Pineapple Chamoy Margarita

Welcome back to QCK!

Today I want to share a really fun margarita recipe special for Cinco De Mayo. These are so fun and really easy. Plus you can make them without alcohol if you want to have a fun, kid friendly drink.

What is Chamoy? In this case, it’s a sauce, made from pickled fruits. It has a salty, sweet, tangy flavor with a little bit of spice from chiles. It’s used in lots of Mexican treats, usually on fruit. It’s also a popular candy flavor. You can find it in any Latinx grocery store and usually in the “ethnic” (lol) aisle of the grocery store.

What is Tajin? Tajin is what you see around the rim of this drink. It’s a popular Mexican seasoning made of Chile powder, salt and dehydrated lime. It’s not super spicy but it has a little bit of a kick and it’s perfectly acidic. Tajin is used in everything from seasoning and marinades to elote, fresh fruit or on the rim of a drink. It’s very versatile. You can find Tajin in any Latinx grocery store or the “ethnic” aisle of the grocery store.

This margarita is so simple. I like it blended so I just cut up my pineapple and throw it all in the blender with lime lime juice, tequila, and ice. Decorate the cups and pour it in. If you don’t want blended, you can juice the pineapple and shake or mix your drink, which is also so easy. It’s like a fun adult slushy.

I also love the idea of making these into boozy popsicles (possible future post). You can do this by decorating the popsicle mold with Chamoy, the same way you would with a glass, and sprinkling the tajin on top. Freeze that four an hour then pour the pineapple margarita in the mold and freezing overnight. Perfect for a hot day.

How To Make The Perfect Margarita

I hear a lot of people saying they either don’t like tequila or they can’t make a good margarita at home, so I’m going to share some tips with you on how to make a restaurant level margarita at home.

• The most important part of a really great margarita is fresh fruit juice! You simply can’t replace it. You don’t need any fancy electric juicer to get this, you can simply get a small hand juice for citrus fruits. Pretty much anything else can be thrown in the blender with ice for a blended margarita or blended and strained through fine mesh. If you want to get really into margaritas, consider buying an actual juicer, but it’s not necessary.
• Second is of course the tequila. Tequila is one of those alcohols that you can really taste the quality in. You don’t have to get top shelf tequila to have a great margarita, but I wouldn’t recommend grabbing the cheapest bottle you can find. My personal favorite is Casa Migos, but Espolon is a great middle range option when it comes to price.
• Lastly, you want to use the right sweetener, this goes for all drinks if you’re adding sugar. For margaritas, I alwasys suggest using agave nectar. It has the best flavor to compliment the tequila, sine they’re made from the same ingredient, agave. If you don’t have agave, your next best option is to make a simple syrup. It’s called simple for a reason. Just add equal parts sugar and water to a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is disolved and let it boil for 3-5 minutes to thicken into a thin syrup. The reason you don’t usually want to use plain sugar is because you might get a drink that just tastes like sugar and it takes a while to disolve fully so you end up with wet, grainy sugar at the bottom of your drink and the rest will still be bitter/sour.
• Lastly, it’s the smallest detail, but sugar or salt around the rim. I pretty much only use salt, but some people like sugar which is fine. The first step to this process is getting the rim wet, use a lime or some sort of citrus. You don’t want water. Just cut a wedge of lime, make a slice in the middle, and run it around the glass. As for the actual salt, DON’T use table salt. You want something with texture like kosher or sea salt. These also have better flavors. If you use table salt, you’ll end up with big globs of salt with chemical flavor.

Substitutions and Add On’s

• If you want a little spice, you can add some small pieces of charred jalapeño to the blender.
• If you don’t want to use chamoy you can either omit it, pictured above. Or replace it with a different fruit purée of your choice. Simply blend the fruit. Strawberry or mango would be easy and fun.
• If you don’t want to use Tajin, simple use salt or sugar.
• You can spice up your Tajin rim by adding lime zest and sugar to the mix.
• Frozen pineapple is fine, just skip the ice.
• You can add fresh fruit chunks as well.
• This is a great drink for mezcal. The smokey flavor with pineapple is delicious.

Recipe

Prep: 5 Minutes

Mix: 5 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 Pineapple, diced with core
• 1/4 C Fresh Lime Juice
• 1 C Tequila, 8 oz or roughly 1.5 oz per drink.
• 3/4 C Crushed Ice
• Chamoy, optional
• 1 Tbsp Tajin, optional
• 1/2 Tbsp Kosher Salt, optional
• 1/2 Tbsp Lime Zest, optional
• 6 Lime Wedges, for garnis, optional

Directions

1. In a blender, combine cubed pineapple, lime juice, tequila and ice. Blend until smooth and slushy-like. Add more ice if needed.
2. In a small bowl, combine Tajin, salt and lime zest.
3. Use the lime wedges to wet the rims of the glassses all the way around and press the rim into the Tajin/salt mix. Make sure to move the glass around to coat the sides as well.
4. Decorate the cups by pouring chamoy along the inside of the glasses, just like how you would decorate a latte with caramel.
5. Pour the margarita into the cups and enjoy!

As always, I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you tried it out let me know in the comments. For more recipes check out my homepage and follow along on Instagram. Don’t forget to like, follow, comment and share. Thanks for reading! 

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