But the broader resentment arguably stems from its loaded name. Some of the disapproval is based on principle many craft bartenders, for instance, find the drink to be off-kilter and annoying. While it’s not uncommon for a popular ersatz cocktail to elicit mockery, f ew are as divisive as the ungovernable reduced-calorie Margarita. Favre, not a fan of the cocktail, isn’t so forgiving: “The Skinny Margarita is a misnomer and an unbalanced drink.” “The name, I always thought to be silly,” says Amy Breen, who was bartending in Nashville in the early 2010s. Even if someone has never dragged their forefinger down a chain restaurant’s drinks menu and landed on the Skinny Margarita, they likely feel some sort of way about the cocktail. In place of Cointreau or triple sec, some recipes use fresh orange juice to impart a similar flavor bleaker riffs rely on Splenda simple syrup for sweetness. But across personal blogs and sprawling recipe hubs, where riffs on the Skinny Margarita abound, the formula gets increasingly convoluted. While all bartenders have their own way of preparing the cocktail, the typical move is to follow their specs for a classic Margarita and either decrease or omit the sweetener, such as simple syrup or agave nectar, or the orange liqueur. So began the astronomical rise of the Skinny Margarita, a drink that wedged itself so resolutely into pop culture that it has attained call-drink status. And while the Skinny Margarita reigned supreme, no drink was immune to Frankel’s influence: By 2013, more than a third of chain restaurants with liquor licenses had “skinny” cocktails on their menu. “You started hearing it at the bar all of a sudden,” recalls Leanne Favre, the bar manager at Leyenda in Brooklyn, who in the early 2010s was working at the since-shuttered agave bar Mayahuel. But, again, this will add more calories.Meanwhile, Frankel’s savvy concept had infiltrated nearly every genre of food and drink establishment, where customers began placing what would’ve been an inscrutable order just a few years earlier. If you need a little bit of sweetness, you can add in a touch of agave. Also, as I mentioned above about someone telling me this is called Ranch Water - they use Topo Chico (which I do NOT enjoy). *Update: I've made this with club soda several times and it's still delicious. But like, just barely. It dilutes the tequila and lime a bit to make it more like a cocktail than just tequila and soda. This spring water helps bring out natural sweetness (no sugars or calories in spring water) from the lime with just a touch of sparkle. I really prefer to use sparkling spring water in this easy margarita recipe and not club soda.Ĭlub Soda is too bubbly. Just remember that when you start adding things back in, you're making this drink less skinny. You can use a little bit of fresh orange juice if you want to get some of that extra flavor in there. In a typical margarita, you use orange liqueur. And since that is where all the flavor is coming from in this drink, you need fresh limes. You can even use an anjeo or reposado if you like something with a little more flavor.įresh lime juice is a MUST! Bottled lime juice just doesn't have the same flavor. You can use a different brand of tequila if you prefer. It's not so in your face that you will probably even pick it out, but it's smooth and goes great in a cocktail. I like Casamigos because of the hint of vanilla flavor. That name totally fits especially since I typically use Casamigos Tequila. I sometimes call this my Casa Margarita (which means house in Spanish).

Skinny margarita recipe outback