How to Make Classic Cocktails - Margarita

[Music Playing] Anthony: Welcome to the Art of the Drink, my name is Anthony Caporale, and we are working with Lea. Again, how are you doing? Lea: Good, how are you? Anthony: Good. This week we are going to do a Margarita, but what are we going to do, what I call a Top Shelf Margarita for old schools. This is the original recipe for Margarita that does not have sour mix in it, this is the way that you get it back in the day – Lea: The original. Anthony: The original, right. It is my favorite version of the Margarita, so if you get a chance to get one made as well, I recommend it. It taste very different from a standard like big chain restaurant like Margarita. [Music Playing] Drink Art Contest: How large should the whirlpool when blending drinks? E-mail your answer to: One correct answer will be randomly selected. Contest ends August 13, 2008. Stay tuned to see the DrinkArt Prize Package! Anthony: The first thing we need in order to do is properly is simply syrup. Now folks have heard me talking about simple syrup, but I never actually made it on the pod cast. So I want to go ahead and show you show to make simple syrup. Easiest way to do it is in a blender and very simply, it is half sugar, half water. I use a blender because it helps to agitate the water, dissolves the sugar quickly and you go and use it right away. So very quick and easy way to measure is just take any cup or glass or whatever and fill it with sugar. That goes in the blender. Same size glass, fill it with hot water. Right, equal part sugar and water, put that in, and because the water is hot, it is going to start dissolve right away, and when if it does not dissolve right away the blender is going to dissolve. I am just going to blender this for a couple of minutes. Alright now, it looks like the sugar has not dissolve yet, but that is actually air bubbles. This will clarify and settle out, it will be crystal clear and which you want to do is refrigerate this if you can, but like I have said, you can go ahead and use this right away, just the way it is, alright? So set that aside, now for the original Margarita recipe, we will blend it actually in the tin and dissolve it with the big scoop of ice in the tin. Now, at this point, I want to go ahead and put my tequila in and I actually like using silver tequila or white tequila and that is believe it or not. And I am going to put 2 oz of tequila. Alright, and now fresh lime, this is the key to the whole thing and I am going to roll my lime first to start breaking up the pulp, get the juice flowing in there and let us cut it ion half, and then squeeze the juice of one whole lime right into the tin. [Demo] And you wan to get as much juice as possible out of this lime, because this is the only thing pretty much other than alcohol. Lea: That is just-- Anthony: Yes. This is your mixer, the fresh lime juice. Now the lime is a little tart, so to offset the tart into the lime that is where we want the simple syrup. Alright, and I am going to put not too much simple syrup, I do not want it overly sweet, I will just put about an half oz of simple syrup in there. Alright, just maybe a little more and to finish this off-- Lea: You can see it is starting to get clear now. Anthony: Yes, you can actually, you can on the bottom. To finish this off , I am going tom put a good high quality triple sec, which is an orange liquer and I am going to put just about half ounce of that in there. Now I am going to put my glass, most margaritas that you get, you are going to salt on the rim, right? Too much salt, I do not really like it, it overpowers the margarita. Something like this, you want to taste the drink, so I just do, just one inch – Lea: Just a little bit. Anthony: Yes just roll one edge into the lime juice and then one edge into the salt, and that is pretty much all you need. Now, I am going ahead and fill this glass with ice, right to the top, and I am going to shake my margarita to chill out. And I want to shake this drink almost as mush as I would shake the martini. Alright and the tin is just starti