Strawberry Jalapeno Margarita Recipe with Jam

Strawberry Jalapeno Margarita Recipe for the ultimate backyard BBQ summer cocktail!  Smoky, with hints of strawberry fruit and spicy jalapenos, this will be your favorite margarita recipe!

The combination of strawberries and jalapeno peppers makes this homemade margarita a favorite for summer porch sipping.  Strawberry Jalapeno Jam Margarita is hands down my favorite summer cocktail!

Joyce Pinson, Friends Drift Inn

Strawberry Jalapeno Margarita Recipe At-A-Glance

Prep Time – 3 minutes   Serves 1    May be scaled for big batches

Ingredients – Tequila – Lime Juice – Friends Drift Inn Strawberry Jalapeno Jam – Triple Sec – Bourbon Smoked Salt – Jalapenos – lime wedges and/or strawberries for garnish – Ice

Equipment – Cocktail Shaker – Bar Spoon – 2 plates – Margarita Glass

Strawberry Jalapeno Margaritas – Kick off Summer Cocktail Season

Summer is our busiest time here at the farm.  We often put-in fourteen-hour days.  The fields need tending.  Crops need harvesting and processing.  Jam needs making. 

We so look forward to the evening pleasure of a chilled summer cocktail!

Strawberry Jalapeno Margaritas are one of our favorite porch sipping drinks.  They taste fruity, salty, spicy, and smoky.  Shaken and served on the rocks, this margarita is so refreshing y’all may want to make them by the pitcher! 

Jam in Cocktails – It’s A Thing

Jam in cocktails is a quick way to add flavors and sweetness.  Food and Wine’s Sara DiGregoriao writes in “Five Ways to Make Cocktails with Jam:

…stir preserves into booze-a smart way to add complex, fruity- flavor with a minimum of effort. 

Friends Drift Inn Strawberry Jalapeno Jam is cooked down in small batches to concentrate the flavors.

That is what puts the special spin on this strawberry jalapeno margarita recipe! 

Strawberry Jalapeno Jam – Margarita Ingredient

Friends Drift Inn Strawberry Jalapeno Jam

You will love stirring jams into cocktails!

Strawberry Jalapeno Jam takes the place of simple syrup. 

I do not even understand why sweet strawberries and zesty jalapenos go together.  But they do!  It is a spicy romance infused with sweetness. 

Our Strawberry Jalapeno Margarita recipe highlights the jam taste profile.

Friends Drift Inn Strawberry Jalapeno Jam gives the right balance of flavors.  With no high fructose corn syrup, no added food colorings, and no added preservatives what you taste is fruit punctuated by a kick of jalapeno peppers. 

Our jam tastes real – the way jams should!

Margarita’s Mysterious History

Here in Kentucky, strawberries start appearing in the first weeks of May, just in time for Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Maya celebrations. 

Like strawberries, Margarita Days signal the start of summer pleasures.  But how did it all begin?

There is much speculation about who invented the first margarita.  Lore suggests it was named for a gorgeous showgirl. 

Rebecca Rupp of National Geographic’s “The Plate”  writes:

One story goes that the drink was first concocted by Mexican restaurant owner Carlos (Danny) Herrera in 1938 for the gorgeous Ziegfield showgirl Marjorie King.  King was allergic to all forms of alcohol except tequila but didn’t like to drink the stuff straight.  Herrera supposedly solved the problem by adding salt and lime and creating the worlds’ first margarita.

As for me, I never concerned myself with who invented this favorite tropical cocktail.  The Margarita became solidly associated with summer in 1977, while I was still in high school.  Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” launched the anthem of summer weekends that still stands the test of time.

There are days when I am still searching for that lost shaker of salt! LOL

Even a bourbon girl can appreciate “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes!”

 That’s history enough for me.  Giggles

Make this Strawberry Jalapeno Margarita Recipe right now!  Live in the moment!  

When is National Margarita Day?

Do we really need a reason to enjoy a homemade margarita? 

Apparently, we do. 

February 22 is the official date of National Margarita Day.  Maybe that’s to spice up your Valentine’s afterglow.  

