National Margarita Day 2017!

Happy National

Margarita Day!!

I'm back and boy has it felt like it's been forever!!  In reality it's only been a little over a month.  What better day for me to come back then National Margarita Day!  

Margaritas?  Yes please!!

****IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!  We have changed our blog address!!  Yes, we decided to have our very own website instead of having blogger host it!  BIG TIME!!****

OLD SITE:  www.cocktail365.blogspot.com

NEW SITE:  www.ayearofcocktails.com

Bookmark the new one!  Use the new one.  If you use the old one it will either redirect you without a problem, or it will give you this warning.

 If you get this warning, click yes!

Now back to the margaritas!!

During the last couple months of my mom's life I was solely focused on her so I needed to put cocktail making on the back burner for a while.

I have a LOT of margarita recipes for you all today!  Woot Woot!!  I can't wait to share them all!

This collection of recipes will make it so much easier to find them all instead of having to do a search (I know I'm lazy and sometimes all about the quick answer!).

So sit back, relax and slowly scroll through all of these until you find the one/s that you want to try.  I suggest trying a couple.....or all of them........just not all of them today.  We have to pace ourselves, right?

1. Pucker Melon Rita

2. Sour Grapefruit Margarita

3. Pineapple Orange Margarita

4. Peach Habanero Margarita

5. Apple Cider Margarita

6. Cran Chili Margarita

7.  Easter Margarita

8.  Cranberry Margarita

9.  Classic Margarita

10. Mango Margarita

11.  Kinky Margarita

12.  Moon-a-rita

13.  Grapefruit Margarita

14.  Pink Cotton Rita

15.  Desert Margarita

16.  Pomegranate Margarita

17.  French Margarita

18.  Mango Pomarita

19. Peach Margarita

There you have it!  19 different versions of margaritas for you to try.  Try one, some or all and tell me what you think!  I'd love to hear from you!!

Cheers!!

The Cocktail Lady

Pucker Melon Rita

Pucker Melon Rita

4 shots out of 5

What better way to celebrate 
National Watermelon Day then with a 
Pucker Melon Rita??

It's spring break here for the kids.  

We started off well and now everyone is starting to annoy everyone else.  

We do have our good moments though!  Yesterday I took the kids out to Target to get them out of the house and then we went to Arby's for lunch, mmmmm.  

Today we had lunch at Red Robin and thankfully the weather has been pretty nice....minus yesterdays rain.

I gave tonight's cocktail 4 shots out of 5.  


I had just tried my hand at a watermelon margarita with fresh watermelon.....unfortunately my watermelon tasted like rine and.......well......I dumped the attempt.  

I unfortunately do not have any watermelon puree so I grabbed my bottle of watermelon pucker, read the recipe on the back and added to it.  

I must say that I am very VERY happy with the results!  

The initial recipe from the pucker bottle was.....a bit puckerey and sour and absolutely needed my amendment.  

I hope to try a watermelon margarita with watermelon puree one day, but for now I will be absolutely happy drinking this one.   

Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

Here is my recipe for a Pucker Melon Rita:

• 2 oz watermelon pucker
• 2 oz sweet & sour mix
• 1 oz silver tequila 
• 1/2 oz triple sec
• 3/4 oz simple syrup

Rim your margarita glass with fine sugar.  In a cocktail shaker, add ice and all of the ingredients above.  Shake and strain your cocktail into your sugar rimmed glass and enjoy!

Here's to being pleasantly surprised!

Cheers!!

The Cocktail Lady

Sour Grapefruit Margarita

Sour Grapefruit Margarita

Tomorrow being National Margarita Day gives us all a great excuse (like we need one) to try a new kind of margarita!  

I wanted to post this yesterday, but unfortunately the stomach bug that our youngest got, passed to her sister and then to me had me out of commission for the past few days.  

I am happy to say that I do feel like I am alive again and ready for a margarita!

A couple years ago for National Margarita Day two of our very good friends came over with their margarita machine and we started trying a couple different flavored margaritas.  One thing led to another......we had a few margaritas.......and other cocktails that I can't remember right now and decided that the BEST thing in the world to do was to create a rap song for our friends upcoming birthday.........accompanied with a music video.  

Oh yea, I said it........a music video.  

It ended up being a pretty good idea, b/c they ended up coming back over the next weekend and my husband recorded the song and he mashed it all together with background music (I don't have technical terms, b/c that's totally his thing) and beats and POOF, we had a soundtrack.

Anyways........onto today's cocktail.  

I wanted to create a margarita with Elderflower liqueur and grapefruit juice.  

I found a couple recipes online, combined them with one of mine and added more stuff to it.  

End result......sour.  

