Happy Friday everyone! This week I’m doing things a bit different here. I’m making a virgin cocktail. A virgin margarita to be exact. This comes at the request of Mrs. Sharkbait, who is temporarily unable to enjoy a regular cocktail until after Labor Day due to the extra passenger she has on board. With summer (and specifically Cinco de Mayo) coming up, we wanted to find something fun and different than just plain water, juice or iced tea.

She found this interesting recipe, which includes some interesting ingredients which supposedly tastes like the real thing, and we figured we should give it a shot and see how it compares to a real one.

Virgin Margarita

1 oz. fresh lime juice
.5oz. fresh lemon juice
.25 tsp maple syrup or simple syrup
.13 tsp (1/8th) pickle juice (optional but recommended!)
3 oz. tonic water
For the garnish: Lime wheel

Cut a notch in a lime wedge, then run the lime around the rim of a glass. Dip the edge of the rim into a plate of flaky sea salt (or for a festive look, use Margarita Salt).
In the serving glass, stir together the lime juice, lemon juice, maple syrup, and pickle juice. Add the tonic water and ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and serve.

No nose to speak of here. I find that very surprising since it has both lime and lemon juice as the base. Not even the pickle juice (more on that in a moment) is very detectable. I even used the spent rind of a lime to do the salt rim and that doesn’t even give off a slight hint of lime.

The sip is a little bit on the sour side. When I made this for the first time a few weeks ago, it definitely wasn’t as sour as this time around. I remembered then I used a bar spoon to measure the syrup and the pickle juice, as opposed to the actual 1/4 and 1/8 teaspoon measures like I did this time. Clearly that makes a huge difference to the flavor profile. The sip stays constant throughout. and the finish is more of the same citrusy sour/briny flavor. Neither the lemon or lime particularly dominate. They work in concert to bring out the best in a tequila -less margarita.

Now, on to the pickle juice. This is the supposed stand in for the tequila. The rationale is the brine will add that funk that a good tequila adds to a margarita. It accomplishes that goal to a point. You can definitely tell this is a twist on a regular margarita. But if you aren’t a fan of pickles, steer well clear of this adaptation.

Overall, this is pretty good for a virgin cocktail. Mrs. Sharkbait certainly enjoyed it, and I can tell I’ll be making variations of this all summer. I’ve got ideas to try and incorporate some heat, as well as possibly some fruit centric editions. If you really wanted to make it boozy,  I suppose you could add vodka since it’s a neutral spirit and shouldn’t affect the flavor too much. My question here is but why?  Why would you add booze to something specifically designed to be alcohol free? That seems like kind of a waste in my mind. If you’re feeling boozy, just make a regular margarita. If you need a break from the sauce, give this a shot.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)