Thai-Garita
Updated: Nov 30, 2020
There is nothing more summer than Margaritas! Well, warm weather, mosquitos, and being extra aware of all your bodily flaws and how you should have started working out way earlier and now you don’t even care cuz by the time you finally loose those pounds they will be hidden by sweaters and oh my god winter is only a few months away… etc. Where were we? Oh yeah, Summer!!!
What makes the margarita such a summer classic is the tartness of the lime juice, it’s so refreshing, especially when the weather is way too hot! The salt also helps to replenish your lost salt due to sweating through your shirts. Yummy, now that we have that imagery out of the way, let’s get to rocking out one of these heat destroyers.
Contemporary Margaritas fall into the sours category, a basic 2:1:1 cocktail. Now the classic marg is just tequila and lime juice with a salt rim, basically a tequila shot turned into a cocktail. That type of cocktail: The history of this cocktail has several different supposed origins, but I prefer to go with the story that it was created by a bartender for a beautiful aspiring actress who was allergic to most liquors except for tequila. I like this story since I’ve created plenty of cocktails for people who have “allergies”, and also cuz I’ve done a lot of things for the affection of a beautiful woman.
So let’s piece this thing together. Take all of your wet ingredients and place them in a shaker tin with lots of ice! Now just shake shake shake!!! You have to put some hips and shoulder into this one, do your best salsa moves. Have FUN with it!
Now for a personal preference decision, pour over clean ice or just dump the tin into a rimmed waiting glass? If this is your first margarita of the session, I suggest just dumping the whole thing it. Basically you will drink it too fast for the small ice shards to melt or matter, especially if it’s a hot day. If you are going to be sipping on this bad hombre over a longer period of time, lets say it’s your fifth or you’re sensitive to brain freeze, then double strain the marg over fresh ice so that it dilutes less as you drink on. Either way, make sure to add that cumin salt across the rim. The cumin makes it taste more Mexican and brings in a refreshing savoriness to it. I like to also top it off with a fresh bunch of cilantro… and if the mention of cilantro makes you gag… cilantro…. Then don’t add it in you soap tasting wackadoodle.
Ice Cubes vs Slushi
I wouldn't say that I have sensitive teeth, but cold damn it am I ever sensitive to brain freeze! Especially if I love what I'm drinking, so if you give me a bomb Thai-garita or Margarita as a slushy, then I'm pretty much guaranteed a terrible tasty time. But the question as to which type of ice to use is more based on the setting and use of the beverage. And by beverage use I mean how it's being drunk, not that you're using it to... let's move on.
For a slow sipping margarita, you want to have larger ice cubes or even a single large cube. This makes sure that as it sits, that by the end you will have a closer semblence to the drink you started with as opposed to a watered down meh. Finished gardening or doing nothing? Mix your drink to last a bit.
If however you are having a bit of a party, then blend and send! Premix all of your wets based on blender size and just crush out some slush. Slushies tend to have less nuances in flavour variation... for some odd reason. So your ratios don't have to be so exact, it's cold, it's sour, it's got tequila, it's going down no matter what. This gives you more room to reduce or increase the amount of alcohol per serving and you don't have to splurge on the good tequila.