Margaritas for a crowd

I'm hosting a Cinco de Mayo extravaganza on Saturday and have been experimenting with margarita recipes that can be reproduced quickly and in mass quantities. This one is pretty easy and tasty to boot, the ratio is 4/2/2/1.

Take a one gallon plastic jug and add:

- Two 750ml bottles 100% Agave Tequila (El Jimador is selling at Costco for $15/bottle, not bad)
- One 750ml bottle Triple Sec
- 1.5 bottles (240z) "Nellie & Joe's" Key West Lime Juice (most grocery stores carry it now)
- 12oz simple syrup

Get a funnel, pour it all into the jug and shake. Just make sure you make plenty of simple syrup in advance. As long as you have 2 jugs you can always have your backup ready and avoid having anyone's glass getting dangerously low.

Careful, these are sneaky and pack a hefty wallop.

Similar, but I prefer to user fresh juice; takes a little more time, but I think it makes a difference. Receipe from this page.

6 cups tequila (you’ll need to buy two fifths for this)
2½ cups triple sec (just buy one fifth, please)
2½ cups fresh lime juice
2½ cups fresh lemon juice
2 cups simple syrup

SSDD

Learned yesterday that according to the International Bartending Association the proper ratio for a Margarita is 7 Tequila : 4 Triple Sec : 3 Lime Juice. Has anyone ever tried precisely those proportions?

headcase wrote:Similar, but I prefer to user fresh juice; takes a little more time, but I think it makes a difference. Receipe from this page.

6 cups tequila (you’ll need to buy two fifths for this)
2½ cups triple sec (just buy one fifth, please)
2½ cups fresh lime juice
2½ cups fresh lemon juice
2 cups simple syrup

SSDD

For the amount of cocktails I'll be serving I'm estimating I would need a gallon of lime juice. As lame as most limes are nowadays I'd be lucky to get 1oz of juice per lime, so that's ~128 limes that need to be squeezed. Uh, no thanks!

Fast Eddie wrote:For the amount of cocktails I'll be serving I'm estimating I would need a gallon of lime juice. As lame as most limes are nowadays I'd be lucky to get 1oz of juice per lime, so that's ~128 limes that need to be squeezed. Uh, no thanks!

Well I guess I under estimated the size of your crowd! Besides, I think we are looking for different things from this mix, the recipe I posted is going to be a little more sour, yours looks sweet to me; never mind mind has almost twice the booze per ounce!

Have a good time.
SSDD

EDIT -- Ignore "never mind mind has almost twice the booze per ounce!", I misread the original recipe. 24Oz <> 240z!

If you're not going to be shaking each drink with ice to order (which sounds unlikely with that volume), you'll want to add water to the bottled mix. Gary Regan's work on bottled cocktails suggests adding about 1/3 the volume of the other ingredients in water will give you a proper dilution to your mix.

kl1191 wrote:If you're not going to be shaking each drink with ice to order (which sounds unlikely with that volume), you'll want to add water to the bottled mix. Gary Regan's work on bottled cocktails suggests adding about 1/3 the volume of the other ingredients in water will give you a proper dilution to your mix.

Very true ... the recipe I quoted above specifies to be served on the rocks, and then in the comments mentions if they are going to be served up, they should be shaken first.

SSDD

kl1191 wrote:If you're not going to be shaking each drink with ice to order (which sounds unlikely with that volume), you'll want to add water to the bottled mix. Gary Regan's work on bottled cocktails suggests adding about 1/3 the volume of the other ingredients in water will give you a proper dilution to your mix.

Quite true, this stuff will knock down a horse. I was planning on keeping the mix stored in the jugs, and then pouring it into a large pitcher filled with ice. Then stir the pitcher, and serve in individual cups on the rocks.

Someone mentioned above that this is sweet. Kinda, yes, but not cloying. I initially tried it just 2:1:1 with the tequila, triple sec & bottled lime juice sans the simple syrup. That was too tart, almost unpalatable - the bottled lime juice is very strong. The simple syrup definitely balances it out; could probably get away with less of it, but after passing it around in this ratio to 3 other guinea pigs last Sunday the consensus was it was pretty good. A little too good, they go down easy but pack a wallop (makes for better anecdotes, hah!)

