Drinks

Tequila Cranberry Cocktail

By Connie Veneracion

Posted on 03/17/2012

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Looking for the easiest cocktail drink recipe ever? Tequila cranberry cocktail is two parts tequila plus five parts cranberry juice plus ice cubes.

I have this feeling that web readers flock to this tequila cranberry cocktail recipe because of the photos. It’s been praised by friends and many think that I used special lighting techniques to shoot them. I didn’t. I’m not even sure that it’s the lighting that makes the photos dramatic. I think it’s the horses.

But, anyway… Surely, despite the summary, there’s a recipe worth writing or, at the very least, a few tips here and there? Well, yes, sort of.

First, commercial cranberry juice comes in at least three kinds: pure and unsweetened; diluted with water and sweetened; or mixed with other juices to make it less tart.

Which is best for making this cocktail drink?

In our case, it’s the second kind — diluted with water and sweetened. Pure and unsweetened cranberry juice is much too tart. The kind mixed with other juices might not taste so good with tequila.

Now, about the procedure… Is it really just a matter mixing the juice, alcohol and ice? Yes and no.

Ideally, you put ice cubes into a cocktail shaker, pour in the tequila and the cranberry juice, shake them all together then pour the drink into a glass — minus the ice cubes. Why? Because as the ice cubes melt, the drink will be diluted and turn bland. So, the purpose of adding ice cubes to the shaker is just to make the drink cold.

But the glasses in the photos are full of ice cubes…?? In a tropical country, especially during the summer, it is next to impossible to keep a drink cold unless ice is thrown in. The trick is to not take forever to finish the drink so that it doesn’t get diluted too much.