Blood Orange Margarita Recipe
This Blood Orange Margarita recipe is sweetened with honey, and comes together in 5 minutes, with just 4 ingredients.
When you’re making blood orange margaritas, you want a recipe you can trust. After all, blood oranges are special (they only come around for a limited time each year) and expensive. You DON’T want to waste even a single orange on a bad margarita recipe.
You’ve come to the right place, because I carefully tested and refined this recipe until the unique taste of blood orange juice was shining through and perfectly complementing the crisp bite of tequila. Oh, and I figured out it also needed a bit of lime juice to taste its best!
I tested this recipe with four different sweeteners until I found the best one, and tested every ratio of blood orange juice to lime juice to tequila to sweetener until I got the most perfectly balanced drink.
Whether you’re an experienced mixologist or just looking for a way to use the blood oranges you bought, this blood orange margarita will turn out perfect, every single time.
What you need to make Blood Orange Margaritas
The International Bartenders Association specifies that a margarita contain tequila (also the star of my tequila mojito), lime juice and Cointreau (a sweet orange flavored liqueur). But who says you need to follow this recipe strictly?
Cointreau is pretty expensive and I rarely keep it around. So instead, I generally add the sweetness to my margarita with either honey or simple syrup (like in my bourbon rosemary cocktail), and the orange flavor comes from, well, oranges!
Psst – buy a few extra oranges for orange honey chicken!
How to make a Blood Orange Margarita
Combine blood orange juice, tequila, lime juice and your sweetener of choice (preferably honey, see below) in a cocktail shaker and stir well. That’s it! Pour over ice for a margarita on the rocks.
How to sweeten Blood Orange Margaritas
In the interest of research, and bringing you the very best recipe possible, Jeff and I tested this Blood Orange Margarita with four different types of sweeteners.
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I know, I know, we’re selfless. Several slow cooker chicken burrito bowls may have been consumed in the process, too.
Here are the results of our test, in order from most favorite to least favorite:
- Honey – we both agreed that this was, by far, the best sweetener for blood orange margaritas. The flavor of the honey really brought out the flavor of the oranges. It was sweet without being too sweet.
- Simple Syrup – we made a classic simple syrup with 1 part sugar to 1 part water, warmed on the stove until the sugar dissolved. The resulting margarita was very delicious, with a sweetened yet neutral flavor. If we didn’t have honey around, this would be our choice!
- Brown Sugar Simple Syrup – simple syrup made as mentioned above, only with brown sugar. The finished margarita had caramel and almost smoky qualities. But, we felt that this sweetener overpowered the flavor of the blood oranges.
- Agave – I like agave in certain recipes (like Agave Lime Lemonade), but I did not like the flavor of it in this margarita. It added a bitter quality which I wasn’t a fan of.
Blood Orange Margarita Recipe Easy Variations
How to make a frozen Blood Orange Margarita
I really recommend serving this blood orange margarita on the rocks, because the flavor of the blood oranges is so special that I don’t love diluting it with little chunks of ice.
However, if you’re more of a frozen margarita person, you do you!
Add the ingredients for this margarita, plus 1/2 to 1 cup ice cubes (depending on how thick you want your frozen margarita) to a blender and blend until slushy.
Virgin Blood Orange Margarita Recipe
The obvious answer here is – just omit the tequila!
As somebody who really enjoyed a well-crafted mocktail during pregnancy (I would often make grapefruit and vodka cocktails with rosemary, just without the vodka), it’s important to garnish the virgin margarita the same way as a traditional one. Don’t forget to salt or sugar that rim for your non-drinking friend.
What pairs well with Blood Orange Margaritas?
For a little snack to pair with this best blood orange margarita recipe, try our authentic shrimp ceviche recipe. It’s light and fresh and pairs really well with a tequila drink.
If you’re looking for more of a meal, try our fajita bar with lots of fajita veggies, lamb tacos or Sonoran hog dogs. No matter what, you’ll want to make a batch of Mexican street corn salad.
Best Blood Orange Margarita Recipe
Ingredients
- Kosher salt and/or brown sugar or granulated sugar for rimming glass (optional)
- 2 ounces blood orange juice
- 1 ½ ounces silver/blanco tequila
- 1 ounce lime juice
- ¾ ounce honey
Instructions
- If desired, moisten rim of glass and dip in salt and/or sugar.
- Fill cocktail shaker or beaker with ice. Add blood orange juice, tequila, lime juice and honey and stir well.
- Strain into glass over ice and serve immediately.
Made this tonight with some blood oranges we got in our weekly produce box. My husband and I loooved it! Thanks for all the painstaking research you put in to perfecting the recipe! 😉
Haha, you’re welcome, Susan! Like I said, it was tough work doing all that research, but somebody had to 🙂
I’m so glad you both loved this recipe!