My wonderful friend over at toasted has alerted me to this fine excerpt on the finest martini

Friday night was a little on the quiet side, and I thought I’d play with a new piece of bar equipment: the kitchen char griller. Upon asking chef Pascale ” If I throw this piece of pineapple onto the grill, will it taste like bacon or cajun rib eye?”, she promptly hit it with some steel scourer. After a about four minutes a side, the pineapple wheel had a lovely criss cross pattern on it, smelled of wonderful aromatic fruit and caramel. I rummaged around in the coolroom and found some beautiful young ginger.

Meanwhile back in the bar, I cut a few pieces of pineapple up, chopped quarter of a lime, peeled and slivered the ginger knob. All into the shaker with 45ml of white rum and some brown sugar just to make sure I’d cut the acid of the pineapple. Muddle, shake, serve.

Very happy with this one.

Methinks a small bar kit equipped for making margaritas could well be an essential for the outback adventurer. Should you find yourself lost in the wilderness, simply open the bar kit, sit comfortably in the shade, juice some citrus, and proceed with your preferred method of cocktail construction. At this point, a dozen people should spring out of the undergrowth shouting “that’s not how you make a margarita!” and bingo, you are saved

Apart from the quality of the limes and or lemons or whatever fruit you decide to bastardise this fine drink with, the obvious qualatative thing is the tequila. Is it wrong to use expensive anejo? I don’t think so. Is it right to use cheap ass blanco? Absolutely not. The choice of base spirit is essential. The old adage “garbage in garbage out” springs to mind. Dang nabbit, buy the best you can afford. Save to buy the stuff you can’t afford. Get a second job, steal, kill or whatever. A great Margarita is nothing without it’s lifeblood: tequila.

I don’t really endorse murder or theft

Having just looked at the wikipedia entry for margaritas, I have to say I prefer reposado and anejo, or even mezcal for my concoctions. Blanco=El Blando!

I’m planning a a trip to Melbourne on a tour of cocktail bars in late March. Can’t wait to get out of the small country town headspace and see some great bars and drink some great cocktails. New Gold Mountain high on the list of eagerly anticipated nightspots.

Welcome to my search for the perfect Margarita and other luscious libations.

There are so many ways to make a margarita. So many variations on a theme. So much debate to be had. So many places to drink one. What’s your favourite margarita?