Fast Eddie wrote:

kl1191 wrote:If you're not going to be shaking each drink with ice to order (which sounds unlikely with that volume), you'll want to add water to the bottled mix. Gary Regan's work on bottled cocktails suggests adding about 1/3 the volume of the other ingredients in water will give you a proper dilution to your mix.

Quite true, this stuff will knock down a horse. I was planning on keeping the mix stored in the jugs, and then pouring it into a large pitcher filled with ice. Then stir the pitcher, and serve in individual cups on the rocks.

Sounds like a good plan...just keep in mind that if you refrigerate the mix, then you won't get much dilution at all from that pitcher/stir step. Then again...if people want something boozy from the get go, that might not be a problem.

I knew this conversation sounded familiar. Two other similar threads:

Margaritas for a group
Bulk margaritas

About the gallon of lime juice - what about using a frozen condensed limeade instead, and cutting back on the simple syrup accordingly?

The GP wrote:I knew this conversation sounded familiar. Two other similar threads:

Margaritas for a group
Bulk margaritas

Thanks for the heads up. Remind me to send you an invite to the party.

Fast Eddie wrote:

The GP wrote:I knew this conversation sounded familiar. Two other similar threads:

Margaritas for a group
Bulk margaritas

Thanks for the heads up. Remind me to send you an invite to the party.

Sweet!

Any suggestions for an unusual margarita recipe to enter in a block party contest? I'm thinking chili-mango:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/15979/m ... +margarita

That might be too adventurous, though. What's your best fresh marg?

Santander wrote:Any suggestions for an unusual margarita recipe to enter in a block party contest? I'm thinking chili-mango:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/15979/m ... +margarita

That might be too adventurous, though. What's your best fresh marg?

We usually go with the classic (based on lime, bit of simple syrup & triple sec...never mix), with a twist: we lighten it up & give it a hint of fizz by adding one Corona to each pitcher's worth of margarita. And by "we" I mean my wife...it's originally her recipe, it just became community property when we got married.

I bet chili mango would be a big hit, as long as you didn't tell anyone what it was in advance. The spicy & sweet, combined with the slight sweetness & boozy kick of a gold or even reposado tequila, is a classic & winning combination.

However, I'm sure there are those who would see the words "chili" and "mango" next to each other and might think, "eww, that's weird, I've never tried it but I don't like it" before they even take the first sip...hence the need to initially hide the ingredients from them. Maybe you could call it Matt's STFU-and-try-it-you-pansy Margaritas.

Khaopaat wrote:We usually go with the classic (based on lime, bit of simple syrup & triple sec...never mix),

I prefer a vigorous shake over a weak stir to give my margarita a bit of icy frothiness, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "never mix". Can you elaborate?

Don't use ready made margarita mix.

deesher wrote:Don't use ready made margarita mix.

ah, is mix-the-noun what Khaopaat meant? It didn't even occur to me that such a horror would even enter his discerning mind.

Thank you all for the recs - I'll let you know how things turn out.

Kennyz wrote:

deesher wrote:Don't use ready made margarita mix.

ah, is mix-the-noun what Khaopaat meant? It didn't even occur to me that such a horror would even enter his discerning mind.

Correct, mix the noun. And I appreciate your esteem

In hindsight, I don't know what possessed me to include that caveat in this venue, where it most definitely goes without saying.

Khaopaat wrote:

Kennyz wrote:

deesher wrote:Don't use ready made margarita mix.

ah, is mix-the-noun what Khaopaat meant? It didn't even occur to me that such a horror would even enter his discerning mind.

Correct, mix the noun. And I appreciate your esteem

In hindsight, I don't know what possessed me to include that caveat in this venue, where it most definitely goes without saying.

Update: there were seven entries, anonymously labeled A-G. I won with 32 points with the fresh mango-chili concoction; Sample B was a delicious beer margarita which I rated two steps above mine. "Oh good," said the wife. "You got rid of that whole bottle of tequila." The prize: two glasses from Lalo's, and a bottle of Cuervo Gold.

Sample E, I should mention, was a straight bottle of Patron on ice with one lime slice floating on top. After the contest ended, all were poured into a communal pitcher firehouse chili-style, and I note that that pitcher is quite empty a few hours later.

Santander wrote:Update: there were seven entries, anonymously labeled A-G. I won with 32 points with the fresh mango-chili concoction;

Congrats!

Santander wrote:Sample E, I should mention, was a straight bottle of Patron on ice with one lime slice floating on top.

jimswside participated in the competition?