Tag Archives: tequila cocktails

Drink of the Week: Dan Aykroyd

Dive right in to this margarita with a twist.

Dive right in to this margarita with a twist.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dan Aykroyd at the Oak Room bar inside the Fairmont Palliser hotel a couple of years ago when he was in town promoting Crystal Head vodka, which I wrote about in a column for the Calgary Herald. Interestingly, Aykroyd spent part of the interview telling me all about Patron tequila (which he also promotes) and his return to the made-in-Mexico spirit even though he’d sworn it off as a teenager after a wild night in Tijuana.

So I suppose it’s fitting that the Oak Room has named one of its tequila cocktails after the Canadian actor and comedian. The Dan Aykroyd is like a margarita, but with orange juice in addition to lime juice. This both sweetens the drink and softens the lime’s tartness. It’s very smooth. Add in a sugar-cinnamon rim in place of a salty one and you’ve got a very approachable cocktail. Incidentally, Aykroyd was very pleased when he learned the bar had named a drink after him.

It's like a margarita with orange juice. I like it.

It’s like a margarita with orange juice. I like it.

Dan Aykroyd

  • 1 oz Patron Silver
  • 1/2 oz Cointreau
  • 1 oz fresh lime juice
  • 1 oz fresh orange juice
  • Sugar/cinnamon mix to rim glass

Rim a martini glass with a sugar/cinnamon mixture, then fill the glass with ice. In a cocktail shaker combine the tequila, Cointreau, lime juice and orange juice and shake. Strain into the martini glass and garnish with an orange slice.

— Recipe courtesy Patrick Appave, bartender, Oak Room at the Fairmont Palliser

Drink of the Week: Margarita

Please don’t hate me because I love margaritas. I know I tend to go on about them and recently blogged about a Prickly Pear Margarita, but they really are just the right combination of sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Plus, it’s Cinco de Mayo tomorrow — voted one of the Top 10 booziest holidays by Time magazine — so what better excuse do you need to rim a rocks glass with salt, juice some limes and shake up the best party cocktail ever?

It’s a party in a glass, but way classier to drink than shooting back tequila poppers all night.

Margarita

  • 2 oz 100 percent agave reposado tequila (I like Casa Herradura)
  • 1 oz Cointreau (or Controy if, like me, you’ve recently returned from Mexico with a couple of bottles)
  • 1 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
  • 1 tsp. (or to taste) agave nectar or simple syrup
  • Coarse sea salt to rim glass, if desired
  • Lime wheel garnish

Rim a margarita glass with sea salt and then fill with crushed ice. In a shaker, combine tequila, Cointreau, lime juice and syrup. Shake with ice then strain into the margarita glass. Garnish with a lime wheel. Repeat (they’re like potato chips: you can’t have just one).

Go ahead, dive right in! Mmmm … margaritas …

Drink of the Week: Toreador

It’s official — we’re going to Mexico for spring break, baby! We booked a week at the all-inclusive Sunscape Dorado in Ixtapa! Woot! The fares came down a bit and we pounced. So to celebrate, a Toreador cocktail. Now, I had never heard of this drink until I was paging through Simon Difford’s Cocktails Made Easy (yet again) and noticed I had all three ingredients on hand: tequila, apricot brandy and lime juice.

It’s like a margarita — and is said to even pre-date Mexico’s iconic cocktail — but one with a sweeter, fruitier flavour thanks to the Bols apricot liqueur. Though I liked it, I will be ordering traditional margaritas while south of the U.S. border. Ole!

Its name is Spanish for "margarita with apricot brandy." Not really, but I thought that sounded about right.

Toreador

  • 2 oz tequila
  • 1 oz Bols apricot brandy liqueur
  • 1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
  • Lime wedge garnish

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

— Recipe courtesy Cocktails Made Easy