Hey hey! Happy Tuesday!

Now that we are entering the middle of December, holiday parties are in full swing! A couple years ago I posted my recipe for a Christmas Sangria and last year I shared one of my favorite Mule recipe from this blog, but this year I decided to it was time to incorporate tequila into the festivities. Because, as you know, I love tequila…

But the trouble with margaritas is that it’s such a Summer drink! Unless they’re spending the holidays somewhere tropical, margaritas aren’t really at the forefront of anybody’s mind in December…

Except for me.

A note to add is that these recipes are for one single margarita and totally up for you to change up however you see fit. Do you like your margaritas stronger? Add less juice. Do you like it sweeter? Make a Shirley Temple and get out of my face.

Just kidding… But I actually hate it when I go out and order a margarita and it tastes like juice. But to each their own! I tested out these recipes and tried to come up with a happy medium. 

All of the recipes are pretty straightforward, except for the cranberry one. For the cranberry one I made a cranberry orange reduction and, trust me, it tastes way better than using plain, old cranberry juice. So let’s start with that one…

Cranberry Reduction

• 1 cup of cranberries
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
• juice of 1 orange

As tedious as it is, take a knife and cut 1 cup of cranberries into halves. Then place them in a small saucepan, over medium high heat, and combine with the sugar and orange juice. Let this simmer until the cranberries have reduced down, the mixture should resemble a thin cranberry sauce. This will all reduce down to about half a cup of sauce.

Now you’re ready to make the margaritas!

Cranberry Margaritas

• 2 parts tequila
• 1 part triple sec
• 1 part lime juice
• 1/4 cup of cranberry reduction
• juice of 1 orange

Combine all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and mix well. Salt the rime of your glass, add ice, and pour into the glass, using a strainer. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Now it’s time for the Pomegranate one! This was the one that required a lot more lime juice than the others because it paired with the pomegranate so well!

Pomegranate Margarita

• 2 parts tequila
• 1 part triple sec
• 2 parts lime juice
• 4 parts pomegranate juice

If you know how to juice a pomegranate then congrats, go at it. I, however, don’t even have the patience to research how to do that. So I bought organic, unsweetened, pomegranate juice.

Combine all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and mix well. Salt the rime of your glass, add ice, and pour into the glass, using a strainer. Garnish with a lime wedge.

One of my favorites ended up being the blood orange one! I love love love blood oranges! I used these last year and they taste so good in cocktails!

This recipe is probably the most simple but, to jazz it up a little, I salted the rim of the glass with a little bit of orange zest, to add an extra garnish.

Blood Orange Margarita

• 2 parts tequila
• 1 part triple sec
• 1 part lime juice
• 6 parts blood orange juice

I only zested one orange for the rim, but I juiced around 4-5 for 6oz of juice. Be prepared to buy quite a few if you are going to be making multiple margaritas. 

Combine all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and mix well. Salt the rime of your glass, add ice, and pour into the glass, using a strainer. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Thanks so much for reading! These were so much fun to make and huge shout out to Jordan from Miss Honey Lavender for letting me make a mess in her kitchen while we made Holiday Cocktails together! 

Happy Holidays!