This post was made in partnership with Tequila Cazadores. Recipes and ideas are my own.
We have a tangelo tree in our backyard. It’s the only citrus tree that has not succumbed to years of neglect in the jungle outside our backdoor; it is tenacious to say the least. This year, after finally cutting back the honeysuckle that was blocking most of the sunlight from hitting its leaves, it produced an insane amount of fruit. Smaller than what we’ve got in years past, but abundant. It’s not a fruit I like to sit and just eat, so I make things like Tangelo-cello out of it, or use it in syrups, or just put in a box marked “free” in my driveway and pass on the burden to my neighbors.
Last month I wrote about making squash, a syrup whose liquid content is comprised primarily of juice, for Simply Recipes. And that got me thinking about juice content in Margaritas. Now, a straight up Margarita with just enough lime juice is a beautiful thing, but sometimes I like to change it up with flavors. My biggest pet peeve though in restaurants and bars is when they up charge you for a fancy Margarita in a big ass glass and what you realize you’ve gotten is mostly orange juice with a teeny tiny amount of tequila in it. Blarg!
What I wanted to do here is recreate some of those sweet and flavorful citrus notes without watering down my Margarita to the point of making it a breakfast drink. That’s when I thought that a squash syrup might work in this case. And then I could celebrate National Margarita Day on February 22 with a big batch of these! Oh yeah, it’s that wonderful time of the year already!
As many of you know, we partnered with Tequila Cazadores, an authentic Mexican tequila brand, last year because we have been big fans of this tequila for years and love their commitment to sustainability and ethical business practices. We’re using their Blanco expression here for this Margarita, made with 100% blue agave, because of its clean taste and soft finish. It doesn’t fight with the other ingredients, but also doesn’t get lost in the flavors. It’s just a straight up delicious tequila.
Like I mentioned above, a squash uses a high ratio of juice to water in making a syrup. So, you can do 4:1 juice to water, or 1:1 juice to sugar with no water, something like that. Then you either shake it up until the sugar dissolves (cold process), or warm your mixture until the sugar dissolves (hot process). Today I went a step further and reduced the syrup down almost by half to get a thick, viscous syrup to use in drinks. By doing this, it’s the consistency of a rich syrup, and there are deep, caramelized citrus flavors while still also tasting tangy and bright.
I am using mixed citrus here since I also had a delivery of Meyer lemons from my grandparents I did not want to let go to waste. Honestly, any mix of lemons, oranges, or other citrus could be used here so feel free to experiment.
When used in this Margarita, the drink is sweet, tart, with sharp caramelized flavors from the Meyer lemon and Tangelo squash syrup. Subtle agave and grassy flavors from the Tequila Cazadores Blanco contrast with the floral hints from the lime. There is a juiciness to the flavor without tasting watered down, and a nice mouth feel from the viscosity of the syrup.
Mixed Citrus Margarita
2 ounces Tequila Cazadores Blanco
1 ounce Tangelo-Meyer Lemon Squash (see recipe below)
1/4 ounce lime juice
small pinch kosher salt
In a shaker filled 2/3 with ice, add in the Tequila Cazadores Blanco, Tangelo-Meyer Lemon Squash syrup, lime juice and small pinch of salt. Shake well 20 seconds and strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Serve with a tangelo wheel.
Tangelo-Meyer Lemon Squash
1/2 cup freshly squeezed tangelo juice
1/2 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, combine both fruit juices, water, and sugar. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once a boil is reached, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until syrup reduces by half. Depending on your stove, that can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature when finished and either use right away, or store in an airtight container in the fridge up to one month.
The Cocktail Pantry Twists Series is made in partnership with Stonewall Kitchen. Recipe and ideas are my own.
And we’ve got a very delicious, creamy, after dinner, or anytime-you-want-it cocktail today. We have to duck into the kitchen to grab an egg, but hey, if you’ve got farm fresh eggs laying around then you might just have some in your pantry! It’s a Maple Gingerbread Butter Flip made with Stonewall Kitchen 
Now, if you’re not familiar with flips, you have to use a whole egg. No, not the shell too, but these rich cocktails require the white AND the yolk. I will state that there is always a risk with any uncooked egg health-wise, but I know where my eggs come from and I’m comfortable using them raw. You personally can make that choice for yourself.
And speaking of fresh lemon. Even though winter is the season for citrus, if it’s not available where you are, check out these alternatives!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into how to use a few pantry staples in your cocktails, and I hope this one in particular gets made for you this holiday season. Remember to follow over on 
Maple Gingerbread Butter Flip
This post is made in partnership with Hangar 1. Recipes and ideas are my own.
One of my favorite styles of cocktails to add an egg white to are sours. Sours can be quite tart depending on how they’re made, and even when adding in a sweetener, the egg white somehow magically transforms the whole drink into a silky, well-balanced drink.
