Watermelon Margarita
How to make my best ever Watermelon Margarita including recipes for the Frozen Watermelon Margarita, the Jalapeño based Spicy Watermelon Margarita, Mezcal Variations and my easy no juicer required watermelon juice technique.
The Watermelon Margarita is a summertime classic with a bunch of ways to make it. And today, we’ll be going through all those recipes and more. With my best ever Watermelon Margarita recipe which also happens to be super easy to make with just 3 ingredients.
I’ll also take you through step by step how to make watermelon juice without a juicer and even without a blender so no matter what your expertise is, whether you’re new to cocktail making or a professional bartender, you can easily understand the process involved.
Because making cocktails at home is something everyone should and can do. So let’s get into it starting with the ingredients.
Watermelon Margarita Ingredients
Depending on how you make your Watermelon Margarita cocktail, depends on what ingredients you have on hand. Technically speaking, as long as you have some sort of agave based spirit, citrus and watermelon flavoured ingredient, you can affectively make a watermelon margarita. The drink may differ slightly from recipe to recipe but the basics are the same.
For this recipe, we’re going to use just 3 ingredients. They are;
Tequila Reposado
Tequila reposado is the dark tequila. You can read all about tequila reposado on this ultimate tequila guide here. Which also includes some great picks and recommendations. Because Tequila reposado is aged, it gives us a deeper flavour for this margarita twist as well as a sweeter sensation.
If you prefer Blanco tequila and prefer your margaritas more grassy, feel free to use it. Tequila Blanco is how I make my classic Margaritas so I defiantly recommend it. But for this, do try a reposado first if you can.
Lime Juice
A Margarita isn’t a margarita without lime juice. The name literally means Daisy, which is a sour type of drink. So if it ain’t sour, it ain’t a marg. Stay clear of that bottled lime juice and use the fresh stuff. If you’re planning on making more then a few of these and worry about how many limes you’ll need or worry about being stuck in your kitchen squeezing limes, then I strongly recommend whipping up some lime super juice.
Watermelon Juice
Finally we need some watermelon. You could use a watermelon syrup if you prefer your margs to be more sweet. However I always find that watermelon syrups tend to taste a little bit on the artificial side. It’s much nicer to use the fresh stuff. It’ll also come in handy when we’re garnishing our Watermelon Margaritas, so pick up a fresh watermelon and let’s get juicing.
How do you juice a watermelon the easy way?
When it comes to juicing a watermelon, you don’t need to be stuck in the kitchen with expensive juicers pushing through blocks of watermelon.
Watermelon is made mostly of water, so the best way to juice a watermelon is actually to blend it. Just pick up a good blender like this one if you’re American or this one if you’re UK based, dump in your watermelon and strain the seeds once blended.
It’ll take just a few seconds in a good blender for your watermelon guts to turn completely smooth. When it comes to straining, a fine mesh strainer will work great but I prefer to let my watermelon juice strain through some muslin cloth to get rid of every last bit.
Your freshly juiced watermelon will last about 2 days in the fridge depending on the your fridges temperature. You might find that once it’s been left for awhile, the water and watermelon begins to separate in the bottle. Just shake it up and it’ll be back to normal.
My Secret to great tasting watermelon juice
I have a closely guarded secret to making watermelon taste absolutely delicious. Are you ready for it? The secret it…
Salt.
Yep, salt. Salt helps bring out the natural sweetness in watermelon. I’ve tested it many times with many different types of watermelon - juice, dried, eating it, drinking it, and it all tastes much better with salt. I spoke about this in depth in my salted watermelon syrup recipe, so give that a read if you want to know more.
But the basics of this is like I said, it brings out the natural watermelon taste. The best way I can describe it is that it makes a watermelon taste more like a watermelon. But it only works if you get it right. You don’t want the watermelon to taste salty. You shouldn’t be able to taste ANY salt.
Try giving some of your juice to a friend, if they say they can taste salt, you’ve put too much in. I’ve found that if you use 1 pinch of salt per 200grams of watermelon. That tends to work best. So if you’re blending 400grams of watermelon for your juice, add in 2 pinches of salt.
Have a taste, if it tastes like salt, add more watermelon. If you think it can handle more salt, add a little bit more tasting each time so you don’t go overboard.
Sweetening your watermelon juice
You can also sweeten your watermelon juice for an extra indulgence. As we’re making a watermelon margarita, I’d recommend sweetening with agave syrup.
If you’re doing this, combine 200grams with watermelon pieces, with 50 grams of agave syrup. Then blend till smooth and strain as usual.
Now if you REALLY want to put the effort in. You can make my special watermelon juice made specifically for spicy watermelon margaritas. I call this my Super Watermelon Appetisingly Refreshing Versatile Elixir. AKA, Swarve juice.
How to make SWARVE Juice
Ingredients:
200grams watermelon (in chunks)
1 pinch salt
2 jalapenos (sliced)
50grams agave
50grams lime juice
Method:
Blend everything in a blender till smooth.
Fine strain through muslin.
How to blend watermelon without a juicer or blender
To blend watermelon without a blender or juicer, add your watermelon to a bowl and use a masher, ricer, or muddler to muddle your watermelon. Keep muddling until it turns to mush, then pour into a fine strainer over a jug. Continue to lightly muddle as you collect the juice in the jug.
