We really want you to make this recipe, not because it’s ‘Skinny’, but because it’s such a damn good Margarita!
This is a Margarita mix, which means you have the option of drinking it without adding booze, as a delicious Non-Alcoholic cocktail. It also makes life very easy when you’re entertaining, because all the work is done ahead of time.
How many reasons do you need to make this drink?! No artificial sweeteners, only sugar from fresh fruit juice, oh and it contains a 1/4 of the sugar in an average Margarita.
Let’s see what goes in a skinny margarita:
Ingredients
- 75 Ml FRESH ORANGE JUICE (1 1/2 parts)
- 50 Ml LIME JUICE (1 part)
- 250 Ml STILL WATER (5 parts)
- 1 PINCH SEA SALT
- 1 WHOLE LIME PEEL
- 1/2 WHOLE ORANGE PEEL
What else?
Recipe Diagram
How to make it
- 1 – For every 75ml / 2 1/2 Oz of Orange juice you use, you need the peel of 1/2 a medium orange. For every 50ml / 1 2/3 Oz of Lime juice you use, you need the peel of 1 medium lime.
- 2 – Add the peels to a sturdy jug or jar that’s large enough to add the liquid ingredients as well.
- 3 – Pound and grind the peel and salt together with your muddler until it looks soft, and shiny from the oils that have been extracted.
- 4 – Add the lime juice, orange juice and water to the muddled peels.
- 5 – Stir well to ensure that the salt is dissolved and all oils are lifted off the peel.
- 6 – Taste to ensure that the balance of the mix is good. The water and orange juice should balance out the sharp lime juice, and the salt is there to make the flavours ‘pop’, not to make the drink taste unpleasantly salty!
- 7 – Pass the mix through a sieve and into a sterile bottle then close with a lid and put into the fridge.
- 8 – Chill for ~90 minutes (depending on how much you have made) to get it nice and cold. It will be good for at least 3-5 days stored in the fridge, but if you open the bottle and it fizzes, you know it’s time to be thrown away.
- 9 – When you’re ready for a drink, simply pull your Candra Margarita Mix out of the fridge and combine it over ice with your favourite Tequila or Mezcal, add your garnish and you’re done. We recommend a ratio of 1 part booze to 3 parts mix, but you can add to taste if you prefer.
Watch this
Get nerdy with it
FRESH ORANGE JUICE As you need orange peel for the recipe, it’s a good idea to squeeze at least some of the juice you need yourself.
FRESH LIME JUICE Like with the orange juice, you need peel, so it’s best to squeeze your own lime juice too. This is even more important than with the orange juice, as you are less likely to get good quality freshly squeezed lime juice without going to a specialist juice supplier.
STILL WATER If using bottled water, use something light with low minerality or simply use filtered tap water.
SEA SALT Use a decent sea salt that is either medium fine or large flakes that will easily crumble.
ORANGE & LIME PEEL Use a knife, speed peeler or microplane. Make sure not to cut too much of the white pith off the fruit, as this will release bitter flavours into the drink when muddled.
BLANCO / SILVER TEQUILA Using Blanco / Silver Tequila keeps the drink crisp and refreshing, a Reposado will work well here too if you prefer (if you like a smoky character, use Mezcal instead).
Why we chose this recipe for you
There’s no free lunch, no easy money and no magic way to make a Margarita with the traditional recipe, without adding sugar! You can take out the sugar and replace with a sweetener…but to our palates, they all taste a little odd and we’re not a fan of their mouthfeel either.
So, with all this in mind here at Candra, we decided to take up the challenge of making a truly great, Skinny Margarita, without using sugar replacements, and good enough that you drink it, not because it’s skinny, but because it’s your favourite Margarita.
The theory we applied to make this recipe work, comes from the classic Rickey cocktail formula, essentially using dilution to quell the acidity of fresh lime juice. Lime juice is a powerful flavour that will carry through heavy dilution without being washed out. To bolster this, powerful essential oils from both lime and orange peel are added, along with a little salt to help the flavours ‘pop’.
Of course, the Margarita doesn’t simply use sugar to balance the acidity of the lime juice in the traditional recipe, it uses an orange liqueur. That’s why both fresh orange juice and orange peel are used in this recipe, along with the lime juice, or else it really wouldn’t be a Margarita would it?!
More good news! Not only is this a Skinny Margarita, it’s also a mix. which means that once you’ve made it, you don’t have to do very much else when you want to enjoy a Margarita. You just pour Tequila, or Mezcal if you prefer, into a glass, add the ice-cold mix to taste (yes, keep your mix in the fridge) then add ice, a wheel of fresh orange and finish with a twist of lime on top. No salt around the rim to mess with either…you already have salt in the mix.
You can also go one step further with your preparation by adding the Tequila or Mezcal to your mix (we recommend 3:1 however, your drink your rules!). If you keep the mix really cold, you can even serve the drink “Up”, meaning you don’t need to worry about ice either…we’re all about ease, speed and less mess here at Candra. Now go enjoy.
As always, don’t forget to show us what you made by tagging us!
@Candra_Drinks #MakeBetterDrinks #CandraDrinks
