Classic Fresh Lime Margaritas
My go-to cocktail over the years has been a boring rum and Coke. So, I wanted to expand my repertoire and thus, I started with my all-time favorite margaritas. My experience with this classic drink has been an all-in-one mix out of the bottle or can. Therefore, vowing to upgrade my quality of margaritas, I made my first pitcher for my parents. However, I used limeade straight from the concentrate, and it was overly sweet. Next try, I cut back on the limeade, diluting it with water and adding fresh lime juice. But I hadn’t gone far enough. The third time, I added primarily lime juice and used the concentrate as a sweetener. The result was the most heavenly margaritas that weren’t overly sweet like the typical margarita mix. The taste was authentic, thanks to the limes—a perfect interplay of all things sweet, salty, and sour!
Ingredients
- 2 T. + 1 t. Minute Maid® Limeade Frozen Concentrate, 12 oz. can
- 2 T. water
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice, about juice of 2 ripe limes
- 5 T. silver tequila
- 3 T. triple sec
- Ice cubes
- Sea salt
- Lime wedges to garnish
Directions
- Step 1 Take the limeade out of the freezer and defrost it overnight—if you remember. If you don’t, simply run the frozen limeade under hot tap water until it defrosts or set it in a bath of hot tap water for a few minutes. The concentrate should be liquid but still cold, and after it is, store in the fridge before serving to keep it cold.
- Step 2 If you want salt around your glass, run a lime wedge around the rim and turn the glass upside down, dipping it in a saucer filled with salt. I like using sea salt for this purpose because it’s less coarse than my kosher salt. Grocery stores like Safeway also sell margarita salt in a saucer. Stand the glass upright and it is ready for use.
- Step 3 Next, open the limeade and spoon out 2 T. + 1 t. in a margarita glass, diluting it with 2 T. of water. Then, juice 2 limes or enough to make ¼ cup and add it to your glass. Now, measure out the triple sec and tequila and pour them into the glass. Stir well, so the alcohol doesn’t float on the top.
- Step 4 Add ice cubes to make this margarita a drink on the rocks. Or for a blended margarita, fill your blender basin with ice cubes and enough water to cover them. Pulse until the ice is reduced to ¼.” Empty into a strainer to remove liquid and sort out any larger pieces of ice. Multiply this recipe for a drink per person. Garnish with a lime wedge and serve right away, as the ice melts. Enjoy!
Sometimes I feel that I have the best hobby in the world. What can beat taste tasting margaritas until I hone the perfect combination of sweet limeade, sour lime juice, and briny sea salt? This recipe took various iterations to perfect, but my family was far from complaining as they were my eager guinea pigs!
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:
Nutritional Information: servings per recipe: 1, calories: 407, total fat: 0.1 g., saturated fat: 0 g., cholesterol: 0 mg., sodium: 3512 mg., total carbohydrate: 32.4g., dietary fiber: 0.4 g., total sugars: 60.5 g., protein: 0.4 g., calcium: 12 mg., iron: 0 mg., potassium: 102 mg., vitamin D: 0 mcg.