The Subtly Sweet Fruit To Amp Up Your Cinco De Mayo Margaritas

Cinco de Mayo, a holiday honoring Mexico's victory in the Franco-Mexican War, is looming. For Mexican and Mexican-American populations, the day is dedicated to paying homage to Mexican culture and heritage, which means plenty of traditional Mexican cuisine, including tacos and tortas, and, of course, margaritas. And if you're looking to put a fun spin on the typical margarita taste while keeping in line with Mexico's distinct heritage, dragon fruit is the perfect choice to amp up your beverages on May 5.

Dragon fruit, also known as pitaya, is a small bright pink fruit that is believed to be native to Mexico and other countries throughout Central America but now grows all over the world. When mixed into your margaritas, dragon fruit adds a bright pinkish-purple color and a subtly sweet and somewhat tart flavor similar to kiwis, which perfectly compliments the lime in basic recipes.

To make your dragon fruit margaritas, you'll need to mix your dragon fruit with everything else you'd typically use in a margarita recipe: Your favorite tequila, a bit of Cointreau, fresh lime juice, and agave syrup, or any other preferred sweetener. A lime wedge and dried edible flowers make a nice garnish to add to its decadence. And, when it comes to the rim, you can either rim the glass with crushed rose petals and salt or simply place different colored edible flowers on the top of the drink.

While it may sound exotic, you can find frozen packets of dragon fruit puree in the frozen fruit sections of most grocery stores. Even though you could also use whole, raw dragon fruits, the frozen packets are recommended for use in your margaritas because they're pre-pureed and ready to use immediately. You could also opt for the liquid version of dragon fruit, which is sold in jugs alongside other fruit juices if you prefer your margaritas on the rocks rather than frozen. Typically you can use one frozen packet of dragon fruit, or one cup of fresh chopped dragon fruit or juice, per pitcher of dragon fruit margaritas.