Food You Can Eat: Margarita Floats

Limes: they aren't just for martinis.

Image via tasteofhome.com

I first came across these at a rollicking “Mexican” restaurant, sadly a victim of the pandemic and no longer with us. Then, less than a week later, I came across them again somewhere else, might have been the alcoholic portion of Sandra Lee’s show. I took this as a sign and who am I to argue against fate? Following an unfortunate tequila episode brought to me by the Mexico City Airport’s duty-free shop(pe) a quarter of a century ago, I had sworn off tequila but this I can eat/drink. I had forgotten all about these until I was hospitalized and began my cure. I was in such rough shape that I was given painkillers while I was going through the beginning of my antibiotics regimen. I had this amazingly vivid dream that I, the Better Half, two former coworkers, and Lady Gaga (!) were sitting around a table somewhere tropical enjoying these. But how to make them? Some kind soul posted a recipe at Taste of Home and this is it, slightly adapted by me. You really can find everything online. 

You really, really have to enjoy lime to knock one of these back. This is how you do it per person.

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Slice a lime into wedges and use one to moisten the rim of a margarita glass or a large martini glass (not preferred.) Put some sugar on a shallow plate and press the rim of the glass into it, like you’d salt a margarita glass. In each glass put in a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and a small scoop of lime sherbet. Make a cocktail combining 8 oz. of lemon/lime soda, 1 shot of lime juice, and 1 1/2 shots (or 2) of tequila per person. The tequila is actually optional. Pour the cocktail into the glass with the ice cream and the sherbet and adorn with a lime wedge on the side of the glass. For maximum benefit, consume poolside while wearing a coordinated Tommy Bahama outfit. The beauty of this is delicious as I find them to be they’re a little much so you would probably only want one. This way you’ll avoid slipping into a mild hallucinatory state if you use the tequila.

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15 Comments

    • It’s sometimes the only way to make her food palatable…
       
      My guess is, that perhaps if one is black-out drunk (or nearing that place!) you don’t quite notice the flavor, palatability, or *edibility* of the food placed in front of you.
       
      Presumably you just see a plate/bowl, and utensils, so ya shovel it in & start to chew?
      😉

    • If you can believe it, the drinks portion is just as bad as the food portion, and for the same reason. Take something relatively straightforward but “make it your own” though you have no talent or intuition to do anything. My working theory is that her former boyfriend Andrew got the network to hire about five dozen unemployable union members to serve as consultants and assistants and in return the network received $3 billion a year in “economic development grants”. What else could explain it? If I told 9 out of 10 New Yorkers this they would shake their heads but they wouldn’t question this theory.

      So, for example, “Make your gin and tonic special. What I like to do is [gin, tonic] and then a robust red wine, I use chianti, and then pour over a little peppermint schnapps. You don’t think of peppermint schnapps as being summery but believe me it works!”

  1. Because I’m LAZY when it comes to ice-cream floatiness, may I add in that if you don’t feel like mixing things & would rather just “pop a top,” there are (at least!) two other options you could add these two ice cream/sherbet flavors to;
     
    Zing Zang sells their Margarita mix in 6-packs of tiny cans, which you can get at most liquor stores (bottles there, too!) or at your local Wal-Mart (where I got it!). There is no alcohol in the mix-it’s just “mixer” but it’s decent & easy (i tend to pair it with a sugar-free lemon-lime soda or pour it over ice, just because I like the taste of lime & agave😉).
     
    And if you like an alcoholic version with a *little* bit of fizz (think “like a hard cider”), but don’t like tequila, I’d definitely recommend Cayman Jack’s margaritas-in-a-can (or bottle!).
     
    Like you @MatthewCrawley, I’ve got plenty of friends who’ve had “The Incident” with their old friend Jose, in high school or college,and who STILL can’t stand the smell of yellow tequila.**
     
    The Cayman Jack’s stuff is a *MALT* beverage, with agave, not a tequila base…
     
    So those tequila-averse friends who’ve tried them all liked it, because it turned out that it wasn’t the Margarita flavors of agave & lime they disliked.
     
    It was the jet-fuel reminiscent cheap/”well” tequila they’d had in previous Margs (too much like those “young & dumb” Tequila shots!)… 
    **many I’ve known CAN tolerate and do like something like Patron Silver–buuut that’s a whole nother flavor profile–smoother, and much less “jet-fuel” in taste. 

      • The main (only) reason I didn’t have one of these incidents was because the smell of that sort of tequila was so revolting that I thought I HATED *all* tequila when I was younger!😉🤣💖
         
        Having grown up around farmers, truckers, & stock-car racers, tequila smelled (and tasted!) too much like fuel, for me to manage to swallow it🤣
         
        See also: WINE and especially Champagne!
        I grew up around folks for whom “wine” meant Gallo or Carlo Rossi, or *maybe* Boone’s Farm…. I was WELL into my 20’s before I learned that wine which tasted good actually existed😉🤣
         
         

  2. And in the “float” theme, for those of y’all who like dark rum more than Tequila, I’d suggest a Dark & Stormy  Float!
     
    Thing is, most recipes online get them wrong!!
     
    If you want to try these, do yourself a HUGE favor, skip the vanilla** ice cream or the other strange ice cream flavors   ☝those☝folks are calling for, and get yourself some Häagen-Dazs Rum Raisin ice cream!
     
    Take your favorite dark rum (the original for this would be Goslings, but I typically do Captain Morgan Private Stock, because I DO like those “vanilla” undertones–especially here!), get yourself a GOOD Ginger Beer (skip the Reeds, it will taste TERRIBLE and literally of dirt🤢 in this drink!!)–again Goslings makes a really great choice, in both regular and diet, and then get out your Häagen-Dazs Rum Raisin…
     
    In a large glass, put 1-2 large scoops of ice cream, your preferred shot of rum (YES, this can be omitted for a N/A float!!), and then your ginger beer to float it all😉
     
    It’s easy, tasty, and lovely on a hot evening😁
     
     
    **YES,I am a HUGE proponent of Vanila/Vanilla Bean being the best ice cream flavor, because it is the best vehicle for toppings you could ever want in your fridge!
     
    But TRUST me here, you WANT the Häagen-Dazs Rum Raisin in this one–even the BEST Vanilla Bean is a sad “second” choice for this float, if you truly like rum drinks!💖
     

    • Eta, the @MatthewCrawley tie to the Dark & Stormy float, is that the first time I ever had it, was in Manhattan, at a Hell’s Kitchen bar/resto… it was somewhere up around 44th-46th, and over on 9th?, iirc…
       
      Réunion’s drink menu seems sort of similar to the place we went to,but the look of the place doesn’t fit what I remember the restaurant looking like…
       
      The food was solid, but their D&S float was what made it so memorable. 
       
      Iirc, their Ginger Beer was made somewhere in upstate NY, and I think the Rum Raisin ice cream was also from a local (NY) place. But when I got back to MN, the best options I could find to sub in & still make a reasonable approximation were the Goslings & Häagen-Dazs😉💖
       

        • Just be careful about *when* you add the alcohol, Meg😉
           
          I’d perhaps try it in a caramel (i think it may mostly be in the raisins of the H-D stuff?), or something other than the cream/egg mix–or *at least* check up on your chemistry first, if you DO decide to use it there without cooking off the alcohol, so that it’ll actually freeze for you…
           
          ‘Cuz ya don’t wanna have a “Chopped Ice Cream Maker” moment on a day you desperately want some tasty ice cream😉💖

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