This cocktail, made in partnership with Hangar 1 Honeycomb Vodka, which has now just become available for the first time ever outside of the Hangar 1 Distillery, located in Alameda, CA, is California fall in a glass. Juicy, ripe pears contrast with the woodsy sweetness of maple syrup and mingle with all those wonderful fall-time baking spices found in allspice liqueur, while a tart kiss of lemon juice accentuates the base of the whole drink with the complex honeycomb vodka. And that egg white gives the whole drink some body and a slightly frothy head that you can garnish with either a lemon wheel, or these really interesting honey discs I’ve been experimenting with. The honey discs are similar in structure to a hard candy, and not only do they really impress sitting in a cloud of froth on top of your drink, they also slowly melt into the drink to add even more honey flavor to the cocktail as you sip. These however are totally optional to the drink and the touch of sweetness they impart is minimal because they are so solid and melt very slowly. I just always have to go and make my drinks extra. But you don’t have to for this to work!
Pears can be so sweet when ripe, that the richness of honey is a fantastic contrast. They balance really well here and that’s because Hangar 1 isn’t just infusing the vodka with honey, they actually use honeycomb for a more intense flavor. What I love about Hangar 1, a California company, is that their honey isn’t sourced from some faraway place or imported, their honey is from their local farming community, Golden Harvest Bees, located in Redwood City, CA. When companies step up to being more mindful about sourcing ingredients and sustainability I pay attention.
This post is brought to you by Tequila Cazadores.
Out of all the drink holidays out there, this is probably one of my favorites. Why? Well, who can say no to a Margarita?! Well made and they’re a perfect blend of sweet and sour, and as I mentioned earlier in the week… SO riffable. To help celebrate, I’ve teamed up with 
Cazadores has been one of my go-to tequilas for quite some time. It’s super reasonably priced but it’s also 100% blue agave—not mixed! Cazadores has five types of tequila in their portfolio: Blanco, Reposado, Añejo, Extra Añejo, and Cristalino; for today’s recipe we’ll be using the Blanco (you’ll recognize the bottle by its hint of blue and the stag gracing the front). Because we’re making a mixed drink, the Blanco expression is the perfect product. It’s light, clean taste has a slightly sweet finish that highlights the agave. It also makes for a balanced cocktail so you taste all the components.
Now, I can take a bit of heat and I love the play of spicy and sweet here. That said, you can totally adjust this to your spiciness level. Want more spicy? Keep the seeds in the jalapeño slice and add two if you’d like. Just want a hint of spice? Take out the seeds and don’t garnish with a second jalapeño slice (the longer the garnish sits in your glass, the more spice it imparts to your drink! Remember that!).
This post was made in partnership with 
You’ve probably had a spicy Marg, or a skinny one, or a Cadillac, or a frozen, fruity, whatever one. But have you ever had a chocolate one? Before you raise your eyebrows at me, take a moment and I’ll explain.
First, we’re using mezcal for the base today. Mezcal has a lot of similar flavors that I associate with good quality chocolate: vanilla, tobacco, earthy, nutty, burnt caramel, etc… And while they have these similar aspects, the sweetness you get from chocolate cuts back on the smokiness from the mezcal so they also work together in that respect. But what about the acid needed in a Margarita? How does that work here? And well, I’ll assure you that lime juice still works. The brightness of the lime juice helps keep this from becoming an overly heavy cocktail. To give this an extra chocolate kick and a creamier mouthfeel, I’m adding Kerrygold Irish Cream to the mix. I love how balanced and unexpected the flavor of this is. The mezcal is definitely the powerhouse here but it’s tamed by the richness of the Kerrygold Irish Cream and the sweetness of the chocolate liqueur.
I note below that the chocolate liqueur should be used to taste. If your bottle is very sweet, as a few brands are, then I’d cut it back to 3/4 ounce. Also, salt is totally optional here. I’m one who likes a little salt to balance out the sweet so I kept my salt rim; you do you though.
Chocolate Mezcal Margarita
This post was made in partnership with Truvia®. Recipes and ideas are my own.
My husband and I have been together for over a decade and the thought of going to a crowded restaurant on this particular day makes us both uneasy. We haven’t written off going places or doing romantic things together, we just choose to do them on days when we’re not fighting for a parking space to make a 9pm table (because that was the only reservation left last minute). What we do instead is put a little effort into making each other feel special at home.
Which brings us to today’s cocktail, a Raspberry Pisco Sour. I am working with 
Using fresh berries here is key. The trick to getting more flavor out of them is to macerate them with the Truvia and let them sit for a little bit. I do that step first and then let the mixture sit while I prep the other ingredients. Also, let’s talk about egg whites here! If you’re new to working with egg whites in cocktails, first, don’t panic. You can buy pasteurized egg whites from the grocery store and use those instead of fresh egg whites. I know where my eggs come from and trust the source so I use whites from whole eggs. If you prefer to make this vegan, you’re lucky, because I have several ways of substituting egg whites for cocktails on the site. The easiest is subbing in aquafaba, which is just the liquid from a can of chickpeas. You can read all about that 
Other than crushing a few berries and either grabbing some egg whites or some aquafaba, this cocktail comes together fairly easily, but it looks and tastes like you put way more effort into it. And you did put some effort into it, so congratulate yourself for that. I think it’s a great drink to make when you want to show someone you think they’re pretty special. And this drink does just that. Cheers!
