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Premium Margarita Mix Taste Test
Are those gourmet mixes worth the price?
Margaritas are a cocktail staple year-round, but you may not always have fresh limes on hand (or feel like squeezing a bunch of them). Are those gourmet mixes, now showing up on market shelves next to the neon green stuff, a worthy substitute? Though we knew they wouldn’t make the Perfect Margarita—which we compared every mix to—we wondered whether these fancy elixirs could save us some time if we were feeling lazy at a summer party.
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CHOW tasted five premium margarita mixes (we only bought brands that contained natural flavors and colors and no corn syrup) with 100 percent agave blanco tequila, and rated them from 1 to 5 (5 being the best) based on: fresh-squeezed taste, sweetness and balance, appearance, and drinkability. |
$10.99 (available at BevMo!) |
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| Score | 3.3 | 2.59 | 2.21 | 2.0 | 1.86 |
| They say | “We use real lime and lemon juice and pure cane sugar perfectly balanced with triple sec.” | “All natural margarita mix made with Meyer lemons and Key limes.” | “Made with Key lime juice, orange juice and other natural ingredients.” | “Hand-picked, subtly sweet 100% fresh-squeezed slightly tart, aromatic limes combined with Organic Agave nectar, purified water, and a touch of organic cane sugar.” | “Fresh Key lime, Meyer Lemon and a touch of naturally sweet orange juice.” |
| Fresh-Squeezed Taste | Fresh and tasted like lime. We were shocked. | Not very lime-y. | Just OK. Certainly not natural. | Barely noticeable—that’s not lime! | Is there lime in there? All we tasted was tart. |
| Sweetness and Balance | Good balance all around. | Seemed to overpower the tequila. More like a really good Mountain Dew. | Mostly balanced but a bit too sweet. | Too sweet and really syrupy. | Tasted like a Sour Patch Kid. |
| Appearance | Looked realistic and natural, like a fresh margarita. | Pleasantly pale, like water. | Way too fluorescent. | Looked natural rather than radioactive. | Looked like a urine sample. |
| Drinkability | This was tasty—you could serve it to friends. And when you add Cointreau to it, it’s really good. | OK. We’d use it in a pinch. | Decently drinkable. | We’d use it if we had nothing else. Maybe drinkable … at 3 a.m. | Would make a great gift for our in-laws in Kansas—they like syrupy-sweet stuff. |
Wynnedog! Ya beat me to it! The Dr. Swami - Bonedaddy's mix is the best by far. It certainly is better than the Stirings. Now I'm thirsty!
How much time and energy does it take to squeeze a couple limes? If you can't be bothered to spend 30 seconds on your drink, you don't deserve to have it.
I think that great mixes are worth the price if you are short on time, energy or ability.....
I recently bought the Stirings mango margarita mix and wasn't too thrilled with it. I followed the directions and found it to be a little too thick.
What? No Dr. Swami & Bonedaddy's? And you call this a taste test?
I knew that, it's just that the concept was disturbing my "wah". Just LOOK at how much those mixes cost! I'm just sayin'.
@Steve2
the point wasn't, what would it take to make a simple margarita but of the available bottled mixes, which would be able to fill in in a pinch.
of course individual ingredients to taste are always going to beat the mixes.
Lot's of good tequilla, some Cointreau and two limes please.
You can make a better 'grita with the juice of 2 fresh limes, a can of Limeade concentrate, that same can filled with Silver Reposado and another filled with Gran Marnier (or Triple Sec if you're watching your dinero)
Mix in a pitcher. Pour this mixture over ice in a blender and frappe or simply drink on the rocks. Best version going.
The Strings Pomegranate Martini mix is also excellent. I have a bottle in my fridge right now.
I'm surprised that Stirrings had the best. I guess it just goes to show you can't judge these things based on past experience alone. I was so excited to see the Tommy's mix in the store. Sadly, after a painfully acidic/syrupy first gulp, it's still sitting in the way-back of our fridge.