Sip Me Baby One More Time - Week 10
Week 10 - The Grapefruit Margarita
One of my college roommates came to visit me from New York this weekend. I love company and I was so excited to see her. She has been following my margarita making adventures and requested that we make the Grapefruit Margarita when she comes to visit, because it is her favorite. Who am I to deny a drink request? Megan, This Grapefruit is for you and my week 10 drink!
I realized that though I confidently agreed to make this drink for her, I have actually never tasted a grapefruit margarita and have certainly never made one. As the weekend drew closer, I got a little nervous. What if it doesn't taste like she expects it to? Will she tell me if it doesn't or just politely sip the drink and dump it down the sink the minute I leave the room? Just some new drink jitters I told myself! I've been doing this long enough now, that I have the basics down. I can also follow the recipe to the letter. It will just be the right ratio of grapefruit juice that I will need to worry about.
I researched several recipes in addition to the one in the book I am following (101 Margaritas - see my first post). Some recipes called for bottled grapefruit juice and some (including 101 margaritas) called for fresh squeezed juice. I decided to go for the fresh squeezed, but I bought the bottled juice as a backup in case something went wrong. I figured I could always go back and add the bottled juice to save the drink if needed.
This drink also allowed me to use one of my new ice molds. I used the square mold in week 9. For this drink I used the sphere ice mold. They turned out awesome and looked great in the glass.
In addition, I have still been working on bettering my garnish game. I did pretty well on my first try back in week 7. However, I think I left too much pith on the peel. I was proud of my attempt, but realized I can do better. This week, I decided to try a few things I saw in some photos on Instagram. See the pictures of my attempts below. Since I had to make two drinks, One for me, and one for my friend Megan, I was able to try two different garnishes. This time I think I managed to get the pith off completely and created two pretty cool garnishes.
The drink itself was fairly easy to put together. Megan decided to go without salt and I added salt for my drink. It was interesting to taste the difference. My drink had a good even taste. Hers was good, but had a little bite to it. She tried mine and realized the salt was able to cut that on my drink and the recipe worked. For hers, we added more grapefruit juice and another splash of lemon to cut it a bit. That's all it took and the drink was perfect. It's so interesting to me that the smallest change to a drink recipe can make such a difference.
Recipe
2 ounces tequila
2 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 grapefruit slice for garnish
Level of difficulty: 3
Taste: 7.5
Overall: 7.5
One of my college roommates came to visit me from New York this weekend. I love company and I was so excited to see her. She has been following my margarita making adventures and requested that we make the Grapefruit Margarita when she comes to visit, because it is her favorite. Who am I to deny a drink request? Megan, This Grapefruit is for you and my week 10 drink!
I realized that though I confidently agreed to make this drink for her, I have actually never tasted a grapefruit margarita and have certainly never made one. As the weekend drew closer, I got a little nervous. What if it doesn't taste like she expects it to? Will she tell me if it doesn't or just politely sip the drink and dump it down the sink the minute I leave the room? Just some new drink jitters I told myself! I've been doing this long enough now, that I have the basics down. I can also follow the recipe to the letter. It will just be the right ratio of grapefruit juice that I will need to worry about.
I researched several recipes in addition to the one in the book I am following (101 Margaritas - see my first post). Some recipes called for bottled grapefruit juice and some (including 101 margaritas) called for fresh squeezed juice. I decided to go for the fresh squeezed, but I bought the bottled juice as a backup in case something went wrong. I figured I could always go back and add the bottled juice to save the drink if needed.
This drink also allowed me to use one of my new ice molds. I used the square mold in week 9. For this drink I used the sphere ice mold. They turned out awesome and looked great in the glass.
In addition, I have still been working on bettering my garnish game. I did pretty well on my first try back in week 7. However, I think I left too much pith on the peel. I was proud of my attempt, but realized I can do better. This week, I decided to try a few things I saw in some photos on Instagram. See the pictures of my attempts below. Since I had to make two drinks, One for me, and one for my friend Megan, I was able to try two different garnishes. This time I think I managed to get the pith off completely and created two pretty cool garnishes.
The drink itself was fairly easy to put together. Megan decided to go without salt and I added salt for my drink. It was interesting to taste the difference. My drink had a good even taste. Hers was good, but had a little bite to it. She tried mine and realized the salt was able to cut that on my drink and the recipe worked. For hers, we added more grapefruit juice and another splash of lemon to cut it a bit. That's all it took and the drink was perfect. It's so interesting to me that the smallest change to a drink recipe can make such a difference.
Last but not least, I would like to give a shout out to a good friend who I have
dubbed my "editor and chief" behind the scenes. She has been
editing my posts each week, before I publish. It's reassuring to have a second
set of eyes on the writing sample. Editing is not my strong suit, so it's
something I tend to obsess over. Having Christina take a look eases my
mind before I hit publish! I also love that she's not worried in the
least about hurting my feelings, so she gives me honest feedback. She regularly
circles my multiple exclamation points and writes "NO" next to them. Just a little reminder to simmer down on the yelling words! I'm
not looking for someone to tell me I'm winning a Pulitzer (which I am certainly
not). I just need someone to give it to me straight. Christina does
that with Gusto and I can’t thank her enough!
Lesson learned - You have to be willing to try something different. I had no idea I would enjoy a grapefruit margarita. It wasn't even on my radar until Megan brought it up. Sometimes the people around you bring good ideas to the table. Let them! It makes for a lot more fun and it engages people in my journey in a very personal way.
Recipe
2 ounces tequila
2 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 grapefruit slice for garnish
Level of difficulty: 3
Taste: 7.5
Overall: 7.5
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