Cooking Lesson #606: LCC Blood Orange Margarita

…from the Perspectives’ Happy Hour Bar 

How you doin’? The first cocktail I had with blood orange juice was at Lawry’s California Center. The cocktail was a wonderful Blood Orange Margarita with just a spritz of Campari added into the mix and it was nothing short of a revelation. I’ve added it to the drink list of several of my restaurants. It’s the kind of cocktail I know everyone will like… or there may be something wrong with them.
 
The dark-red Sicilian blood orange, a mutant variety of the familiar Valencia juice orange whose flesh produces extra anthocyanin pigments, is abundant in the winter months (you can still find blood oranges in most markets). Perhaps because they’re ripe for such a fleeting moment, blood oranges are among bartenders’ most sought-after ingredients. It’s a sad day when the season is passing and the last one disappears from the market.
 
Blood oranges have a unique richness and deeper flavor than orange oranges that lends itself to pairings with a wide range of spirits and liqueurs. The fruits often have subtle notes of raspberry, which means they blend beautifully with sparkling wine.
 
Blood oranges are the most common variety of orange grown in Italy (predominantly in Sicily) and are also very common throughout southern Spain and the US, notably in Texas and California. Depending on where they come from, blood orange season can last from November or December until early spring.
 
When it’s blood orange season, you need to use them fresh. A touch of blood orange juice and Campari transforms the classic margarita into my happy hour variation that is nothing less than amazing.
 
Prep Time:  5 minutes
Yield:  1 cocktail
 
 Ingredients
for the glass
lime
coarse margarita salt
 
for the cocktail
1-1/2 ounces white tequila
3/4 ounce triple sec
1/4 ounce Campari
3/4 ounce blood orange juice (freshly squeezed, if available)
3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 ounce simple syrup
Garnish: blood orange wheel
Garnish: salted rim
 
Directions

1. Rub the rim of a rocks glass with lime and coat in coarse margarita salt.
2. Fill glass with ice and set aside.
3. Add remaining ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake it like you mean it.
4. Strain into the prepared glass.
5. Garnish with a blood orange wheel.

ChefSecret:  I like this cocktail very cold. I keep the tequila in the freezer until it is ready to pour.

Quip of the Day:  Why is there a ring of salt around the rim of a margarita glass?
To keep the spirits from escaping.
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                                                                                   ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023

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