Do It Yourself Margaritas:
A cultural adventure.
Margaritas are
a critical part of a fabulous Mexican Vacation. When you start to wonder
if your money will last to the end of the vacation, you may want to save a
few pesos by making your own. Don’t even think of using margarita mix. You
can do better. If your vacation rental has a blender, check out the
utensil drawer. With a little luck you will find a lime squeezer (see the
picture). But first you better head out to get the ingredients. Try
Walmart or one of the bigger grocery stores and pick up a decent Tequila
(you get what you pay for), some powdered sugar, some triple sec (any
licor naranja will do) and, of course, limes. Note! DO NOT get limas.
Those are only for cooking food like the Yucatecan sopa de lima. Lime
soup, De Lima, get it? The word for limes is limon. Unfortunately, this is
also the word for lemons To specify limes, you can say verde (which means
green) and everyone will stare at you blankly. Then try saying verde
correctly (BARE DAY) and they will get it. Just make sure they know you
are trying to speak spanish. Whew! And you were ready to give
up.OK, now for the squeezer. I guess we were a little dense, because it took us a couple of tries to figure out the holes aren’t for the juice to come out. The little holes are so the lime doesn’t create suction and stick in the squeezer (we think). Just cut the limes in half and squeeze it over a the blender. Believe it or not, it only takes 2 limes for ¾ of a blender of frozen margaritas. Add ½ cup of tequila, ¼ cup of triple sec and powdered sugar to taste (start with 4 heaping tablespoons). If you don’t have a way to measure, just guess and be generous. Then fill the blender to ¾ full with ice and blend away. Add extra sugar if you need it and you have a batch of kickin’ margaritas you made from scratch. Now you just have to shout Arriba!! And be sure to roll the R’s.
For the purists out there who have to have it on the rocks, experiment. You’ll get it.
John Jameson
Grand Mayan Riviera Maya rental
