Cadillac Margarita Cocktail Recipe

There’s nobody particular recipe for the Cadillac Margarita, and it would imply one thing completely different to whomever you ask. For Karla Flores-Mercado, proprietor of Bar Flores and different institutions in Los Angeles, it brings to thoughts Southern California’s old-school Mexican eating places like Acapulco, the place she bartended early in her profession, serving Cadillac Margaritas with a shot of Grand Marnier for purchasers to pour over the drink. 

At Bar Flores, Flores-Mercado created the El Cadí in homage to eating places that embrace Acapulco and El Compadre, house of the Flaming Margarita. In lieu of bitter combine, Flores-Mercado’s model consists of recent lemon and lime juices for tartness, together with an earthy highlands tequila, agave syrup, and a Mexican orange liqueur. Lastly, she tops the drink with a Grand Marnier float as a nod to the Acapulco Cadillac. 

“The Grand Marnier offers it a special vibe from simply whipping up a bitter,” says Flores-Mercado. “You get a bit of extra booze however there’s additionally added sweetness, so it makes the Margarita a bit of simpler to drink for some individuals.”

For the tequila base, Flores-Mercado opts for El Tesoro Blanco, a benchmark highlands-style tequila with a wealthy mouthfeel and lengthy spicy end. “The earthiness actually comes via in Margaritas,” she says. For the reason that bar program locations an emphasis on sourcing Mexican spirits, Flores-Mercado makes use of Naranja Licor de Naranja, which she says is much less candy and extra citrus-forward than different orange liqueurs. She additionally splits the bitter element between lemon and lime juice, making for a barely tarter drink that helps to stability the added sweetness from Grand Marnier. 

What Is a Cadillac Margarita?

Once more, there’s not one spec, however the Cadillac is usually a richer, extra opulent model of the basic Margarita (blanco tequila and lime juice, sweetened with orange liqueur and/or agave syrup). A fast on-line search may yield recipes that decision for frivolously aged reposado tequila as an alternative of the standard blanco, or the cognac-based orange liqueur Grand Marnier both swapped in for different triple secs or added to the drink as a float. Some Cadillacs are merely differentiated by the model of tequila used, which is why you’ll usually see considerably meaningless phrases like “premium” and “prime shelf.”

 The origins of the Cadillac Margarita are murky, but it surely was popularized within the Eighties and ‘90s as chain eating places started including Cadillacs to their menus with substitutions like higher-end tequilas and the aforementioned Grand Marnier. 

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