Frozen Strawberry Margarita

I love a margarita. The sweet, salty, and tart flavour that comes from the tequila and lime juice mixed with the salt on the rimmed glass make it one of my favourite cocktails.

Margarita Variations

Margaritas come in lots of different varieties, classic, frozen, fruity, spicy, on the rocks, and can be made with either tequila or mezcal. Try this delicious Pineapple Margarita, or this mashup of the mojito and margarita to make a Mojarita.

The classic margarita blends tequila with triple sec and lime juice, and is served over ice in a salt rimmed glass to create a strong, and sweet, salty, tart cocktail.

While this is a timeless, classic cocktail, I wanted to do something a little more elaborate, and since it's really hot right now, what better than an adult slushie? My wife recently froze some fresh strawberries so we decided on a Frozen Strawberry Margarita. It's basically, a classic margarita with the addition of some blended, frozen strawberries and crushed ice to create a strawberry margarita slushie.

Sweet, or Not Too Sweet

If ordering a frozen margarita in a restaurant it will usually be made using pre-packaged, frozen strawberries, not fresh ones that have been recently frozen, and will have syrup added that make it quite sweet.

My wife and I both prefer a less sweet cocktail so the sweetness added by the strawberries is perfect for us. If you like a sweeter cocktail, or if you substituted Cointreau or Grand Marnier for the Triple Sec, you may want to add some agave syrup or simple syrup.

This strawberry simple syrup would be perfect to add some sweetness to this cocktail.

Origin of the Margarita

As with many of these things that go back decades, the origin of the margarita is a bit fuzzy. According to Wikipedia's margarita page, a number of people claim to have created this classic cocktail, including Tijuana restaurant owner Carlos "Danny" Herrera (1938), Dallas socialite Margarita Sames (1948), Hussong's Cantina bartender Don Carlos Orozco (1941), and Francisco "Pancho" Morales (1942) at Tommy's Place Bar.

I suspect that many people were experimenting with variations on the classic, very well known, and common combination of tequila with citrus and salt so similar cocktails were created at various times in different places.

Frozen Strawberry Margarita Ingredients

Crushed ice: Crushed ice is essential to getting the slushie consistency in this cocktail. Using just the frozen strawberries will not provide enough ice and the cocktail will be watery.

Frozen Strawberries: I recommend cutting up and freezing fresh strawberries, but this requires a time commitment that you may not have. In that case you could use frozen strawberries from the grocery store. This will save time, but they will be a little watery compared to freshly frozen berries.

Tequila: Any good quality silver tequila will do. If you do not have tequila you could substitute mezcal which may give it a slightly spicier, smoky flavour, depending on the mezcal you choose.

Fresh squeezed lime juice: As with the strawberries, fresh fruit is always best. I would not recommend using bottled lime juice; you will taste the difference.

Triple Sec: Triple Sec is a sweet, orange flavoured liqueur that adds a sweet citrus flavour to any cocktail. You may prefer to use Cointreau or Grand Marnier, but they are not as sweet as Triple Sec so you may want to add some sugar or simple syrup depending on how sweet you like your Margarita.

Sugar and Kosher salt: I know the traditional Margarita calls for Kosher salt on the rim of the glass, but I like the little bit of additional sweetness the sugar adds. Blend together a small amount of sugar and course Kosher salt in a 50:50 ratio to rim the glasses.

You will need an ice crusher, or strong blender that can crush ice to make this drink. If your refrigerator has an ice maker that makes crushed ice that will work too.