And why not? 

What Does Tequila Taste Like?

If you know me, you know I am a bourbon girl.  But my friend Jose Valencia owner of El Azule Grande, has given me quite an education on tequila.   He grows agave, the key ingredient in tequila, back home in Mexico.

Sometimes he lets us sample different tequilas to get a sense of the variance in flavors.

Have you ever had a tequila that tasted like you were licking yesterday’s cigarette ash tray?  Yep, me too.  But tequilas are like bourbons; they are not created equally. 

Both bourbon and tequila are aged in barrels.  In fact, because oak bourbon barrels can only be used once in the making of bourbon, many used barrels find their way to tequila distilleries.  Aging liquors in charred barrels imparts flavor complexities and influences the final product’s color.  

Forbes contributor, Andrew Bender writes in “Five Reasons Tequila is Good For You”

Sip a lot of tequilas, experts say, and you’ll also notice terroirs, flavors that come from the soil: highlands, lowlands and more. “To taste tequila is to taste Mexico,” says Ana Paula Pelayo of the Dos Armadillos distillery. She likens the aroma of her favorite tequilas to “Mexico after the rain.”

Like Kentuckians waxing poetic about bourbon, tequila lovers tend to romance the allure of tequila.  I get it.

What kind of tequila do you prefer?  I am told the Silver variety tastes like an agave plant.  

 I like a tequila that tastes clean.  It can have a bite, and a little bitterness, but not too much.

Frankly, the tequila ingredient agave baffles me. For bourbon, I know a flavor profile for “mash bills” of  corn, rye, and barley.

Do you know what agave tastes like raw? 

Neither do I!  

 I have never bitten into a raw agave plant, but someday I will.  It is on my bucket list.  Giggles

How Do You Rim a Margarita Glass with Salt?

Everyone seems to have their own method.  In another space time continuum, I worked as a cocktail waitress.  Here’s is how I was taught.

1. Begin with two plates.  One with bourbon smoked salt, the other with lime juice.
2. Before filling the glass, invert and drench in lime juice. (This is your “glue.”)
3. Next, place inverted glass in salt. Viola!

Alternative method 1.  Some fancy pants mixologists prefer to tilt glass for the salt application – salting only the outer rim.   They say this method keeps too much salt from getting into the margarita. 

Alternative method 2.  Other persnickety (or maybe truly thoughtful) hosts rims only one side of the glass.  This is so if you do not want to drink with a salty rim you don’t have to.  (Do that to me and I will pout!)

Alternative method 3.  Some food photographers use corn syrup to rim for salted Margaritas.  I cannot stand the thought! 

What Goes with Margaritas – Serving Suggestions

• Mexican inspired menus are a terrific way to feature Strawberry Jalapeno Margaritas.
• Smoky Southern Barbeque, with a side of cole slaw is a way to blend and bend classic summer flavors.
•  A southern classic, deviled eggs with red  pepper jelly  or jalapeno deviled eggs pair nicely with summer cocktails.
• Stir Fry Menus – especially ones that feature ginger and pepper. 
• Summer Vegetable Plates – what we in Appalachia call “Garden Plates.”  Fresh green beans, a couple slices of red juicy tomatoes, and an ear of roasted corn.  Yes please! 
• Fruit Trays or Salads – a variety of summer melons like cantaloupe and honey dew, served with strawberries and orange rounds makes a glorious presentation.   (Make a salad dressing with Friends Drift Inn Strawberry Jalapeno Jam)
• Thinking about cocktail desserts? For summer patio parties, pair Strawberry Margaritas with Peppery Strawberry Jam Bars.

I Can’t Believe You Put a Whole Jalapeno in as a Garnish!

Hey!  That jalapeno was the first picking of the season; grown right here on the  Friends Drift Inn Farm.  I am proud of that! 

You could of course garnish with a fancy pick strung with jalapeno rounds, a wedge of lime, and garden-fresh strawberries. 

And for the record, I have a LOT of pepper head friends who really do eat jalapenos whole. 

Does that make me persnickety hostess or a thoughtful one?  LOL

Choose Your Assortment

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