Not as sour as my first attempt (before I started adding stuff to it), but still kind of sour.  It's not bad, I'm totally drinking this margarita as I type, just sour.

What will you be drinking on National Margarita Day?  Any favorite flavors?  Prefer the classic margarita?  I'd love to hear from you!

Tomorrow being the BIG DAY, I present you with 18 different margarita's to choose from!

 1.   Classic Margarita

 2.   Grapefruit Margarita

 3.   Mango Margarita

 4.   Pink Cotton Rita

 5.   Kinky Margarita

 6.   Cranberry Margarita

 7.   Peach Margarita

 8.   Desert Margarita

 9.   Moon-a-rita

10.  Pomegranate Margarita

11.  Pucker Melon Rita

12.  French Margarita

13.  Mango Pomarita
14.  Easter Margarita
15.  Cran Chili Margarita
16.  Peach Habanero Margarita
17.  Pineapple Orange Margarita

Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

Here is my recipe for a Sour Grapefruit Margarita:

• 2 ounces silver tequila
• 1 1/2 ounces elderflower liqueur
• 3 ounces grapefruit juice
• 1/2 ounce lime juice
• 1/2 ounce simple syrup
• 1/2 ounce triple sec
• 1/2 cup ice

In a blender, add all of the ingredients above.  Blend until your ice is completely gone.  Pour into a salted or non-salted glass.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday (yes it's totally a holiday)!  With all of these choices, I know I will!!

Cheers!!

The Cocktail Lady

Pineapple Orange Margarita

Pineapple Orange Margarita

The other day I created a Peach Habanero Margarita which got me to thinking.....what other flavors of margaritas can I make that I have never heard of or tried before?  

You have your Classic Margarita and the most common flavored margaritas you'll find at restaurants like, strawberry, raspberry, mango and sometimes peach.  

I have done a good handful of margaritas, some I have created on my own and some I have found.....but I want to create more so I chose to enhance the orange flavor that is "sometimes" already in margaritas and mix it up with pineapple juice (I love cocktails that have pineapple juice in them).

This margarita is not spicy like the peach habanero margarita is recently made, it's actually quite the opposite.  This margarita is cool and refreshing.  It's a lighter tasting margarita which is actually quite nice. 

With National Margarita day on the 22nd, I'd love to ask you all if you have a delicious margarita recipe for me to try that I have not tried before.  

Email me at cocktailady@gmail.com or you can contact me via the contact form on the left side of my blog.  I'd love to hear from you..........even if it's just to say Hi!

Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

Here is my recipe for a Pineapple Orange Margarita:

• 1 1/2 ounces silver tequila
• 2 1/2 ounces pineapple juice
• 1 ounce orange juice
• 1/2 ounce cointreau
• 1/2 ounce lime juice

In a shaker, add ice and all of the ingredients above.  Shake and strain into a margarita glass that is half filled with ice.

Here's to coming up on completing 4 years of my cocktail blog!  I started this journey on February 16, 2012, my how time has flown!  I hope you are all enjoying this journey as much as I am!

Cheers!!

The Cocktail Lady

Linked to:

Friday's Five
Pin Junkie Pin Party
Weekend Retreat

Peach Habanero Margarita

Peach Habanero Margarita

Happy Monday everyone!  

What better way to face another week than with a spicy margarita?  

Back when I created my Cran Chili Margarita I had told you about the time I had a Habanero Martini and that I could only really take a sip or two before I had to pass it over to my husband.  

Once I had tried that martini I knew that I could never ever try another cocktail with a habanero pepper in it again.......too hot for me.  

Fast forward to today.  

I was at the grocery store and thought, "You know, I bet they used way more habanero peppers then I would have used in that cocktail".  

I then pushed my cart over to the produce section and decided that I would try my hand at a cocktail with a habanero pepper and make it with less then I thought they had made it with.

I present to you the Peach Habanero Margarita.  

I think the amount of habanero pepper I used was perfect......for me, others may like more then I used.  

When you take a sip of this margarita, you can definitely taste the peach flavor, much more then you could in my Peach Margarita I made a couple years ago.  

After you get swept away with the peach flavor and decide, "Huh, I can't even taste the habanero", BAM!! there it is!  

It's a sneaky little pepper, but it does add a nice kick to the margarita.

Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

Here is my recipe for a Peach Habanero Margarita:

• 3 ounces peach nectar
• 1 1/2 ounces silver tequila
• 2 slices (width-wise, so they make rings) habanero pepper
• 1/2 ounce cointreau
• 1/4 ounce lime juice

In a shaker, add ice, tequila and slices of habanero pepper.  Shake well to release the pepper flavoring into the tequila.  Add the rest of the items and shake well again.  Fill a margarita glass half way with ice and strain the cocktail into the glass.

