SPICY MANGO MARGARITAS

This spicy mango margarita is cold, sweet and refreshing, with a little kick of spice. Ready in two minutes flat!

Heya! It’s Tuesday, but can we please pretend it’s still the week-end? Because today I have a margarita for you.

And this margarita has been awhile in the making. Like months in the making!

It started as a raspberry habanero margarita last month. Sounds good? Well, I just couldn’t seem to get it right. After making it too spicy, then not spicy enough, doing fresh raspberries, frozen raspberries, and raspberry simple syrups I finally threw in the towel.

Maybe I am just too picky when it comes to my margaritas…but there is nothing worse than a bad margarita, am I right?

Well. I decided to give this margarita a try with mango. And I finally got it right.

Hopefully if you have read this far, you are on board with this spicy margarita thing. It is weirdly awesome. And I love discovering weirdly awesome things in life, especially when tiny umbrellas are involved!

I discovered just how delicious spicy margaritas can be last summer. Well, OK I was pregnant and could not actually board the train to margarita-ville. Instead I boarded the train to its slightly less fun cousin, limeade-ville, and made cilantro and jalapeño limeade {which can also be made into a margarita}. It was delicious, and I knew I needed another spicy drink in my life this summer.

So here’s the deal: I’ve played around with using both jalapeños and habaneros in my cocktails and have just never been satisfied with the reproducibility of the spiciness…peppers really vary in their spiciness, and people’s taste buds are also quite specific for this stuff. For this reason, plus being impatient and wanting my margarita rapido, por favor= one easy, simple solution. Cayenne pepper.

Cayenne pepper is just eeeeasy guys, you can control how much heat you add so much easier than using jalapenos or habaneros. Bonus: you don’t have to chop any peppers and handle the seeds/ribs.

I was SCARED chopping up the habaneros, and I probably washed my hands 8000 times afterwards. I mean, we’ve all heard the story about the guy who goes to use the washroom after touching hot peppers, right…Or was I the only one who got to hear that glorious story?

Um…yes, I might save that story for another post..but these margaritas. Frozen mangoes and cayenne pepper. Plus the usual suspects in margarita-ville: lime, tequila, cointreau. I added some ice as well and blended to smooth, frosty perfection with my new blender.

It is cold, sweet and refreshing, with a little kick of spice in the back of your throat. Exactly what I’d imagined…last month.

And definitely worth the wait!

• 250g frozen mango chunks
• 5 large ice cubes
• ⅛ tsp cayenne
• 2 tbsp superfine sugar {berry sugar in Canada}
• 1 tbsp Cointreau
• ¼ cup silver tequila
• water {as needed}

1. Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Add water as needed.