If you are going to employ a flavored liqueur, I prefer to make my own. Like this strawberry tequila. It’s simple: take a bottle of tequila, pour into a glass jar, add a pint of strawberries that that been hulled and quartered. Seal. Wait. It only takes a 2-3 days for the “red” in the berries to transfer to the tequila. You are done when the berries look like a vampire has sucked the blood out.
After your 2-3 days, sieve out the berries and rebottle. Store in the refrigerator.
Ah, the taste? It will vary with the strength of the berries and quality of the tequila. A good silver tequila, not too pricey but not “raw gut” style, is your best bet to achieve a satisfactory result. In this batch, the dominant flavor was still tequila, but there was a set of definite berry notes. So, you might want to sip this one on its own. Or, to make strawberry margaritas, when you add the simple syrup, make it a strawberry simple syrup to amplify the flavor.
Oh, strawberry simple syrup? Two cups of berries, hulled and quartered, go into a saucepan with 1 cup of simple syrup. Bring to a boil, stirring and mashing all the time. Simmer with occasional stirring for 5 minutes. Then, cool, strain, and bottle. When you strain, mush still more to get every last drop of juice.