Today is National Margarita Day. A day in the middle of the week, in the middle of winter. Every year I wonder who decided that because even though I will now enjoy a margarita in the winter with seasonal flavors; it will forever remain in my heart as the quintessential summer drink. Mexico. Tequila. Warmth. None of that says February. But I'm a sucker for a day devoted to my all time favorite cocktail so I'm celebrating with this Tequila Sunrise Margarita and it's a beautiful thing.
I was actually asked by a brand to feature a recipe of theirs and use their product. The problem is that I had none of their product on hand and I didn't want anymore...I've now got all of my liquor and liqueurs organized and catalogued and with 14 bottles of tequila on the shelves; I'm not needing anymore for a bit. Like five years maybe. So I used their recipe as my inspiration and made it my own.
One thing I know about a Tequila Sunrise, they are supposed to show a layering that mimics the colors of a real sunrise. The recipe I got had all the ingredients shaken together and while a sort of pretty pinkish orange color; it just did not work for me. So Round One was out of contention. On to Round Two. I made some revisions; opting to make a cranberry simple syrup instead of just adding juice to the mix and I included some orange liqueur too. What margarita is made without orange liqueur anyhow; isn't it one of the main prerequisites? Thanks...I thought so too!
Round Two was better and I got the results I wanted. The heavier red syrup worked its way through the tequila and juice mixture and covered the bottom of the glass. Yes, good. BUT I decided to try using an old fashioned margarita glass and even if it looked sort of pretty it bugged me; all of the red cranberry simple syrup was in that little abutment at the bottom of my margarita glass. I tried mixing it a bit and that was better so I forged ahead with photos. I took probably 50 shots, picked my two favorite and did some work on them in Photoshop and was set to start writing this post about 1pm.
Then something happened. It's not often but it's happened before and I've learned to not fight it too hard. I just could not wrap my arms around those photos. They weren't awful, horrible, terrible, no good, very bad photos but they also just did not make me happy. Just as I was ready to start...I quit as suddenly and decided a third go around was necessary.
I'm glad I did. Once I do the work to showcase a cocktail; these photos will represent it for many years. I'm glad I punted. It's why I'm so late too but trust me; no way this margarita loving cocktail making food blogger was NOT going to post about a tasty margarita today. That would have been sacrilege right? So here you have it...a nice cocktail spiced up a bit and turned into a margarita. Though my intent was to make this Tequila Sunrise Margarita for National Margarita Day; trust me, it's good any day; so pretty and so refreshing. The good news? I have three batches now sitting in the fridge; wonder if I can rustle up some drinkers? You coming over?
Cheers!
Serves 2 Cocktails
15 minPrep Time
15 minTotal Time
Save Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
