Mango Chile Margarita
Just look at that badly cropped photo! Apparently I can't measure images either. Or is that part of the gimmick? You decide!
Ok, so, I know it looks like a glass of orange juice with an ice cube in it, but it's not. That would be stupid. This is not stupid. This is a mango chile margarita, and it's wonderful.
Cocktails are a weird experience for me, because the measurements are generally pretty easy, because it’s al just “parts.” Do you want to use buckets? Great. Pants pockets? I mean, it sounds messy, but the math still works, so uh…you do you, I guess.
As long as you fill your vessel of choice consistently (and apparently I don't), the “part" can be whatever the hell you want. It's like magic. The issue I face is that I usually don’t measure the first time around, and it gets especially muddy when I’m trying to fix something that went wrong. In this case, though, I kept it pretty simple.
Ingredients
2 parts tequila
1 part ancho chile liqueur
1 part lime juice
2 parts mango puree (plot twist: this is the guess work)
Sprite (just a splash)
Where do you get ancho chile liquer? Easy. Use this stuff. It’s flipping tasty. It’s not brutally hot, but you’ll definitely get a little bit of heat from it, and it’s a heat that kinda lingers for a little bit. It’s a perfectly bearable heat that pairs nicely with a lot of different things (like mango, for example).
The Process
Pour everything you've got into a cocktail shaker. Except the Sprite. That goes in later. Trust me. I mean, you can put the Sprite into the shaker with everything else, but that's a really terrible idea.
It's called a “shaker” for a reason. You know what happens when you shake a sealed container of pop? I know I don't want to clean that up.
Anyway, take your Sprite-less shaker and help that handy cup live up to its name. I'm not sure if shaking it is strictly necessary. I suppose you could stir it, but I was working with a pretty thick puree, and stirring didn't seem to have the effect I was hoping for, so I decided to strong arm the mixture into submission.
But Mike, why don’t you put ice in the shaker? Honestly, I don’t know. Part of me is worried the ice would mess up the mixing process, and part of me is worried that I’ll run out of ice. If you put all your ice in the shaker, there won’t be any left for the glass.
Moving on. Once your concoction is good and combined (or when your arms get tired because you have software engineer muscles) pour it over ice, and top the finished product off with a little splash of Sprite. Give it one quick stir and serve.
Is the Sprite necessary? Maybe. I like a little bit of bubbly stuff in my drinks, and I put a little bit of Sprite in pretty much every cocktail I make.
One final note here: This thing goes down easy. I wouldn’t say this is a weak cocktail, but the mango makes it super easy to just keep tossing them back. Don't do that, ok?
Drink responsibly. That's not a request.