Marmalades

Fresh fruit, no sour mix and decent tequila.  Simple mantra, right?  but what would you say if I said that using marmalades were ok?  Would you think any less of me?

Here's this simple Cabana Cachaca recipe from a few years ago using marmalades.  While intrigued with this new fangled liquor, I had to think, why not make my own marmalades and really do something great with tequila?  First you need to start with a recipe for marmalade.  This one seems to work just fine.  Anyways - start with the fresh fruit, sliced thin.  Then add sliced citrus (orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime) and bring to a boil with equal amounts of orange juice.  Once at a boil, add 2 cups of sugar and cook down to a thick viscous liquid.  Allow to cool and you're good to go.  Throw it in a jar and add pectin to preserve or if you're like me, just invite some friends over and start to crank out some drinks.

My favorite seems to be starting with a blueberry orange marmalade.  I admit though that I used fresh blueberries, orange juice and equal parts lime and orange slices....  I really laid the sugar on thick so when it was time to do the cocktails, it was as simple as 1-2-3.

Tequila, ice, marmalade.  Shake and serve....  Easy!

You know, I heard of this one cachaca company touting their 5 second caipirinhas....  they used sprite, cachaca and ice and figured that'd be enough to fool the american consumer.  can you imagine if I said, use sprite and tequila and its almost like a margarita???  Blasphemy, right?  But, I swear, by using artisan marmalades, you can do the 5 second margarita.  

Try it, I dare you.