Monday I posted a cookbook review for Skinny Sippers, a volume of cocktail recipes with a twist [no pun intended]. Each of the recipes in Skinny Sippers gives you a lovely cocktail in under 150 calories. The recipes are dotted with ideas for using fruit, fruit and vegetables juices, and diet mixers to provide deep flavor without widening your waistline.
This recipe is right out of the book and is exceptional. It’s 86 calories, about half of what you’d get from a can of Pepsi. And, even, better, this tastes of tequila.
This is very much a margarita-like beverage with that smokey tequila flavor muted by the fruit juices. No sugar syrup here, which helps keep that calorie count low. The color is beautiful, and the flavor perfectly satisfying.
You cannot find a blood orange? Freshly squeezed orange juice will be fine. Bottled juice? No. There is no substitute for fresh. There really isn’t.
If you google, you can find sites like:
The fact is that bottled juices all contain non-juice components which may preserve the juice but are not natural ingredients. These ingredients, plus just the effects of time, degrade the flavor. Nothing tastes like fresh off the cutting board. And for this beverage, you want the best.
Floreciente
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
- 1 orange slice, optional
- Fine sea salt, optional
- Crushed ice
- 1 ounce tequila gold
- ¾ ounce Cointreau
- ¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
- ¾ ounce fresh blood orange juice
- Blood orange wedge to decorate the rim, optional
Preparation:
Frost the rim of a margarita glass by moistening with an orange slice, then pressing the glass into a saucer of salt. [No, I skipped this step as the picture above shows. I’m on a lower the salt routine. Again.]
Fill the glass with crushed ice. Pour the tequila, Cointreau, lemon juice, and blood orange juice into a cocktail shaker, and shake vigorously for 10 seconds, then strain into the prepared glass. Decorate with a blood orange wedge if you wish.