11/11

Elsie’s Orange Cranberry Margarita

Celebrate, Cocktails, Cold, Food, Tequila, Thanksgiving
By Elsie Larson


Cranberry MargaritaI try to make a special cocktail for each season. I definitely have my go-to flavors, like cider drinks in the fall and winter. And cranberry! A couple years ago I made cranberry jello shots, and I decided to carry on the tradition this year with a cranberry margarita!

The best way to make a flavored margarita mix is to cut the water from the traditional recipe and use fruit juice instead!

Cranberry Margarita Orange Cranberry Margarita Mix

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cranberry juice cocktail
1 cup lime juice (about 10 limes)
juice of three oranges

Squeeze the lime and orange juice into a bowl or measuring cup. Heat the cranberry juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.

AR5A8859I added some fresh cranberries cut in half, oranges and limes to my mix just to infuse a little more flavor.

Let the mixture cool a bit before adding in the lime juice, mix together, and pour into a bottle. Refrigerate the mix for up to two weeks.

To mix a margarita, just add a shot of silver tequila to a short glass filled with ice. Then top it off with the margarita mix. EASY as pie. I normally use triple sec too, but since this already has so much orange flavor, I didn’t necessarily think it needed it. Oh- and you get bonus points if you take the time to do a salted rim and fun cranberry and orange garnishes!

OK…Funny story time..

When I was making this the day before Friendsgiving, I left the house to run an errand while Emma was cooking. I left it simmering on the stove and when I got back, I worried that I had left it on too long, so I gave it a quick taste. EW! It tasted really weird. I thought maybe the sugar had burned. As I was dumping it out to start over, Emma saw me and said, “Oh! I added my extra vanilla beans to your stove simmer“. Haha! I was like, “NO, Emma! This was supposed to be margarita mix.” #fail

We laughed about it for the rest of the day!

Don’t worry, I made another batch. 😉

Cranberry Margarita By the way, this is one of the most crowd-pleasing drinks I’ve ever made! Everyone loved it and we ran out WAY too fast (next time I’ll make a double recipe of the mix).

It tastes like a tarter, more flavorful version of a traditional margarita.

Cranberry Margarita If you guys make this recipe, please tag your photos with #ABMhappyhour. It would make my heart SO happy!

Cranberry Margarita Cheers to new traditions, funny kitchen fails and seasonal flavors! Love you guys. xx- Elsie

Credits// Author and Photography: Elsie Larson. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess Actions. 

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