A twist on the classic frozen strawberry margarita with a black pepper kick – the perfect drink to enjoy all summer long.
Margaritas are my all time favourite cocktail, I have a bit of soft spot for tequila based cocktails anyway but throw in lime as the main flavour and I’m sold! We don’t get very good margaritas here in the UK, but I definitely drink my fair share when I’m out in Atlanta – and, come rain or shine, they have to be frozen! I don’t know why that makes them so much tastier, but it does – perhaps it’s my slight addiction to slushies at the cinema. Ooh now there’s a thought – frozen margarita machines at the cinema! I would probably never leave, and be extremely broke. 
While a classic marg is my favourite, the local market had some really great strawberries recently so I had to make good use of them – and in my head that means a cocktail, apparently. And, because I’m me, I added some black pepper to give it a nice little kick. Strawberry and black pepper is already a wonderful combination, the flavours really compliment each other – but when you counteract the kick from the alcohol with the kick from the black pepper, you really do get an awesome medley of flavours (and maybe some bruised shins from all the kicking!). I like mine with quite a bit black pepper, but my mum found it a little too spicy for her tastes so just adjust the amount you add to suit your tastes.
I’m definitely a seasoned margarita drinker but I have to admit, I always have mine without salt. I don’t even know why, since I love a sweet and salty combination, old habits I guess! I used sugar to coat the rim of these glasses partly because I didn’t have any suitable salt and partly because sugar just sounded very appealing for this drink, and it really worked! I did consider a black pepper rim but I think that might be too much even for me – but feel free to go for it if you’ve got a high pepper tolerance!
And of course, to go with these delicious margaritas, you must make these margarita cupcakes.
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- Yield: 4 drinks 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup/ 120ml ice
- 100 ml gold tequila
- 50 ml cointreau
- 300 g hulled strawberries (frozen)
- Juice of 1 and a half limes
- 1 tsp – 1 tbsp coarse ground black pepper (depending on your tastes)
- Salt/sugar (lime wedge and strawberries for garnish)
Instructions
- Place your glasses in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill
- This is where it gets complicated – add everything to a blender and blend until smooth!
- Run a lime wedge around the rims of your glasses and dip in sugar or salt to coat.
- Pour the margaritas into glasses and garnish with a fresh strawberry
- Serve immediately
Notes
Triple sec works as well as cointreau if you’d prefer
Makes 4 large-ish drinks (depending on your definition of large) or about 1 litre of margarita
- Category: Cocktail