Watermelon Margarita Cocktail Variations
There are a lot of variations you can make when it comes to this cocktail. We’ll go in to depth with a few, but here’s a few simple twists you could make;
Add a shot of Cointreau so it’s more similar to a classic Margarita
Swap the watermelon juice for watermelon syrup
Serve it in a tall glass over ice and top with soda water for a fizzy spritz twist
Add a salt rim
watermelon margarita in a watermelon
A popular option for serving this which works well at parties would be to serve it as a punch inside a watermelon.
To make a watermelon margarita served inside a watermelon follow these steps;
Cut a little bit of the bottom of your watermelon so it stands upright.
Cut the top of your watermelon.
Use a hand blender to blend the insides of the watermelon or scoop out the insides and blend them separate.
Once blended, your watermelon juice should come up to about half way of your watermelon, if it doesn’t, use a ladle to take out the juice until you hit that halfway mark. If it’s less, add water till you hit that halfway mark.
Pour in 10 ounces of tequila and 5 ounces of lime juice.
Stir and serve with straws or a ladle and salt rimmed glasses.
Spicy Watermelon Margarita
Spicy watermelon margaritas can be made with whatever spice you want. The most popular would be the watermelon jalapeno margarita.
To make this here are a few things you can do:
Make my SWARVE juice from above and use that.
Muddle 1 Jalapeno in the bottom of your shaker before adding your ingredients.
Add a pinch of cayenne or black pepper in your cocktail shaker before mixing.
Frozen Watermelon Margarita
The most popular and my personal favourite, is the blended version of this drink. To make your cocktail a frozen watermelon margarita. Just follow the below recipe card exactly, however, instead of shaking with ice, tip everything into a blender with a hand full of ice and blend till smooth.
If it’s too thick, add more watermelon juice and if it’s too thin, add more ice.
watermelon mint margarita
Mint and watermelon is another great combination so it makes sense that you might want to add some mint to your watermelon margarita. The best way to do this is to shake your cocktail with a handful of mint.
You could also add mint leaves to the glass, pour your cocktail on top, then churn the mint leaves through.
Or if you just want the sense of mint with no actual mint flavour, then consider garnishing your cocktail with a sprig of mint.
watermelon mezcal margarita
We also have the Mezcal watermelon margarita. With mezcal becoming more and more popular, more people then ever are trying classic tequila cocktails with mezcal. However, do remember that mezcal and tequila might be similar, but they are not the same. Check out this Mezcal vs Tequila article to see what I mean and bust some common myths. Mezcal is the one you might know as the tequila with the worm. Which is also a big myth.
But in this case, Mezcal does work great. For the best results I recommend swapping the 2 ounces of Tequila in the below recipe with 1 ounce of Tequila Blanco and 1 ounce of Mezcal.
If you’re a big mezcal drinker, just swap out the Tequila in place of 2 ounces of mezcal. But if you’re doing this, I’d add half a shot of agave just to sweeten it up.
Non Alcoholic Watermelon Margarita Mocktail
Finally, we have the non-alcoholic watermelon margarita mocktail. Non-alcoholic drinks are getting more and more popular and just because you don’t drink or are no longer drinking, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this tipple.
To achieve this, simply swap out the 2 ounces of Tequila for 3 ounces of a non-alcoholic tequila. Some of my favourites are;
You may also be interested in these 5 non alcoholic tequila cocktails.
Tips and Tricks
Now let’s talk tips and tricks. Tip number 1 and jumping straight in. A salty rim. Rub a lime wedge around the rim of your glass and dip it in a plate of salt.
Moving swiftly on to tip number 2: Store your glassware in the freezer. This cocktail works best when extra cold.
Fancy a Margarita on the rocks? For the watermelon margarita on the rocks just serve this drink exactly the same but in a short rocks glass filled to the top with ice.
Want to make your cocktail look amazing? Cut the side of a watermelon, then slice it horizontally half an inch thick, then slice it in half and you have a watermelon sail to garnish your cocktail. That, with a salt rim and a sprig of mint looks absolutely delicious!
Similar Recipes
Margarita’s are my favourite cocktails. So as you might expect from an ex bartender turned drinks blogger. I post a lot of margarita cocktails. Check out some of my favourites below along with similar Mexican and Tequila drinks as well as my Tequila Guides
Padron Pepper Tequila and Spicy Margarita
Non-alcoholic Tequila Cocktails
Classic Margarita recipe and history
Tequila Related Guides
Watermelon Margarita
Ingredients
Instructions
- Shake everything in a cocktail shaker with ice or blend with a handful of ice cubes.
- Strain into a chilled coupe.
- Garnish with a watermelon sail and sprig of mint.
Notes
Watermelon Syrup
Blend watermelon till smooth then fine strain. If it's too thick, mix with a little water.
Variations
For variations including the frozen watermelon margarita and spicy watermelon margarita. Scroll up to the variations sub title.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
163.57Fat
0.15 gSat. Fat
0.01 gCarbs
8.81 gFiber
0.45 gNet carbs
8.35 gSugar
5.75 gProtein
0.64 gSodium
1.99 mgCholesterol
0 mgThe nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
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Hi, I’m Cameron, guv’nor of Smartblend. If you liked this then you’re in luck, I have a bunch more recipes like it. I share only vegetarian and pescatarian food recipes, cocktails, and drink guides with a sprinkling of wellness and mindful drinking. If that sounds like you, then stick around!
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