Raspberry Pisco Sour Cocktail
Cocktails that stick with me tend to fall into two categories: those that tasted amazing and those that appealed to me visually. For example, I can tell you the first time I tasted bell pepper in a cocktail and fell in love with a whole new world of savory cocktails (Las Perlas in downtown L.A.). I can’t recall what it looked like, but I can remember how it tasted. I’ve gone to that flavor combination many times (and a few cocktail riffs have shown up on this website too).
And then there are those cocktails that, visually, wowed the pants off me. When I was in Chicago years ago for a trip I decided to pop over to 
Today I’m hoping to bridge that gap for you all with this newest cocktail. With flavors both familiar and a little outside the box, and a touch of theatrics in the garnish, this cocktail, which I’m calling The Purple Halo (that will make more sense later) is both tasty and a stunner to look at.
I’ve partnered again this week with 
While delicious on its own, I wanted you to also remember this visually, and that’s where butterfly pea flower tea comes in. If you’ve come across those color changing cocktails on Instagram, this is where they are getting their magic from. You don’t need to be a cocktail wizard to pull this trick off; you just need to be able to order online and make a cup of tea. I was introduced to this tea a few years back when I was still making cocktails with the local Los Angeles pop up The Coconut Club. We made a welcome Ti’ Punch that changed color before the guests’ eyes. They got a kick out of it; we got written up in the local paper. And now your guests will remember your drinks and talk about it for years to come (I cannot guarantee this). The tea changes color, from a dark cobalt to purple or pink, depending on the pH of the liquid you add to it. In this cocktail, the lime juice will start that color change as the ice cube of tea melts into the drink, creating rings of color in the glass.
The butterfly pea flower tea is very, very mild and with the slow dilution does not contribute significantly to the overall flavor of the drink… but it does look cool! So, if you don’t want another box of tea bags taking up real estate in your pantry, you can leave this out and enjoy the cocktail as is.
The Purple Halo
This post was made in partnership with Cask & Crew. Recipe and ideas are my own.
What’s funny about this is, and how it connects to today’s drink, is the fact that these men are stationed comfortably in a library somewhere, discovering from the comfort of their armchairs. Are they really discovering new worlds? Maybe it’s a discovery for them, even if they are not actually there. My equivalent would be browsing travel sites, for hours, and not actually going on any trips. Sometimes one just needs a mental vacation.
So about today’s drink. Today we’re taking a tour around the world with our ingredients: we start in America, then head off to Britain, Spain, Italy, and then we dash down to some tropical islands. A delicious trip, but from the comfort of our armchair.
Oh, and the other decorative plate…it’s a white tiger in a tuxedo.
This post is brought to you by Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum. Recipes and ideas are my own.
At the end of the island episodes, the couple is always cheers-ing with some fantastic looking cocktails and they somehow look content with their decision to be the crazy Americans on that island. If they were in Puerto Rico, by the way, they probably were sipping on a cocktail made with Don Q rum.
Today’s recipe is in partnership with Don Q Rums and we’re featuring their newest rum offering the Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum. Don Q Rum has only been in the States a little over a decade, but has been a popular choice in Puerto Rico for 150 years, making it their #1 rum. This spiced rum packs a punch of flavor with vanilla and pepper and just enough sweetness for my palate. While you can definitely sip this rum, it’s also a great mixing rum to make unquestionably delicious cocktails. So that’s what we’re doing with it now!
With such strong flavors to start with in the rum, I decided to use some equally strong flavors to compliment that spiciness. When you think powerful, do you think about gunpowder? In cocktails?! I do, but this version of gunpowder comes in the form of tea. Gunpowder green tea to be exact. Teas are great options for giving subtle (and sometimes not so subtle. Hello 
Spiced Gunpowder Guava Cocktail
This post is brought to you by Everclear. Recipes and ideas are my own.
So, one word of marketing and suddenly figs were a delicacy, not an unidentifiable fruit. Now they’re a common farmer’s market item. They’ve lost a little of their sultry shine but I still find them a touch exotic. And this past week I received a whole basket of them in our CSA box and decided they were ripe for a cocktail.
Today I’m mixing up this cocktail with Everclear as part of their 
Why mix with Everclear? Because I wanted to taste the ingredients and not so much another liquor flavor in the cocktail this time. It also makes for a stronger cocktail that doesn’t get watered down from the tonic. And what a complex tasting cocktail this is!
Letting the muddled figs steep in the Everclear for a bit makes the honeyed juice more prominent. Then to complement the figgy flavor, I created a vanilla syrup that gets some extra warming spice from black pepper, green cardamom, star anise and cloves. The vanilla really comes through but is much more complex in flavor from this spice blend. To offset some of the sweetness, a good dose of tonic water incorporates some bitterness into the cocktail while its effervescent bubbles distribute the flavors and bring out some aroma to your nose. The resulting cocktail is complex and yet clean tasting, refreshing and packs a punch. Ready to try one out?
Fig and Tonic Cocktail (27-32 proof)