Limeaide Margaritas

Recipe challenge, week seventeen.

a.k.a Margaritas for a Crowd

You know how people have "their" drink?  Whether it's rum/coke, vodka/cranberry, red wine, etc, a lot of people have a drink that is their go-to.  My go-to is a margarita.  I don't say that to try and be cool (because I'm not), and it does seem like many a 20-something have had a terrible experience with tequila.  But I never have, so a good old-fashioned blended margarita never lost its luster for me.  But I also would eat candy corn by the shovelful if possible.  So I suppose my taste may not be the most discerning.  I told a friend the other day, as we were talking about candy and liquor (she's pregnant so it was all hypothetical on her end), that all I need is a giant margarita and a bag of candy corn and I'll be happy.  She adjust that to "No, the pumpkins, not just the candy corn".  I agree.

Anyway.

I don't drink rum (bad experience).  I don't drink vodka (even worse experience).  I do like white wine (sweet and cold), and beer is just fine (usually I just have a few sips of whatever Scott orders because I"m one of those people who can never finish a beer).  But honestly, what I usually want is a margarita.

I have several margarita or slushie recipes here on the blog, but most only make one or two servings and it'd be really difficult to make margaritas for a crowd without using a margarita mix.

I'm not a fan of pre-made drink mixes, be it margarita mix, sour mix, pina colada mix, etc.  I've tried a lot of them and they always kind of taste like plastic.  But...  I've been to the islands.  And I assumed that being in the Caribbean meant that I'd be drinking fresh rum out of a coconut or something.  I drank 2-3 frozen drinks a day for a week.  And every single one of them was made with a drink mix.  The bar huts on the beaches of Anguilla?  They pulled the bottle of colada or daquiri mix right out of a cooler, blended it up with some fruit and liquor, and there you were.  And those drinks were absolutely delicious.  I'm pretty sure the only thing freshly made was the rum punch.  I also remember drinking ice cold tequila and it was fantastic.  The locals drank beer.  Tourists drank the frozen stuff.

I ate and drank more at this dinner in Anguilla than I ever had in my life. 

Circa 2008. (Note the shorter hair)

ANYWAY.

If you are making margaritas for a crowd or having a Cinco De Mayo get-together of sorts, I definitely recommend this method.  You can adjust the measurements of tequila and triple sec to fit your needs.  All you're really doing is using the limeaide as the liquid, to get the blender going, after you add your liquor.  You can pick your limeaide (I used MinuteMaid concentrate) and there's several low-calorie or no-calorie options out there if that's your thing.

Limeaide Margaritas

Frozen strawberries or cherries (or both)
Tequila
Triple Sec
Fresh Lime
1/2 cup limeaide per drink

Blend the fruit, liquor (I do 3/4 shot of each per drink), and limeaide.  Squeeze in your fresh lime juice.  Pour into glasses and top with more limeaide if you'd like a thinner consistency.

(This isn't really a recipe.  I apologize.)