In IMPULSE CONTROL, the heroine mixes up a homemade margarita for her BFF. I LOVE margaritas, but I don’t love the jaw-stinging sweet and sour mix from a bottle. I think half the reason I put a margarita in the book was so that I’d be forced to come up with a recipe for homemade sour mix, and here you go! It’s great in a classic margarita, and it’s also fantastic with pineapple vodka and coconut rum. I imagine it would go well with just about anything. Confession: I lined up two shot glasses, one full of tequila and one full of homemade sour mix, and tossed them back. That was good, too. 🙂
Homemade Sweet and Sour Mix
(makes about 3 cups)
One cup sugar
One cup water
One cup lemon juice
1/2 cup lime juice
Juice from one tangerine or 1/2 and orange
1. Bring sugar and water to a boil. Turn off heat. Cool syrup. (Seriously. Cool the syrup. And don’t do what I did. I poured warm syrup into a pickled jar, and then poured very cold lemon juice in right after it. The entire bottom of the pickle jar cracked off because it wasn’t tempered glass. I know better…but I didn’t think the syrup was THAT warm.)
2. Add lemon juice, lime juice, and tangerine/orange juice. Stir.
3. Use immediately or refrigerate. Last about a week. (Except at my house.)
Now for the margarita! Another confession: I created a perfectly lovely margarita recipe, wrote it down, drank the margarita, and lost the piece of paper with the recipe on it. However, I rely on my instincts a lot while cooking/baking/mixology-making, and here’s what I would do*:
Find a friend.
Rim two margarita glasses with salt. (Run a cut lime around the edge, and then roll the edge in kosher salt. Or pink Himalayan salt. Or whatever salt you prefer.) Add ice.
Half-fill a shaker with more ice. Pour in 3 shots of tequila, one shot of triple sec or Curacao, and 3 shots of sour mix.
Shake.
Strain into margarita glasses. Retire to the porch with snacks. Susannah served black bean and roasted sweet potato nachos in IMPULSE CONTROL. Maybe I’ll have to make that next!
** Update! I created a NEW drink: The Lemon Balm-arita! Lemon balm is pretty, but it will spread all over the yard. You might want to keep it contained if you decide to grow some. It’s a lovely garnish for a summer beverage!
Amanda Usen 