Blood Orange And Pomegranate Margarita Cocktail Recipe

When we think of winter cocktails, we often think of warm hot toddies, rich Irish coffees, and spiced mulled wine. It's easy to fill the colder months with warmer drinks, especially those filled with spices like allspice and nutmeg; but as winter goes on, we find ourselves dreaming of palm trees and mai tais again. The perfect balance of both winter and summer is found in this margarita recipe written with developer Michelle McGlinn: The margarita features a seasonal winter citrus, blood orange, as well as sultry, juicy pomegranate. While still bright and classically sour, the margarita is winterized with a warming, homemade cinnamon simple syrup. Citrusy, sweet, and with just a hint of spice, this margarita is built for the rare cloudless winter day, when summer feels just out of reach. Though you might still be wearing a parka and snow boots, you'll feel the warmth of the sunny days ahead when you sip on this.

The main ingredients for this cocktail are blood orange and pomegranate juices. While it's unlikely that you'll find bottled blood orange juice, bottled pomegranate juice is easy to come by and saves time in preparing this cocktail. If desired, you can make your own fresh pomegranate juice by blending and straining the fresh arils. Fresh blood orange juice, on the other hand, can be made simply by squeezing the juice from a blood orange. Besides the juices, you'll need tequila, triple sec, and the ingredients to make cinnamon simple syrup, which are simply water, sugar, and cinnamon.

To make the simple syrup, add water, sugar, and cinnamon to a small saucepan.

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved.

Remove from the heat and cover. Steep for 5 minutes.

Remove the cinnamon stick and store the syrup in an airtight container.

To assemble the cocktail, fill a cocktail shaker with ice.

Add the blood orange juice, pomegranate concentrate, simple syrup, triple sec, and tequila.

Shake until chilled and frothy, about 15 seconds.

Pour into a rocks glass over ice.

Garnish with blood orange slices and pomegranate arils to serve.

The cinnamon simple syrup in this recipe makes about ½ cup of syrup, which yields 8 blood orange and pomegranate margaritas. The cinnamon simple syrup stores in an airtight jar or container in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks, so you can save the extra syrup to use for future margaritas. You can also use the simple syrup for other cocktails, like a cinnamon-infused old fashioned or a spiced paloma. The cinnamon syrup works well for food, too, and can be slathered on bread for an easy cinnamon toast, drizzled over pancakes for a wintry breakfast, or swirled into brownies for a unique, chocolatey twist. You can also stir it into coffee with a touch of milk for a latte reminiscent of warm and gooey cinnamon rolls. If you like spiced, wintry drinks and desserts, we recommend doubling the recipe and storing the leftovers in a pourable jar for easy cinnamon flavor all winter long.

You might want to batch this blood orange and pomegranate margarita recipe if you are hosting a party or like to have cocktail mixes on hand for easy drinks (and since juicing blood oranges might be the last thing you want to do after a long day). To do this, multiply the recipe by the amount of drinks you plan to make. For example, to make 16 cocktails, you'll need 16 ounces (or 2 cups) of blood orange juice, 3 cups of pomegranate juice, 1 cup of simple syrup and triple sec, and 3 cups of tequila. To make 1 cup of simple syrup, simply double the recipe, mixing together 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and 2 cinnamon sticks. With the cocktails batched, store the mixture in a large jar in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. When you're ready to serve, add ice to a shaker, pour 5 ounces of the mixture over ice, and shake until chilled. Then, pour the drink over ice and enjoy.