Ice-cold citrus margaritas made with fresh-squeezed juice are refreshing, boozy, and perfect for an at-home happy hour.
Technically, a classic margarita is a citrus margarita considering one of its ingredients is lime juice. But, we don’t call it that. It’s just a margarita.
On the other hand, these citrus margaritas I’m sharing today are all about citrus fruit. Four, in fact: grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and limes. A blend of fresh-squeezed fruit juice that creates a bright and refreshing margarita that can only be called one thing: a citrus margarita, but you probably already figured that out.
And I only started making them out of a failure to make a decision. I had been thinking about making a grapefruit-only or orange-only version but couldn’t decide between the two. So, here we are. I consider indecision the secret ingredient.
And it might seem excessive but all of it works really well together. The bitter grapefruit is balanced by the sweet oranges. The lemons and limes add tartness. Mixed together they create a decidedly “citrus” flavor which is incredibly refreshing.
How to Make Citrus Margaritas
The first thing to know is that this recipe is adjustable. I’m sharing my preferred ratio of juice to booze and, like most things in life, you can choose to change it!
This is the basic recipe I follow for four smallish drinks, but sometimes I adjust the booziness depending on what day of the week it is. So, feel free to adjust to your tastes. The version I’m sharing is my weekend one – if I make one during the week I cut back on the tequila a bit.
- It starts with 8 ounces of grapefruit juice, 5 ounces of orange juice and 3 ounces total of lemon and lime juice.
- Add 8 ounces of tequila. Use your favorite silver (clear) tequila – mine is Patron Silver.
- Add four ounces of triple sec
So, 16 ounces juice + 8 ounces tequila + 4 ounces triple sec = happy hour
I prefer to use a shaker to mix the drinks. It chills the drink really fast, but you can use a small pitcher to mix the ingredients.
For the glasses, rub the rims with lime and coat it with coarse salt. Or not if you’re an “on the rocks with no salt” type.
Pro Tip: Make a batch of salsa and guacamole to go with your ice-cold citrus margaritas for the best experience. Don’t think twice about it.
Ready to schedule a happy hour?
Happy margarita-making,
P.S. Don’t love tequila? You might like my Margarita Wine Spritzers 😊
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Citrus Margaritas
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Ice-cold citrus margaritas made with fresh-squeezed juice are refreshing, boozy, and perfect for an at-home happy hour. This recipe makes four small drinks and can easily be scaled up or down.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces grapefruit juice (from about 2 grapefruit)
- 5 ounces orange juice (from about 3 oranges)
- Juice of 2 lemons
- Juice of 2 limes
- Ice cubes
- 8 ounces silver tequila
- 4 ounces triple sec
- Coarse salt, for glass rims
- Sliced limes or lemons, for garnish
Instructions
- Slice all of the citrus fruit in half and squeeze the juice from each into a bowl or large measuring cup.
- Place ice cubes in a cocktail shaker. For one drink, add approximately 4 ounces of the juice, 2 ounces of tequila, and 1 ounce of triple sec. Secure the lid and shake for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Pour some salt onto a shallow plate. Run a lime wedge around the edge of the serving glass. Place the glass rim in the salt so it’s lightly coated with the salt.
- Place ice cubes in the glass, pour in the drink, garnish with sliced lemons or limes and serve.
Notes
I prefer to shake the margarita with ice to combine the ingredients because it quickly chills them, but if you want to mix all four drinks at once you can combine the juice (strain it first to remove any pulp), tequila, and triple sec in a small pitcher. Serve in the prepared glasses with ice.
The nutrition estimate does not include the salt for the glasses.
- Category: Drinks
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: Mexican
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
- Calories: 284
- Sugar: 15.1g
- Sodium: 2.2mg
- Fat: .02g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 24.2g
- Fiber: 0.2g
- Protein: 0.8g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
Keywords: citrus margarita recipe
The nutrition information in this recipe is an estimate only and was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.
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