Sangrita
Prep time:
Orange, lime and pomegranate juice with chilli, served in a shot glass next to the tequila, never in it. It is the sangrita of the shores of Lake Chapala, in Jalisco, which began at a restaurant table as a partner for tequila and is the root of everything sold under that name today.
Ingredients
- 200 ml orange juice, ideally Seville orange
- 50 ml freshly squeezed lime juice
- 50 ml pomegranate juice or homemade grenadine
- Chilli powder and salt, to taste
- To serve: blanco or reposado tequila, and lime juice
Preparation
- Mix the orange juice, lime and pomegranate in a jug.
- Add the chilli and salt a little at a time, tasting as you go: it should be hot and salty without burying the fruit.
- Let it rest for an hour in the fridge.
- Serve it in a shot glass next to one of tequila and one of lime juice: that is the bandera, the flag, for its green, white and red.
- Sip them in turn, never mixed: a sip of tequila, a sip of sangrita.
Bartender’s notes
Does it have tomato in it?
The original from Chapala does not: it is orange, lime, pomegranate and chilli, and the red comes from the pomegranate and the chilli. The tomato version is the bottled one, and what most of Mexico drinks today, saltier and thicker, almost a Bloody Mary without the alcohol. Both are sangrita; this is the first one.
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