This Cranberry Margarita is beautiful and festive, sweet-tart, and delicious. It requires only a handful of ingredients, and come together in a snap!
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What is a Cranberry Margarita?
It's a margarita made with cranberry juice, in addition to the traditional lime juice! The vibrant red color lends a bit of winter holiday festiveness to a drink that might traditionally be associated with warmer weather.
Ingredients
- Tequila - In general, I prefer to use an añejo tequila, but use whatever floats your boat! You could go super premium with your tequila selection, but something middle-of-the-road would work nicely, too.
- Triple sec - Triple sec is a sweet, orange-flavored liqueur. Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I usually go with something cheaper here. If you have and love Grand Marnier, by all means, have at it! But a less expensive brand will work, as well.
- Cranberry juice - Use pure cranberry juice OR cranberry juice cocktail, according to your preference. I used cranberry juice cocktail. Just keep in mind that whichever one you use will influence how tart or sweet the cocktail is.
- Lime juice - Fresh juice, please!
- Kosher salt - Chunky kosher salt is key. Rim the glass with this, and don't be afraid to be heavy handed.
- Lime slices and fresh cranberries - These aren't a necessity, but garnishing the glass with them sure does add to the wow factor of this drink.
How do you make a Cranberry Margarita?
Start by rimming your glass(es) with some nice, chunky kosher salt. The salt will contrast really nicely with the sweet-tart margarita. You could also use granulated sugar instead of salt, or a mixture of the two, if you'd prefer! I'm a purist and only use salt, while my husband prefers a sugar rim. You do you.
Next, add the liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker with some ice. Now shake shake shake that marg until it is very cold. Once things are nice and cold, strain your drink into your prepared glass (make sure to add some ice cubes!).
Before you start sipping away, make sure to garnish your drink with a lime slice and a few fresh cranberries. It's not 100% necessary, but I think it really makes the cocktail look quite pretty.
Recommended tools
- A cocktail shaker
- A jigger, to measure your booze
- Rocks glasses!
Other cranberry drink recipes
- Cranberry Gin and Tonic from A Nerd Cooks
- Madras Drink from The Littlest Crumb
- Cranberry Prosecco Cocktail from A Taste for Travel
- Cranberry Negroni from Ugly Duckling Bakery
Other margarita recipes
- Pineapple Margaritas from A Nerd Cooks
- Strawberry Margaritas from A Flavor Journal
- Italian Margaritas from A Nerd Cooks
- Passionfruit Margaritas from The Gourmet Bon Vivant
- Apple Cider Margaritas from A Nerd Cooks
FAQs/Tips and tricks
Sure! This margarita should scale up very nicely. Just multiply the ingredients listed below by whatever amount you're looking to make and there you go.
Either! Just keep in mind that pure cranberry juice is much more tart than the sweetened cranberry juice cocktail.
Whatever you like to drink! I'd recommend using something of decent to good quality.
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The Recipe
✨ Recipe
Cranberry Margaritas
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ ounces tequila
- ¾ ounces triple sec
- 3 ounces cranberry juice see notes
- juice of ½ lime
- lime slices and cranberries, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Moisten the rim of a rocks glass with water or lime juice. Turn the glass upside down into a small plate filled with kosher salt. Rim the glass with the salt. Carefully add ice cubes to the glass. Set aside.
- Add all of the ingredients (minus the garnish) to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until very cold.
- Strain into the prepared glass and garnish with lime slices and fresh cranberries, if desired.
Notes
- Use pure cranberry juice or cranberry juice cocktail, according to your preference. Cranberry juice cocktail will obviously be sweeter, so keep this in mind (this is what I used).
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutritional information is a generated estimate and is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Joanne
Hello from another nerd food blogger, and thank you for sharing my Negroni! Happy cranberry-filled holidays!
laurenpacek
Thank you, Joanne! Same to you! <3