Smokey Sour Orange Margarita Recipe
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The beautiful thing about Florida, other than the endless array of mind-blowing news stories that somehow all manage to feature a giant reptile, is the citrus.
While most of the country is familiar with lemons, limes, oranges, and tangerines, if you're from Florida, you know that's just the tip of the iceberg. Down here, we're no stranger to kumquats, satsumas, key limes, a zillion types of oranges, Meyer lemons, and today's star, the sour orange.
The sour orange, also known as the Seville orange, bitter orange, and marmalade orange, is a hybrid between the mandarin orange and the pomelo. The fruit is distinctly sour but lacks the pucker and zing of a lemon or the aromatic quality of a lime. The thick, dimpled peels contain a high amount of essential oil, making sour oranges popular components of perfumes, solvents, and some herbal medicines.
In popular contemporary cuisine, you'll most often spot the sour orange in marmalade, duck à l'orange, compotes, wheat beers, and orange-flavored liqueurs. In fact, you may remember that when last I blogged about sour oranges, I made Sour Orange Limoncello, Sour Orange Jelly, and Sour Orange Marmalade as I redefined my relationship with food waste and slow living. While all of those were delightful and fun to make, I've stumbled over another fabulous way to use up a bushel of sour oranges: margaritas!
When my parents' dear neighbor Valerie dropped off a giant bag of sour oranges for me, I was stumped. I'd just finished my whirlwind love affair with Meyer lemons, and I was fresh out of ideas… until another neighbor told me she'd just made Meyer lemon margaritas!
There are very few citrus varietals that don't party well with some salt and tequila, and the sour orange absolutely shines in this simple and easily adaptable cocktail recipe. Just a note, this is a classic margarita. If you like your margs to be sweet or syrupy, you're on the wrong blog, bucko.
While I encourage you to try your hand at adapting this recipe, I'll warn you that too many Sour Orange Margaritas just might land you in the next "Florida Man" news story!
Smokey Sour Orange Margaritas
What you will need for your Smokey Sour Orange Margaritas:
3 oz high-quality tequila
2 oz high-quality triple sec
3 oz freshly squeezed sour orange juice, seeds removed, and pulp strained if desired (I didn't strain mine other than what the shaker filtered out, and it was still delicious.)
Crushed ice
Smoked salt (I used Bulls Bay Bourbon Barrel Smoked Salt and their regular smoked salt)
Simple syrup or sweetener (OPTIONAL)
One or two quarter-sized or larger piece of orange peel and matches (also optional but strongly encouraged)
Cocktail shaker
Tumblers or margarita glasses
Dish for salting the rims
Beverage flair (It's been a long damn year, don't you skimp on the beverage flair, friend.)
A measuring device that uses ounces (I used a Pyrex measuring cup because I'm not glassy enough for fine barware.)
How to make a Smokey Sour Orange Margarita:
Note: THIS RECIPE IS FOR ONE MARG. If you don't feel like sharing, or if you've had a really horrible day, you'll want to multiply these measurements according to how many real or imaginary friends will be drinking with you.
Prime your margarita glasses by dipping your finger in the sour orange juice and running it around the rim of your glass, and then dip your glass upside down in the plate of smoked salt to salt your rim.
Alternately, you can flame a piece of sour orange peel and use that to dampen your rim for salting. To do this, light a match and hold it in your left hand. Moving quickly, squeeze your orange peel so that the oils release and spray into the flame. There will be a really fun poof of fire; I highly recommend shouting olé when this happens. Then lightly run the peel around your rim, coating the glass with oil and then dipping it in your smoked salt.
Add one or two ice cubes to your shaker. Pour the sour orange juice, triple sec, and tequila into the shaker, cover the lid, and give it a brief, hard shake. Taste and add more OJ, if needed.
Add ice to your margarita glass, then pour your sour orange margarita into your glass, making sure to give it a good shake to get all that citrusy goodness where it belongs: your glass and then your face.
If desired, flame another orange peel onto the top of your drink. My husband and I love it this way.
Garnish your margarita with a sour orange slice or your beverage flair!
Cheers your friends (real or otherwise), kick back, and relax.
Wondering what drinking sour orange margaritas has to do with saving the planet?
This particular, though unusual, varietal of orange grows exceptionally well in Jacksonville. While it can be challenging to figure out how to use at first due to its unique flavor profile, the sour orange tree is a perennial that grows a plethora of backyard fruit without fertilization, much watering, or pesticides. The sour orange tree just bops along happily producing food. In contrast, the produce at your grocery store is often grown halfway across the planet with fertilizers and pesticides that cause runoff before being harvested, coated in wax, packaged in plastic or styrofoam, and shipped around the world in refrigerated containers.
So, hey, margs for the planet!
Bottoms up, y'all!
Reese
