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Stamford Chef Aarón Sánchez who recently opened Paloma in the new Harbor Point development, and the restaurant's Director of Beverage Olie Berlic, offer the following tips for those celebrating Cinco de Mayo at home.
- Start by reading a recipe. For some reason, many of us follow a recipe when we’re cooking a meal but start throwing around proportions like we’re Tom Cruise in "Cocktail" when we’re playing bartender at our own party. This is a recipe for drink disaster, said Berlic.
- Use quality tequila. The star of your drink should be good enough to stand on its own. Sánchez recommends Fortaleza while Berlic recommends any tequila that is 100 percent blue agave.
- Make your other ingredients just as superior. A good margarita has three ingredients—tequila, lime juice and a sweetener. “The smoother the rind, the juicier the fruit,” said Berlic. Skip the syrupy mix and use sugar cane, agave nectar, Cointreau or Grand Marnier to sweeten your sip.
- Use good ice. Ask yourself if you drink your tap water without filtering it. If your water isn’t tasty enough to drink on its own, it doesn’t belong in your ice cubes.
- Keep it simple. Just like with food, if you use great ingredients you don’t have to fuss too much to get a great result. And usually, less is more. “Two parts tequila, one part fresh lime, one part sweetener, shake with ice and strain and pour into a glass. Then, allow those flavors to come through and marry together,” said Berlic.
- Say sayonara to that syrupy mix. Sour mix is the biggest mistake home mixologists make when mixing up margaritas, said Sánchez. “When someone has a pre-made sour mix and triple sec, the sour mix is usually artificial or has tons of sugar, and that detracts from the flavor," he said.
- Don’t be afraid of fun flavors. Even purists like Berlic and Sánchez say they wouldn’t send back a flavored margarita— but it has to be made with the same natural ingredients as the original. Said Berlic: “I’d never use a processed product like Rose’s Lime Juice. But you can puree fresh fruit and mix that into the drink or muddle frozen blueberries into your margarita, or put the whole thing in the blender."
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