Blood Orange Cocktail with Tequila and Ginger Beer
Blood orange juice is sweet and low in acid, so this drink props it up with lime and a brewed ginger beer that carries real heat. Shaken hard, strained onto fresh ice and topped at the last second, in a glass rimmed with sugar rubbed through fresh zest.
Ingredients
For the Sugared Rim
- 1 tablespoon blood orange zest finely grated, from 1 blood orange
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar plain, not superfine
- 1 tablespoon blood orange juice in a shallow bowl, for wetting the rim
For the Cocktail
- 1 cup ice cubes for the shaker
- 2 ounces fresh blood orange juice from about 1 1/2 blood oranges
- 1 1/2 ounces blanco tequila or reposado, 100 percent agave
- 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice about 1 generous wedge
- 3 ounces ginger beer cold and properly hot, never ginger ale
- 1 glassful ice cubes fresh, for the glass
- 1 wheel blood orange for garnish
Instructions
Sugar the Rim
- Grate the zest of one blood orange onto a small plate, add the sugar and rub the two together with your fingers until the sugar is damp and smells strongly of citrus. Rubbing rather than stirring is what breaks the oil cells open. Put the tablespoon of blood orange juice in a second shallow bowl.
- Dip the rim of a short rocks glass into the juice, then roll it at an angle through the sugar so only the outside is coated. Fill the glass with fresh ice and set it aside for a minute while the rim sets.
Shake and Serve
- Combine the cup of ice, the blood orange juice, the tequila and the lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Shake hard for 15 seconds, until the outside of the tin frosts. Never shake anything carbonated.
- Strain into the prepared glass over the fresh ice, leaving the shaker ice behind. It is half melted by now and would keep watering the drink down.
- Top with the cold ginger beer, stir once from the bottom with a long spoon so the fizz survives, and garnish with a wheel of blood orange.
Notes
Ginger beer, not ginger ale. Ale is sweetened flavored water and leaves the drink flat. Fever-Tree, Bundaberg and Q all carry genuine heat.
Strain, do not pour. The shaker ice has already given up its cold and taken on water; tipped into the glass it keeps diluting and the last third is watery.
Batching for 8: 2 cups blood orange juice, 1 1/2 cups tequila, 1/2 cup lime juice and 4 ounces of water to replace the dilution the shaker would have given. Keeps 24 hours cold. Rim the glasses an hour ahead and top each one with ginger beer to order.
No blood oranges: navel juice plus an extra 1/4 ounce of lime and a splash of cranberry juice or a bar spoon of pomegranate molasses.
Zested sugar keeps 3 days in a sealed jar. Strength is about 8 percent alcohol once the ice has worked.
Nutrition values are an estimate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cocktail | Calories: 186kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 1g | Sodium: 11mg | Potassium: 182mg | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 210IU | Vitamin C: 35mg | Calcium: 17mg