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Aldaco's creamy Avocado Margarita happened almost by accident.
"We were celebrating Mexican Avocado Week, and I decided to experiment with an avocado. Suddenly I was thirsty. I immediately combined the ingredients for a scrumptious margarita and added the blended avocado," Blanca Aldaco, owner of this Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, Texas recalls.
The resulting cocktail — made with Mexican Hass avocados, fresh lime juice, tequila and triple sec, and served frozen in a martini glass rimmed with flavored chile-lime salt — has been a hit. Customers have called it "absolutely delicious" with "an original flavor" and so good "You can't have just one, you crave a second serving."
Says Aldaco: "This avocado margarita has been a hit. Many guests tend to resist it [at first] as they think of it as a guacamole margarita — not an avocado margarita. I am very happy with it, and I love the surprise in each guest once they try it!"
That kind of creativity is the key to successful drink menus, owners and bartenders at Mexican restaurants nationwide say. Patrons are flocking to unique and flavorful bar offerings and are willing to pay a premium for creative specialty cocktails.
"The majority of our customers appreciate quality and are willing to pay the extra 50 cents to a dollar more [for cocktails made with premium ingredients]," reports Robert Solomon, co-owner of Trece Mexican Kitchen and Teq-uila Lounge in Dallas, Texas, where the bar stocks fresh-squeezed lime juice, organic agave nectar and premium tequilas — "no canned products and no sweet-and-sour," Solomon says.
Since its Dallas debut last July, Trece has built a reputation as a destination for stellar specialty cocktails. "Our specialty cocktails fly out the door!" Solomon reports.
Among Trece's all-star lineup: The Azteca, a cool concoction made with tequila, pineapple, grapefruit, lime, and an orgeat syrup Solomon describes as "a very traditional Mexican beverage, like a Mexican water, with a sweetness to it."
The mojito menu includes the Pomejito made by layering vodka, pomegranate and lime juices, agave nectar and fresh mint; the Frozen Blueberry Mojito; and the refreshing Cucumber Lavender Mojito accented with lavender and cucumber slices, then topped off with a splash of club soda — a drink that's especially popular with Trece's female clientele, Colombo notes.
Trece's sangrias — both red and white varieties — are very popular, especially during brunch, he adds.
Specialty drinks also have helped build the reputation of Masa Restaurant in Boston, Mass. The mint-and-lime Herba Buena — a mojito-like beverage mixed with chile-infused blanco tequila — is one example. "You muddle the lime and mint in the glass, add simple syrup, ice, the chile-infused tequila and then a splash of soda water," General Manager Mohamad Elzein explains.
 So what’s a Caipiroska?You’ve probably heard of the caipirinha, Brazil’s national drink made with mulled lime sections, sugar, ice and cachaça. The caipiroska is the caipirinha’s cousin and features vodka instead of cachaça. A caipirissima is a cocktail like the caipirinha, but mixed with rum instead of cachaça. If mixed with sake instead of cachaça, the drink is called caipisake. |
The Caipirinha — a traditional Brazilian drink featuring cachaça, a white Brazilian rum made from sugar cane, plus muddled limes, ice and a splash of simple syrup that Elzein says "balances the harshness of the liquor" — is another of Masa's popular bar beverages.
"Everyone who visits Mexico for vacation comes back talking about the rum and tequila drinks, so those drinks comprise the majority of our drink menu," he adds.
As creative as specialty cocktails have become, there's no denying the Margarita remains a favorite of Mexican and other Latin-themed restaurants' clientele.
And while basic versions like Masa's Classic Margarita made simply with gold tequila, orange liqueur and fresh lime juice are must-haves, you can still be creative where Margaritas are concerned.
Masa, for example, offers the Masarita, a best-selling blend of blanco tequila, triple sec, apple juice, fresh-squeezed orange and lime.
Trece tempts patrons with its Frozen Pomegranate Margarita garnished with passion fruit seeds, and the Piñarindo Margarita made with tequila, fresh lime, tamarind candy and fresh pineapple.
