Cocktail of the Month: Beergaritas

You may recall that February was the month I started working again. It was, shall we say, a little hectic and thus called for a no-nonsense, workhorse of a cocktail.  And let me tell you this. The beergarita did not disappoint.

In theory, these sounded completely disgusting. In practice, these were completely delicious. And they are the least fussy cocktail in my repertoire.

You may be familiar with beergaritas already. They are all over the internet, Pinterest included. Some call them Texas margaritas, some call them ghettoritas. I know a woman named Meg from our Germany days who brought these to many a party and called them Megoritas. Call them what you will; I think you'll agree there's nothing highbrow here.

And sometimes, that is just what a hard day calls for. If tough days call out for a glass of wine, the really hectic ones call out for beergaritas.

As with regular margaritas there are thousands of variations on the basic idea of adding beer to a margarita-like drink. The ratio of beer to tequila varies widely. Most agree that frozen limeade is necessary. The Deen brothers would have you add orange juice, as would I. 

We experimented with a few different factors and came up with our own favorite ratio.  But the components here are so strong--each one vying for attention--that chances are you might need to adjust to suit your tastes. Will you favor a more beery flavor or more tequila? Something sweeter or something more sour?

If you like margaritas as much as I do, I can assure you you will enjoy discovering your perfect, personal beergarita recipe. Use mine as a rough guide in getting started.  

Beergaritas

12 oz beer (we liked Corona best)

8 oz tequila

1 12-oz can of frozen limeade

4 oz orange juice

extra ice, optional

Dump everything in the blender and give it a whirl, with or without extra ice.  If you like frozen margaritas, add the extra ice so you'll get a slushy drink. If you prefer things on the rocks, leave out the optional ice. The frozen limeade will of course still make things a bit slushy, but not too slushy, so you can still easily enjoy over ice.

We ended up doing both inadvertently and liked the results.  The Gutsy Dad loves the strong taste of limeade; I was happy to cut it back a bit with the added shaved iced.

As a final note, we stored leftovers in a tupperware and whirled them up again the next night with freshly shaved ice.