How do you like your margarita, sir? Shaken, not frozen, and on the rocks!
That was the question asked when my brother and I were hanging out at his place on a balmy Sunday evening in beautiful northeastern Tennessee. After discussing business, we like to just kick back and try our hand at perhaps a new cocktail, wine, scotch, or a cooking dish and just create and reinvent. You know, the real brotherly “bonding” moments that you might only see on an episode of Frasier.
On this particular day, Maynie tells me that he has a kick ass margarita that he makes—now mind you, he doesn’t even really like margaritas, so I’m thinking, oookay…how good could this possibly be? He immediately goes into the kitchen and starts working up this cocktail with all fresh ingredients and from scratch, in a “bar genius” sort of manner. At this point, I am watching in awe and thinking, “Who is this guy?”
About fifteen minutes later, his frantic concoction is revealed. He pours, I sip, and the result? Maynie’s “KickAss” Margarita!
From Maynie’s bar to yours…you gotta try this!
Ingredients:
4 oz of tequila—we like either Cabo Wabo Anejo or Herradura Reposado
1 oz of simple syrup
1 oz of Grand Marnier
2 oz of fresh lime juice—4 large limes
1 full size cocktail shaker
How to Make:
Grab a nice stainless cocktail shaker (no, this is not a reference to your wife, girlfriend, or the closest bartender) and toss in 4 oz of tequila along with 1 oz of Grand Marnier. To make your simple syrup, take a 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, boil the water first, then stir in the sugar constantly over a medium flame heat until it starts to thicken. This will take around 10 minutes. Let the syrup cool before you refrigerate.
Add in 1 oz of simple syrup (more if you like yours sweeter) along with your freshly squeezed limes—use about 4 large limes and make sure you extract all the juice. With all your ingredients in the shaker, shake vigorously for about 20 seconds.
Coat the rim of your margarita glass with one of your already-squeezed limes. Then, grab a plate and pour out your salt. Maynie likes using chili pacific sea salt; I personally like smoked black lava salt, but you can use whatever salt suits your taste. Rim the glass (use either a traditional margarita glass or as we like, a double old-fashion lowball) with the salt, pour in Maynie’s KickAss Margarita, and enjoy!
