4 Tequila Cocktails Perfect for Cinco de Mayo

Hello, peoples. Welcome back to the cocktail vlog. I'm Steve the bartender. I've got two bottles of tequila on the bar, ready for Cinco de Mayo. I'm gonna be creating four Cinco de Mayo cocktails, two classic cocktails, and two slight variations that I think are gonna work perfectly well with these two tequilas. It's a common misconception that Cinco de Mayo is actually Mexican Independence Day, which is incorrect, that's on September the 16th. Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla. Before I get started on the cocktails, I'm gonna jump in and do a bit of a tasting, thanks to our video sponsors, Herradura and El Himidor. First I'll start with Herradura Plata, which is their Blanco tequila. This has been aged for 45 days on white American oak. It's got a really light kind of straw color to it, and it's got a nose of cooked agave. That's a beautiful tequila, and that's gonna work really well in a Tommy's Margarita. Then I've got the El Himidor Reposado. Reposado means rested, so this has been rested on American oak for two months. It's kinda got toasted wood and vanilla notes to it, and you definitely get those toasted woody notes to the tequila when you're tasting it straight. The wood really softens that and makes it quite a smooth tequila. Onto the cocktails. First thing to do in my cocktail, the Tommy's Margarita, a personal favorite of mine. I'm gonna start by salting the edge of my glass. I'm not a big fan of salting the edge, but it's completely up to you, and the way I like to do it is do a half salt rim so you keep everyone happy. Nice thick salt. Then I'm gonna measure out 60 Herradura Blanco tequila. Add that straight into the cocktail shaker. This is a really simple three-ingredient cocktail. Follow that up with 30 mil, one ounce of freshly squeezed lime. So it's roughly one whole lime. Obviously depends on the size. And then we have 15 mil of agave syrup. Straight into the cocktail shaker, and then fill it up with ice and give it a good shake. Fill the glass with ice and strain over the top. And for garnish, the spent lime. There you have a Tommy's Margarita. Make sure you stick around to the end, and I'll do a tasting of all four cocktails. Onto the Mysterious Paloma. It has a little bit of a shrouded history. No one's 100% sure where this one came from and when it migrated over to the US, but it's an incredibly simple drink. And it starts off, it's built in the glass, starts off with 60 mil of Reposado tequila. Of course, if you've only got the one bottle, if you prefer a Blanco, you can use that too. Then 15 mil, roughly half a lime. Squeeze into the glass. I'll measure it just to make sure I'm being nice and accurate. Then fill the glass with ice and top it off with grapefruit soda. In Mexico, I believe Squirt and Chirito are the two popular grapefruit sodas that are used. I'm using Cappy, which is a Melbourne grapefruit soda. If you want to as well, you can squeeze fresh grapefruit juice, agave, and then add a splash of soda into it as well to make your own homemade grapefruit soda. And for that one, you can either garnish it with the spent lime and salt or revered grapefruit. There you have a Paloma. Onto an old favorite of mine, the El Diablo with a slight twist. Now the classic does call for creme de, but I'm substituting that for hibiscus syrup. So this one, again, is built in the glass and it calls for 45 mil of Reposado tequila. So these are really easy, quick drinks to make, perfect for celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Now I'm using hibiscus syrup straight from the jar. If you want to, you can get a hibiscus tea, which is just hibiscus flowers, and you can make a syrup yourself. 15 mil, add that straight in. Nice rich color to it. Then top up the glass with ice and squeeze 15 mils of fresh lime juice over the top and then top with spicy ginger beer. Garnish with a hibiscus flower and there you have a hibiscus El Diablo. Last but not least, the Blackberry Vanilla and Jalapeno Smash. This one is gonna be a killer cocktail. It works very well because of vanilla notes. I know in the start of the video, I said that the Reposado had vanilla notes, but so does the Blanco, the Herradura. Those vanilla notes are gonna marry really well. I like the use of blackberries with tequila. Blackberries and vanilla go really well and jalapeno and tequila is just a perfect combination. So this one is gonna be delicious. So we're gonna start with four slices of jalapeno, but you can use more or less depending on how much heat you would like. Personally, I think four slices is a happy medium and just the right amount of heat. Before you add the blackberries, this is a harder spice, so give it a bit of a smash before adding the blackberries, four of these as well. It's a softer fruit, so just a real light press. And when you shake the cocktail as well, more juice will extract from those berries. Now we wanna measure 60 mil of your Herradura Blanco Tequila and then follow that with 30 mils of fresh grapefruit juice, 22.5 mil or 3 1⁄4 ounce of vanilla simple syrup and 22.5 mil, 3 1⁄4 ounce of fresh lime juice. Fill it up with ice and give it a shake. We're gonna serve this over crushed ice, so 3 1⁄4 of the way to the top and strain over that ice. You can double strain if you like. I personally like all those blackberry chunks in there. It's more flavor. Now top it up with a little bit more ice. Have the garnish, the spent lime wheel, some chili flakes, which also kinda identifies the drink as having chili in it, so it doesn't surprise anyone and then a blackberry finished with a straw. There you have a blackberry, vanilla and jalapeno smash. Cheers. There you have four tequila cocktails that are perfect for celebrating Cinco de Mayo thanks to today's video sponsor, Herradura and El Jimidor. First up, the Tommy's Margarita made with Herradura Plata. Cheers. One of my favorite versions of a margarita, it's got a lot of agave notes, that little bit of sweetness from the agave and none of that orange liqueur from a classic margarita makes it my favorite, makes it a perfect entry-level margarita for people that A, don't like tequila or don't like sour drinks. I absolutely love that. Next up, the Paloma Utilizing El Jimidor Reposado. Grapefruit and tequila, perfect combination, super easy drinking, nice and refreshing and this is perfect for a hot summer's day. And the third cocktail, the Hibiscus El Diablo. Try saying that after a couple of tequilas. So an El Diablo, tequila, hibiscus syrup and ginger beer. It's actually quite sweet because you've got that, maybe give it a little bit of a stir, it's got that hibiscus syrup sitting on the bottom. I love that punch, the hibiscus syrup adds a certain vibrancy as you can see by the look of the drink as well. It's very tasty. I actually really like all of these. And then the fourth cocktail, last but not least, the Spicy Blackberry Vanilla and Jalapeno Smash. This is probably by far my favorite looking drink of the four. So again, this one was made with the Herradura de Plata. I like the tartness that comes from those blackberries and the four jalapenos is just the right amount of heat. I can feel a tingle on my tongue. If you do like it spicy though, throw a couple of extra slices in. Whilst you might not be able to leave the house, you can still celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style with these four tequila cocktails. Make sure you mix up a cocktail at home, tag me on Instagram, at stevethebartender with your creations, and I'll see you soon for another cocktail video. Cheers.