It’s Margarita Week! My favorite week on the internet, really. Bloggers post their favorite margarita recipes in celebration of cinco de mayo, and the forthcoming summer months. (!) Seriously, any marg recipe you’ll ever need is right here. (Thanks, Kate for organizing again!) Head on over to Hola Jalapeño for a roundup of this year’s recipes and recipes from years’ past. My margaritas from the past few years are:

Jalapeño Moscato Margarita (2016)

Ginger Rosé Margarita (2017)

Espresso Orange Margarita (2018)

I’m putting this year’s contribution together with a highlight of my trip to Morocco. I visited Marrakech with a few friends earlier this year, and it was amazing! See below for a handful of photos that don’t really begin to depict how amazing a place it is, but they’re a start. I want to live in a riad forever now and eat handfuls of dates and olives every day. If you need any recommendations, I’ll happily gush about the city.

The colors were so vivid, the food felt so authentic, and it was like no place I’ve ever been before. This margarita is inspired by those colors, the use of honey in everything, and small oranges, clementines, or tangerines that sat in piles everywhere. I’m not quite sure if this technically counts as a margarita. But I figure that I’ve gone pretty strong on the tequila here, so it will do! There are equal parts juice and tequila because I love a sipper margarita that you can feel a little bit. The bitters balance out the sweetness, sour, and savory tequila with a bitter herbal note. Feel free to play with the ratio as you see fit to create the marg of your dreams. Because you deserve it.

And speaking of tequila, last year’s margarita week post featured some science-y bits on tequila production and distillation. So check it out! And here are some more Moroccan photos. If it’s not quite warm enough yet to enjoy these margs outside, maybe these photos can help you feel the sunshine.

Now, because I’m a science nerd, we’ve got to sneak a science tidbit in here. I wrote all about distillation last year for Edible Long Island, which I highly recommend checking out. But we do have to get some tequila chemistry in here too.

Tequila is named after the location it originates, Tequila, just north of Guadalajara. It’s a spirit made from agave which is hand-harvested for the heart of the plant, buried in the ground. From there, the agave hearts are roasted to begin the breakdown of the starches into sugars—the fermentable bits. The roasted hearts are crushed and pulverized to extract the juices. From there, the juice, is transferred to a tank with water and yeast. Here is where the tequila as we know it begins. The yeast eats up the sugar in the agave juice, and it produces alcohol. But only at around 5 or 6%. We need to distill it to get tequila! Generally to a final ABV of 40-70%.

That’s it for the base tequila spirit, aka blanco or white tequila. Reposado is tequila that is aged in oak containers of any size for up to a year, or at a minimum of two months. That is going to be deeper in flavor and color than blanco. Añejo is tequila that is aged for at least a year, and it has to be an oak barrel, typically prior bourbon aging barrels. This is going to be even deeper in flavor.

Honey Clementine Margarita with Bitters

Print Recipe

Clementine Juice

Makes about 2 cups (more than you’ll need unless you do a big batch cocktail, but it freezes well!)

3 pounds clementines or small oranges, tangerines, etc.

½ cup honey

2 lemons, juiced

Margarita

2 oz clementine juice

2 oz blanco tequila (use reposado for a deeper flavor)

Dash bitters

Ice

1. Prepare the juice. If you have a juicer, juice the clementines. If you don’t, peel and seed the clementines (if there are any seeds) and blend, in batches if necessary. Filter the juice through a strainer and either discard the pulp, or keep in your freezer for more nutritious smoothies.
2. Add the clementine juice, lemon juice, and honey to a saucepan, and heat over low heat, stirring, until everything comes together. It shouldn’t take long.
3. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Store in the fridge for a few weeks, or freeze for up to a year.
4. For the margarita, combine the juice, tequila, and bitters together into a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice. Stir pretty quickly for a minute. Strain into a chilled lowball glass with a big ice cube or new fresh ice cubes. Enjoy immediately!
5. For batch margaritas, combine equal parts juice and tequila. You can add bitters in each single cocktail, or add by the half-teaspoon until you’re happy with the flavor.