Cocktails

Best Boxing Day Beer-Garita Recipe — a Twist on a Classic Cocktail

Margarita season is here! Keep your festive celebrations going with a unique twist on a summer cocktail staple with the Leftover Boxing Day Beer-Garita from Jarrod aka @diycocktailguy.

Read Time 6 Minutes

By First Choice Liquor Market

Boxing Day Beer-Garita

Introducing your new summer staple: what is a beer-garita?

You’ve heard of the margarita, but what about the beer-garita? The margarita — or ‘marg’ — as it’s affectionately known by bartenders and cocktail sippers across the world has been no stranger to reinvention and experimentation over the years.

From a Tommy’s to a watermelon, peach and spicy cucumber margarita, there’s a marg recipe for every taste bud under the sun. It’s also versatile — with nighttime revelers, happy hour goers and daytime drinkers all enjoying it shaken, blitzed in a blender or batched in a margarita punch to suit the occasion.

It’s often the most unconventional combinations that deliver the most delicious results. The beer-garita takes all the classic, tried and tested ingredients of a margarita — zingy lime, sweet orange and the smooth fruitiness of tequila — and combines them with the thirst-quenching taste of Mexican beer to create the ultimate Boxing Day mix.

The season’s most unexpected combo: why the beer-garita works

“The idea behind this cocktail is that after Christmas Day, there’s going to be leftover beers — there’s beers everywhere — so come Boxing Day, you can reinvent the beer and pop it in a margarita to make a delicious and refreshing cocktail,” says Jarrod.

If summer was a cocktail, it would be the beer-garita. It’s cool, salty and fizzy — combining the best of both worlds in a cocktail that can be shaken for a single serve or whipped up in batches for easy entertaining. It wins the hearts of even the biggest margarita aficionados and craft beer lovers — transporting you to the tropical beaches of Tulum with each sip.

Every ingredient you need to make Jarrod’s beer-garita

Cocktail Ingredients:

(Serves 2)

60mL or 1.5oz El Sueño Silver tequila.

60mL or 1oz orange liqueur — Cocktail Collective is perfect for the job.

60mL or 1oz of freshly squeezed lime juice

Top up your margaritas with beer! Balter Cerveza will be your sessionable drop of summer!

How to make a beer-garita

Add your El Sueño tequila, Cocktail Collective orange liqueur and freshly squeezed lime juice into your cocktail shaker.
Pop in a couple of ice cubes and shake.
Divide your margarita between two salt rimmed cocktail glasses.
Top up with Balter Cerveza, or another Mexican lager of your choice and add a fresh slice of lime.

How to make a pitcher of beer-garitas

If you’ve got a crowd coming around, whipping up some pitchers of beer-garitas will be the way to go for ease of convenience. You’ll want to multiply the quantities of all the ingredients and pour them into a pitcher to leave chilled in the fridge. Salt rim all of your glasses before your guests arrive and keep extra lime wedges on the side to finish off each beer-garita. Remember, don’t add ice until you’re ready to serve your guests!

What should you serve with your beer-garitas?

Firstly, you’ll want to turn your attention to garnishes. Luckily for you, the beer-garita keeps its garnish game nice and simple. For your classic salt rim, all you’ll need is a couple of lime wedges to coat the edges of your glasses and then kosher or sea salt to dip. In our opinion, beer-garitas are best served with salsa and guacamole, fish tacos and the great company of family and friends to complete the summer vibe.

Blanco, reposado or añejo: what is the best tequila for a margarita?

There’s no shortage of tequilas on the market and you might have caught yourself wondering what the difference between blanco, reposado and añejo tequila is. While reposado and añejo have both been aged — up to 1 and 3 years respectively — blanco (also known as silver) is typically bottled immediately after distillation. This gives it the smooth, citrus notes it’s famous for, making it the top choice for refreshing cocktails like margaritas and palomas. On the other hand, the oak-forward, vanilla and caramel notes of reposado and añejo make these drops more suited for sipping neat, or in richer cocktails.

With 5 generations of agave growers and tequila makers in their corner, the team behind El Sueño Silver knows a thing or two about producing authentic, traditionally batched tequila. Priding themselves on using the finest highland and lowland Blue Weber Agave, you can expect floral notes, tropical pineapple and hints of pepper to come through with each pour. Did we mention it was a recent multi-award winner at the Melbourne International Spirits Competition? Save yourself from wandering aisles and stock your cart up here.

Tips for perfecting your beer-garita

Choose the right type of beer. When mixing your beer-garita, you’ll want to top it up with a crisp Mexican-style lager like the Balter Cerveza. Mexican beer gives your beer-garita the refreshing effervescent fizz, without overpowering the other ingredients. Because you’re adding flavour-packed lime juice and orange liqueur, you don’t want strong hop flavours to mask the tang of the citrus or the tequila. Save high hop beers like IPAs for another occasion and add a case of Balter Cerveza, Corona, or Modus to your cart instead.

Shake up your salt rims. If you’ve got guests coming around, mixing and matching your salt rims can be a fun way to add extra spice to your beer-garitas. Along with a classic sea salt rim, include a few chilli flake salt rims to dial up the heat factor. For the more faint of heart on the chilli front, the tangy Mexican seasoning, tajin, delivers on the mild chilli, lime and salt flavours.

Well, there you have it! Post-Christmas festivities are sorted with Jarrod’s go-to Boxing Day cocktail. Plus, if you find yourself in a rush out the door to a gathering, summer picnic or day at the beach, grab a pack of the El Sueño Margarita Seltzers for the ultimate pre-mixed can on the go for summer.