Margarita Orbs

This was fun, I have to admit.

Here's the premise.... fresh fruit, great tequila, no sour mix and make it taste great!

As you should know, we recently purchased chemicals to keep up with the chefs.  And, while we're not quite on their level (or even close to be honest), we've been able to tinker enough to make some really cool "drinks".  Our focus on the drinks has been to use sodium alginate to a mixture, and then dropping it into a calcium chloride bath.  It started out horribly, but after getting used to quantities and such, we were able to create "orbs".  First one was just orange juice, to see if we could get it right.  Then we started actually making margaritas and straining them into a container, adding the sodium alginate, creating a "goo" and then dropping it into the calcium chloride bath and making margarita orbs!  

We found out a few things.  Gotta make them drinks strong, because some of the potency is lost in translation.  And, you need more sodium alginate than any recipe may call for since you've got the citrus and the alcohol working against it.  If you want to try this at home, here's where we got the chemicals.  Takes about a week or so, but the quantities are small enough so that you aren't buying 60 gallon drums of the stuff!

So, this is what we did:

Ingredients

3 oz of Don Julio Tequila (still gotta plug my friend from Diageo, especially with the economy the way it is).

1 lime and 1/2 lemon

2oz of agave nectar

1oz Cointreau Noir (great new stuff to play with!)

Method

Drop the fruit into a mixing cup and muddle with the agave nectar.  Add the tequila and the cointreau noir and for this, we're not using ice.  Want to keep it at room temperature.  So, then you still shake it vigorously, making sure to get all the flavor from the fruit.  Strain into a small mixing bowl.  Take 5 grams of the calcium chloride and add to 500 ml of cold water and stir.

Now add 4ml of sodium alginate to the tequila mixture and stir.  While continuing to stir, add an additional 2ml of sodium alginate.  

Take a small amount and test by dropping it into the calcium chloride bath.  If a small pearl is formed, you can remove it, drop it into a bath of plain water, and then onto a paper towel.  It should keep its form and you can eat it!  

If it doesn't work, then adjust the quantities as needed.

But, to do the orbs, you'll need a spoon.  What you do is take a spoonful of the tequila mixture and roll it into the calcium chloride bath.  This should create an orb about the size of your spoon.  Be careful and quick, so that your orbs don't have tails!

And, don't forget to "rinse" your orbs in the water bath.  Otherwise you'll impart too much of the calcium chloride into your system and you may get sick.

For service, I like putting the orbs onto a porcelain spoon and adding a dollop of my salt cloud. (for that recipe, see here).