Blender Marg

Makes one 5.33 Oz (158 Ml) drink at 17.2% alcohol by volume, 7.9 g/100Ml sugar, 0.57% acid

Ingredients

1 ounce (30 ml) Cointreau (Yep, you read right: more Cointreau than mezcal.)

3⁄ 4 ounce (22.5 ml) La Puritita mezcal. (A robust blanco mezcal is required for this drink because so little is used. Tequila would be lost. I used a blanco because I didn’t want any oak in this drink.)

1⁄ 2 ounce (15 ml) Yellow Chartreuse (Completely untraditional, really good.)

1⁄ 2 ounce (15 ml) freshly strained lime juice

10 drops Hellfire bitters or spicy nonacidic stuff of your choice

5 drops saline solution or a generous pinch of salt

About 4 ounces (120 grams) ice

Procedure

Throw everything into a blender, blend just till the ice is fully crushed, and drink. There should be some ice left over. If there isn’t, you’ve blended too long and the friction from the blades has led you to overdilute your drink.

This blender margarita has an initial recipe volume of 2¾ ounces (82.5 ml) instead of the 3¾ ounces (112.5 ml) of the shaken recipe. It will pick up around 2½ ounces (75 ml) of water from the blending, making a drink with a final alcohol by volume of around 17.2%. This recipe works because both Cointreau and Yellow Chartreuse have high alcohol and high sugar contents, so the amount of liquid in the recipe is lower, even though the alcohol level is the same. The blender recipe therefore has 2¼ ounces (67.5 ml) of 40% alcohol-by-volume booze in it and about 12.75 grams of sugar—the equivalent of a little under ¾ ounce (0.7 ounce, 21 ml) of simple syrup— all with a total liquid volume of only 2¾ ounces (82.5 ml)!

The beauty of this recipe is that it can be generalized. Just keep the alcohol:sugar:acid volume ratio fairly constant.

POURING A SHAVED ICE DRINK: The Marg.