Spicy Blood Orange Margarita

How we make it.

2 ounces spicy tequila (recipe below)
1 ounce Cointreau
3 ounces blood orange juice (fresh squeezed or bottled, whatever you can find)
1 ounce lime juice, fresh squeezed
Splash of agave, if needed to sweeten
Pinch of salt

Add tequila, Cointreau, blood orange juice, lime juice and salt to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until frosty cold, about 30 seconds. Give it a little taste to see if you have enough sweetness since that kind of thing is subjective. If not, add a little agave and shake again. Strain over ice into a tumbler with a salted rim. 

*Note: if you can't find blood orange juice, grapefruit juice would work fine to make a Spicy Paloma instead. You'd just want to add agave to sweeten as grapefruit juice is more tart.

Spicy Tequila

1 cup tequila
Half a jalapeno pepper

Slice a jalapeno pepper lengthwise and add to 1 cup of your favorite tequila. Allow it to soak at room temperature for at least an hour, then remove the pepper. The spiciness of jalapenos varies so you'll have to feel your way through this one.

Why we make it.

Around here January is something we survive. I do this by bucking the season. I will not be giving in to melted cheese and lingering soulless days in the gray. I'll be haunting the sauna. Slicing jalapenos. Insisting on the acidic. I think friction is important, so at the least natural times I will always bring the heat. Blood orange margaritas are usually a treat I reserve to spice up Christmas Eve, but I tell you what, I could not find a single blood orange this December. So here they are in January. Sweet, spicy and bright, this sunset colored cocktail will put the fire back in your belly in the deadest of days. We will not be giving in to January. That's why we make it.