Blackberry Mint Margaritas

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style with this simple marvelous and sophisticated take on a margarita.
Text And Photo By Jerri Green

So I have to admit tequila and I have not been friends since my bachelorette party. In fact, we haven’t been on speaking terms. You may be in a similar boat. However, I suggest you put your past behind you in order to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style in one fantastic drink.

Let me explain how this drink came about. I created this concoction a few years ago. (Last year on Cinco de Mayo I was delivering my son, and this year I am pregnant again…designated driver anyone?) Anyway, at my husband’s suggestion I began searching for mint margaritas. Why mint you ask? Well, every year my hubby and I plant an herb garden in a large container pot on our deck. This year in particular, however, we had to expand to two pots, as the mint from the year before came back with a vengeance and had taken up a large portion of our old herb garden. A quick quest on the web for something minty, turned up a few suggestions that sounded promising, but the most intriguing by far was blackberry mint margaritas. I knew there were fresh blackberries that I had been eying at my local market, so I invited over a girlfriend and this is what we came up with…

We made a small batch at first, just enough for two drinks, by combining about 12 blackberries, 2 ounces of tequila, two sprigs of mint, 2 ounces of simple sugar, and some ice cubes. We put them in a shaker, muddled the mix, and strained them into our glasses, garnished with a few more blackberries. It was just enough for us to have one drink each. Dangerously good!

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Sparkling Limeade with Mint

However, we decided it might be even better if we blended them. So we put the rest of the two packages of blackberries in the blender with 6 ounces of tequila, 6 sprigs of mint, 6 ounces of simple sugar, and lots of ice cubes. Blended they were equally divine. The seeds were a bit much at the bottom, but other than that they were fantastic! It made enough for us to have several more drinks…the exact count is a little blurry.

This might just be the drink (or drinks as the case may be) to get you and tequila talking again. I’m not suggesting you will be best friends or anything, but at least not strangers. Plus, you can celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style with this simple marvelous and sophisticated take on a margarita.