Drink of the Week: Pineapple Ginger Margarita

The good folks at Earls sent me a care package a couple weeks ago: all the ingredients I needed to make a Pineapple Ginger Margarita, including half a pineapple and some house-made ginger syrup. I tried the drink almost immediately (if you don’t already know, I really like margaritas), but I had to resist blogging about it until now as Cinco de Mayo was earlier this month (and my DOTW on May 4 was — you guessed it — a classic margarita).

This cocktail is fantastic. Its inspiration comes from markets in Latin America where tropical fruit is served fresh with salt and chili powder, tantalizing your sweet, salty and spicy senses. They’ve transported the markets to your margarita by  rimming the glass with the sugar-salt-chili mixture, muddling pineapple to get a hit of sweet juice, and creating a delicious ginger syrup that adds a spicy kick. But you can still taste the lime and tequila, so you’re in familiar territory and will recognize it as a margarita hybrid. Yum.

Pineapple and ginger never tasted so good! Photo courtesy Earls.

Earls Pineapple Ginger Margarita

• 1 oz ginger syrup (see recipe below)
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 4-5 fresh pineapple chunks (approx 1 oz)
• 2 oz El Jimador Blanco tequila
• Pineapple chunk garnish

Into a mixing glass, measure ginger syrup, lime juice, pineapple chunks and El Jimador Blanco. Using a pestle or back of a wooden spoon muddle until juice has escaped from the pineapple. Fill mixing glass with ice, top with a stainless steel shaking tin and shake vigorously 12 times to mix ingredients. Strain over fresh ice into a double rocks glass with a half rim of sweet & spicy rim mix (see recipe below). Garnish with a fresh pineapple chunk, with the top dipped in sweet & spicy rim mix.

Ginger syrup

• 1-1/2 cups water
• 8 oz ginger sliced into 1/4-inch coins, do not peel
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 5 oz honey

In a medium saucepan bring water, ginger, sugar and honey to a simmer. Immediately remove from heat as soon as sugar has dissolved. Puree, using a handheld blender. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into an appropriately sized container with lid, discard ginger pulp. Allow to cool uncovered to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate up to a maximum of nine days.

Sweet & spricy rim mix

• 3 parts sugar
• 1 part salt
• Dash cayenne pepper

Toss together.

— Recipe courtesy Earls