Frozen Blood Orange Margaritas

The weather is showing signs of cooperating here in Toronto.  We are getting sunny days, warmer temperatures, and the patio furniture has come out and has been dusted off.  So the next logical step, tropical drinks, right?!  We’ve been itching for summer-like activities, and an easy one to embrace is one that doesn’t even involve a bathing suit.

Life isn’t a perpetual cruise ship vacation (unless of course you live on a cruise ship- there are people that actually do this, really!) or a hanging out in a hammock on a tropical island (unless you own your own island in the South Seas, and if you own it, you can probably hang out in a hammock) but that doesn’t mean we can’t pretend.  And mixing up some fun drinks can evoke those idyllic, vacay moments.

Pina Coladas, Mai Tais, Margaritas, the list goes on.  Anything that you can garnish with a huge pineapple chunk and umbrella works for me.  They just sing Party. And what’s great about all these drinks, is that you don’t even need to have alcohol to make them fun.  But that’s not what I’m making today… mine have a touch!

I used fresh squeezed blood orange juice for these margaritas.  The colour is the most brilliant scarlet red.  And the perfect sweetness. But you could substitute pureed pineapple, watermelon, strawberry, mango, raspberry, the sky is the limit.  I also used a touch of simple syrup.  You could make your own, but why bother?  These days you can purchase ready made simple syrup from quality grocery stores or specialty shops, so that whipping up so many different drinks becomes a breeze.  I picked mine up at BYOB Cocktail Emporium (as well as the funky retro twizzle sticks and straws in the photo below) on Queen Street, here in Toronto, but I’m sure you can find something similar where you happen to call home.  And if not, make up a batch of simple syrup and keep it in the fridge. A small batch of 1:1 (sugar and water) heated on the stove until the sugar is completely melted is classic.  You can increase the sugar to improve shelf life, but really if you only make enough for a week or two (use it in drinks, lemonades, ice teas etc) you should be fine.

Whip up some drinks, and hire a mariachi band.  Kick back and keep that blender busy!

Love Jen

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Frozen Blood Orange Margaritas

A frozen trip to the tropics, via your blender!  Blood oranges and tequila, Ole!

Course Drinks

Prep Time 10 minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup blood orange juice freshly squeezed
• 1/2 lime juiced
• 2 oz premium tequila
• 2 oz Triple Sec or Cointreau
• simple syrup to taste
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups ice
• orange or lime slices

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until pureed smooth.

2. Garnish with orange or lime slices

Recipe Notes

You can easily substitute the orange juice with any other fruit puree of your choice.

If you would like to rim your glasses with sugar: place granulated sugar in a plate. Swipe a lime wedge along the rim of your glass and then tip the glass into the sugar and press down.

You can also replace the crushed ice by mixing the rest of the ingredients and pouring it over ice cubes.