Aldaco's makes a Prickly Pear Marg-arita by swirling prickly pear cactus syrup into a frozen Margarita. And the restaurant created its La Morena to address complaints about traditional on-the-rocks offerings. The La Morena Margarita is mixed with silver tequila, orange liqueur, fresh lime juice and — here's the ‘secret' — a hint of Coke to balance the flavor of the fresh-squeezed lime.
"We came up with adding the Coke for younger palates that are used to sweet, frozen Margaritas and are trying to graduate to a sophisticated Margarita on the rocks," Aldaco explains. "Our younger clients — those in their early 20's — found the flavor too bitter, even though we aficionados did not think anything was wrong with the flavor!"
There's no denying tequila has come into its own, with more and more establishments menuing myriad tequilas. In Trece's Tequila Lounge — a room separate from the restaurant's bar — customers can choose from 120 varieties of tequila including a few on tap.
 Masa's Banderita |
"I think our tequila selection is one of our claims to fame," Solomon says. "The amazing part of the evolution of this concept is watching people walk up and order $25 or $40 shots of tequila like they would order an expensive cognac."
Masa has a similar story. "We have over 70 types of tequilas, and when you get into the high-end stuff you can increase your profits quickly," Elzein says.
That's especially true when your staff, like Masa's, has traveled to Mexico to learn about tequilas and can, therefore, explain the nuances of each variety in a way that encourages customers to trade up to a pricier brand.
The restaurant also offers the reasonably priced Banderita, a trio of shots served in an iron tray for $6.95. Customers, especially Masa's younger clientele, have embraced the practice of taking a shot of lime juice, followed by a shot of blanco tequila, then a shot of sangrita.
The sangrita — a traditional Mexican tequila chaser — is made of V8 vegetable juice, Tabasco, chipotle puree, lime and lemon juice, salt and pepper.
"We sell hundreds of them a week — it is one of our most popular drinks," Elzein reports.
Aldaco's CuervoRona is another example of creativity at work in the bar. A shot of tequila fills the neck of a bottle of Mexican beer and is served with lime and salt. It, like the Avocado Margarita, happened almost by accident. Aldaco and some friends in the beer business "were goofing around" one day at lunch when they combined the beer with the tequila. It is popular in our evening business with large convention groups.
Many guests will have it as an aperitif," Aldaco notes.
The next great cocktail wave will include non-alcoholic beverages that taste like real cocktails, F. Paul Pacult, a partner in the New York City-based Beverage Alcohol Resource (a training organization for restaurant and bar personnel nationwide) says.
"Alcohol-free cocktails add a whole new dimension to cocktail menus that was rarely seen prior to 2000," Pacult says. "Now, I see them gradually gaining traction in the marketplace."
 Aldaco's Avocado Margarita |
Traditional ethnic beverages like horchata, jamaica and aguas frescas present unique opportunities for Mexican restaurants to take the lead in the non-alcoholic drink category.
And that means both at the bar and on your breakfast, lunch and dinner menus.
Smoothie mixes in tropical flavors, for example, can be bar-worthy with the addition of tequila, run or other spirits. They also can be used to mix colorful drinks for children's menus.
Even aguas frescas and horchatas — ideal refreshers any time of day for your young and not-so-young clientele alike — can be combined with alcohol. Try horchata plus an orange liqueur or rum, or a fruity agua fresca spiked with a shot of rum or vodka, to create specialty libations that will set your restaurant apart from your competitors.
How many other bars, after all, offer horchata or agua fresca cocktails? Once customers try your unique drinks — which they won't be able to find anywhere else in town — they'll have to come back for more!
Aldaco says she has featured horchata ("I make it with a hint of condensed milk," she notes) and jamaica at brunch or special parties. "On other occasions, we greet guests with trays of Margaritas, Coronas and jamaica as they descend from their tour buses if their budget allows," she reports.
And don't ignore the benefits energy drinks can have on your bar's bottom line. Not only are these trendy beverages a hit on their own; they're also big business when mixed with vodka and other spirits.
But bartenders beware: Many people who drink alcoholic energy cocktails inaccurately perceive their level of intoxication, a recent study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research shows. That means they don't feel intoxicated, even though those studied had no better hand-eye coordination and reaction time than those who consumed a standard mixed drink.
See recipes for the Avocado Margarita, sangria and an alcoholic smoothie beverage.
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