Paleo Retiree writes:
At a fun upscale — but not too upscale — Mexican restaurant in Goleta, CA, a tamarind margarita:
Note the non-traditional glass as well as the absence of a lime slice.
Although I’m someone who usually avoids margaritas, I was very pleased with it. Margaritas generally: blech. Even the freshly-made ones are nearly always ‘way too sweet for me. (And don’t get me started on the curse of “margarita mix.” Where beverages go, do Americans generally take their taste-cues from soda pop? Must we always remain Hawaiian Punch-swilling children? But I rant …) Anyway, here the sweet-sour, slightly musky taste of tamarind took the usual overbright edge off the drink and supplied a lot of exotic interest. A little bit of lime juice supplied some kick and provided an echo of the traditional margarita.
Verdict: Festive, streamlined and rewarding, yet not inane.
Related
- I enjoyed (and learned a lot from) this well-done Great Courses series on spirits and cocktails. The section where Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, the course’s babe lecturer (watching her sniff and sip is a real treat), explained the differences between the different genres of tequila (gold, añejo and white) was particularly gripping.
- Will tamarinds ever catch on bigtime in the U.S.?
- The history of the margarita.
- Is the problem in California not so much too little water but too many people?
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Are frozen margaritas an abomination? Or is rocks the only way to go?
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I’m prone to ice-cream headaches and I DESPISE the racket that making frozen margaritas creates. Bars should be convivial places where people relax, not powertool shops where all conversation has to halt every few minutes. So it’s rocks all the way for me.
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Rosacea was tearing my face up, so I stopped drinking. Didn’t have a drink for three years.
At the Old Dawgz Christmas party, I just couldn’t take it any longer and I had a few glasses of wine. Discovered I won’t explode if I have a drink every once in a while.
Haven’t tried out the fire water, i.e., hard liquor, yet. We’ll see what happens.
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Tamarind; how intriguing!
My mom is from a Caribbean country where they grow them. Interesting fruit.
The British sauce ‘HP’ and the American ‘A1’ steak sauce are both flavoured with tamarind.
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Tamarind is big in Southeast Asian cuisine too. At my local Asian market you can get tamarind paste in jars, and it makes a great sweet-sour addition to stir-fries.
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Ah; I didn’t know they used it too, but similar climate, so makes sense.
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