Here's to trying something that once scared you!  

Cheers!

The Cocktail Lady

Linked at:

Friday's Five
Pink Junkie Pin Party
Weekend Retreat

Apple Cider Margarita

Happy Friday everyone!  

We've made it, another week in the books.  

This week in our home our oldest completed his last day of his Freshmen year of High School.  We officially have a Sophomore!  

WAIT...........what??  

I just can't believe how quickly these past 15 1/2 years have gone by. 

Also on Saturday our second oldest tests for his brown belt in Tae Kwon Do!  We're all super excited about that!  

He also only has 2 more weeks of school left until he becomes a 5th grader....breathe.

My girls love drinking apple cider.  

We always have an open container in the fridge so I thought, why not use it in a cocktail?  

My husband and I have had margaritas on the brain lately, so I decided to try creating an apple cider flavored margarita.

I learned that with this cocktail I had to add more apple cider then I initially thought because the flavor of it just doesn't come out as well as I had thought.  

As a last minute idea, I threw some cinnamon into the mixture, which greatly improved it.  

This margarita is good.  

Not my favorite flavored margarita, but still good.

Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

Here is my recipe for an Apple Cider Margarita:

• 1 ounce tequila
• 1/2 ounce cointreau
• 1/2 ounce orange juice
• 3 1/2 ounces apple cider
• 1 pinch of ground cinnamon

On a separate plate put equal amounts of super fine sugar and ground cinnamon.  Mix it up well and rim your cocktail glass with the mixture.

In a shaker, add ice and all of the ingredients above.  Shake and dump everything into your rimmed cocktail glass.

Here is to a fun filled weekend!  I hope you all enjoy it!

Cheers!

The Cocktail Lady

Cran Chili Margarita & Zulka Pure Cane Sugar

Happy Cinco De Mayo!  

I am late on this post......sorry.  

We had to travel away for the weekend for our oldest High School baseball game.  My goal was to post this yesterday, but between driving home (ok, so I was a passenger), insane allergies and too much sun......yea I went to bed super early last night.  

Better late then never!

Today I created a Cran Chili Margarita.  

I was honestly a little scared to mix in the chili powder.  

I know it's not the same thing, but I had a habanero martini once and YIKES....HOT...TOOOO HOT......for me at least.  My folks and husband loved it though....and drank all of mine.  That martini has scared me ever since......therefore I have never tried to add peppers of any kind to my cocktails...and in a wussy way, I thought chili powder would be my first step.

I really like this cocktail. 

The chili powder was a great addition.  

I also mixed it into the sugar rim on my margarita glass, very good call.  

I think I may start experimenting with a pepper in the future......a very very mild pepper to start with.

(This week is teacher appreciation week.  Our school does not celebrate it until the week of the 19-23.  I am selling Teacher Wine Charm sets at my Etsy store and I'd love for you to check it out!  Here is a link to that listing: Teacher Wine Charm Sets  Here is a link to my Etsy store in general JPDesigned.  I can do custom orders for just about anything you have in mind.  Convo me through my store and let's create something together!)

Here is a photo of the end result:

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

I was contacted by Zulka Pure Cane Sugar and they wanted to send me a bag of Zulka Pure Cane Sugar to try out.  I was not paid for my opinion.  All opinions are my honest ones.

She thought it might be something that I could use in an upcoming cocktail.  She was right!  

I tasted the sugar by itself and I have to say I like it.  It is not super sweet/sugary.....you know what you think of when you think "sugar".....that face you make when something is too sweet....well at least that is what I think of when I think of sugar.  

Zulka was not that.  

I think this sugar was a perfect accent to my creation today.  

If I would have gone with a sweeter tasting sugar....I'm not sure if it would have worked as well.

Here is a quote from an email I received from Zulka Pure Cane Sugar, "Zulka Pure Cane Sugar is an unrefined, vegan, Non-GMO Project verified "Morena" style sugar that is minimally processed and comes straight from freshly-harvested sugar cane."

I think I'll try it next time I bake something.  Perfect excuse to make some cookies....or....oh boy....I'd better head to the store!

Here is my recipe for a Cran Chili Margarita:

• 1 1/2 ounces cranberry cocktail juice
• 1 ounce silver tequila
• 1/2 ounce triple sec
• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 1/16 teaspoon chili powder

Rim a margarita glass with an even mixture of sugar and chili powder.  In a shaker, add ice and all of the ingredients above.  Shake well and dump everything into your rimmed margarita glass.

I hope you are all having a great Cinco De Mayo.  Here's to chili powder, and not being a wuss and using it!

Cheers!!

The Cocktail Lady