Ahh Margaritas! Before the year is out I will make a dozen variations of these but a flavor I’ve been obsessing about lately is tamarind. I get my tamarind fix from one of my favorite Indian snacks, the aloo papri chaat. The sweet, sour and spice blends are just perfect. The other is the Jamaican tamarind balls I get from the market near my home. It’s so sweet and sour it’ll give you serious pucker face but that won’t stop you from eating it! Basically it’s tamarind flesh rolled in sugar, pure and natural.
I also recently started making an ultra spicy ghost chile pepper tamarind lollipop and trying to find a good balance of flavor, when I do I’ll post about that one. Surely chileheads will like that one.
So back to the margarita, a good one is strong made with 100% agave tequila and not too sweet but an even better one has a kick from chile peppers! I infused some simple syrup with habaneros, used tamarind pulp which can be found at a Asian or Caribbean food markets and good quality tequila.
This is the lips burning kind of margarita and if you can’t handle that you might want to modify recipe.
Tamarind Habanero Margarita
1 1/2 oz of Tequila (100% agave)
1 tbsp of Tamarind Pulp
1 oz of Habanero infused simple syrup
1/2 oz of Triple Sec
Juice of 1/2 lime
Ice
Habanero Salt for rim
In shaker, add all ingredients except salt and shake it baby! Wet the lip of glass with lime and dip in habanero salt. Pour cocktail into glass with or without ice and enjoy!!!
Infused Simple Syrup
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1 habanero, diced
Add sugar and water in small saucepan over medium heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved and you’re left with simple syrup. Remove from heat and add diced habanero to syrup and let pepper infuse for several hours or best if overnight. Use just 1 oz for cocktail.
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