. Tequila has to be made from the blue agave plant to be called “tequila”; mezcal can be made from different varieties of agave plant. Mezcal is also made in a more rustic manner than most tequila. In order to turn a 60 pound vegetable into booze, you need to start by cooking it. Tequila is generally steamed in huge brick ovens or autoclaves, but mezcal is barbecued in underground pits.

The upshot is that mezcal always tastes smokier than ordinary tequila. A balanced mezcal will carry a strong smoke note in the beginning, but maintain a mellow sweetness as you taste it. Unbalanced mezcal tastes like licking an ashtray. I love a straight mezcal margarita, but it’s not for everyone. I’ve gone 50/50 tequila/mezcal for this drink, but feel free to adjust the proportions for your own taste.

Let’s talk ingredients:
?width=716&quality=80

https://www.wonkette.com/welcome-to-wonkette-happy-hour-with-this-week-s-cocktail-blood-orange-margaritas

Ingredient shot. The margarita disappeared very very quickly after this photo was taken.

[jcgoldie]

1. el Jimador

Your recipe looks awesome but I'm not sure you couldn't do better than el Jimador. I've drank a lot of it it and I believe its the number one selling tequila in Mexico last I checked. But the reason is the price point, there are a ton better options. At the very least the reposado would be significantly smoother.

[niyad]

4. As you can see, the recipe is from Wonkette. I have observed that Matthew

has very specific preferences.

[Kali]

6. exactly

have never understood the appeal of el Jimador

[highplainsdem]

2. That drink sounds great! As for Aristus - he said the other day that

he and his wife are visiting the grandkids in Denver. This might get his attention, though.

[niyad]

3. Ah, thank you. I wondered if I had missed happy hour last night.

[Aristus]

7. I promise there will be a drinking thread next Friday night.

[niyad]

9. YES!!!!

[Aristus]

5. Sounds lovely!

Can’t wait to get home and try it!



I love you all…

[niyad]

8. And we love you back. Hope you are enjoying your visit.

[Aristus]

10. Very much so.

The grandkids are growing into wonderful young people.

My youngest grandson, quite possibly the smartest of the bunch, is a gifted conversationalist.