Ingredients
- Lime wedge and salt for rim
- 3-4 cucumber wheels
- 1-2 fresh jalapeño slices
- 2 ounces silver tequila
- 1 ounce orange liqueur
- ¾ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
- ½ ounce agave
- Ice
- Jalapeño slice and cucumber wheel for garnish
Instructions
- To prepare rim, rub the rim of the rocks glass with the lime wedge.
- With the salt on a saucer, dip either half or the entire rim of the glass in the sugar to coat.
- In a cocktail shaker, muddle cucumber and jalapeños with a splash of lime juice.
- Add ice, tequila, orange liqueur, remaining lime juice, and agave.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into prepared glass over fresh ice.
- Garnish with jalapeño coin and cucumber wheel.
Variations and Substitutions
If you find this recipe too spicy or not spicy enough or want to investigate other ingredient combinations, you have the options.
- If you really want to up the spice, muddle up to four or five jalapeño slices, but do so carefully.
- Skip the danger of jalapeño juice every time you want a spicy cucumber jalapeño margarita and infuse tequila. You can do this with just jalapeños or cucumber or do cucumber and jalapeños together.
- Opt for just a single jalapeño slice for a smaller touch of heat.
- Add more agave for a sweeter margarita.
- If you don't have agave on hand, simple syrup or honey work just as well.
- Swap mezcal instead of tequila for a truly complex, smoky cucumber jalapeño margarita. Try saying that five times fast.
- Use less orange liqueur for less orange taste.
- Kick up the heat a notch by using jalapeño-infused tequila.
Garnishes
The cucumber jalapeño margarita has plenty of garnish options. One might call it overwhelming, but what it actually means is no one will have a cucumber jalapeño margarita like yours.
- Skip the salt rim for a sugar or tajin rim instead.
- If cucumber makes you happy, there's a list of ideas. A cucumber wedge, triangle, several pieces pierced on a cocktail skewer, or a wheel cut into shapes such as a star or square all make fun garnishes.
- A cucumber ribbon makes an elegant garnish, either leaving it whole, swirling around the glass before adding the ice, or making waves by weaving it up and down onto a cocktail skewer.
- Pierce several jalapeño slices on a cocktail skewer.
- You can alternate jalapeño slices with a cucumber ribbon on a cocktail skewer, using a similar pattern when just using the cucumber ribbon alone.
- Lemon and lime both make great garnishes, including a wedge, wheel, or slice.
- Citrus peels, ribbons, and twists add color without an overwhelming citrus note.
- For an updated version of the citrus garnish, use a dehydrated citrus wheel or slice.
- Layer any of the garnishes mentioned above together: wrap a lemon ribbon around the skewered jalapeño slices, use a dehydrated lemon wheel with a fresh lime slice, pierce a cucumber wheel with a lemon and lime wheel.
About the Cucumber Jalapeño Margarita
The 1950s saw the rise of the margarita and other tropical or warm weather cocktails. Glasses were full of cocktails, including margaritas and rum drinks, and the popularity of cocktails only grew more and more. While the classic margarita didn't include any ingredients other than tequila, orange liquor, and lime juice, the recipe evolved to meet the demands of consumers and meet the needs of bar goers.
Spicy cocktails slowly burned their way into the cocktail scene, many unable to take the heat. For those unwilling, or unable, to tolerate the spice, bartenders began to introduce complementary ingredients, such as the cooling cucumber, to the heated jalapeño. With the muddled ingredients opposing one another, you would expect them to blend and the cucumber to be overwhelmed. Still, instead, the jalapeño takes on a lightness that makes this spicy margarita approachable, and most importantly, enjoyable.
A Jalapeño and Cucumber Walk Into a Bar
Whether you're new to the world of spicy drinks, you need to branch out from your usual cucumber martinis, or you enjoy boldly walking into a world of trying new things, the cucumber jalapeño margarita is here to stay.
