We are doing a flight of margaritas for the Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway this week.  One of my favorite things about living in the south is how freely the margaritas flow, and one of my favorite trends these day is the flight concept.  What’s not to love about smaller versions of a bunch of different drinks all in a row for my enjoyment? With the race this week in a city named after the mythological bird Phoenix, a flight seemed in order.  For this weekend’s race, I am making several kinds of margaritas so we can enjoy an at-home margarita flight.  Nothing is better on a warm afternoon while watching the race. Margaritas can be done on the rocks or frozen.  For my flight today, I’m doing frozen.  I like to use a margarita mix from my local grocery store.  Bacardi makes one, too, that works, but I just like the local brand better because it has more lime.  Margaritas use tequila, and when you’re mixing up drinks with multiple ingredients you can get away with cheaper versions since the taste isn’t as pure.  I personally like to use Cabo Wabo Resposado tequila.  It’s one of my favorites and tastes good even when not mixed with a bunch of ingredients.  If you aren’t a tequila fan, you can make these with a dark rum instead and they taste really good.  Today’s flavors include some frozen mango chunks, canned sweet black cherries, chamoy, and frozen strawberries to make it interesting. The original lime and the strawberry versions below are fairly standard and crowd pleasing favorites, but I’m including two of my favorite, although less common, variations to today’s flight–black cherry and mangonada.  The black cherry margarita is one I learned to love in college when I worked at the Bombay Bicycle Company.  We made those, and I had never had anything like it.  Eating those cherries that had been soaking in the tequila margarita at the end of the drink was always a real treat!  In my area mangonadas are very popular non-alcoholic treats made of mango and chili.  For the mangonada margarita version today, I’m using a chili powder made for fruit.  In my area I can buy this kind of chili powder at candy shops and the grocery store.  If you are looking to order some, try Alamo Candy Company.  They are amazing. . .order some of their candy while you’re there.  You will not regret it! I get chamoy (a thick syrup made of fruit and spices) at my local grocery store, but you can order the chamoy from Alamo Candy Company, too. As you can tell, I go to the most trouble on the mangonada margarita, so you can guess it is my absolute favorite.  The combination of spicy and sweet makes it stand out from the others.  

Original Frozen Lime Margarita

1 can HEB frozen Margarita Mixer 

1/2 or 3/4 can tequila depending how strong you like it 

2 c. ice cubes (add more or less to get the consistency the way you like it)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a prepared cup with margarita salt.

Strawberry Swirl Frozen Margarita

Prepare Original Frozen Lime Margarita

Prepare strawberry mix: 

1 bag frozen strawberries

1 c. sugar

1 c. water

Blend until smooth.  Add more water if the mix is too thick.  Add more or less sugar to taste.

Pour strawberry mix into cup prepared with lime infused margarita salt.  Pour original frozen lime margarita on top.  Use straw to swirl.

Black Cherry Frozen Margarita

Scoop in about 5 sweet dark cherries and about 3 spoonfuls of juice into a cup prepared with sugar.  Pour original frozen lime margarita on top.

Mangonada Frozen Margarita

1 can HEB frozen Margarita Mixer

1/2 or 3/4 can tequila depending on how strong you like it

1 bag frozen mango chunks

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add ice if needed for consistency.  Prepare cup with by dipping rim in chamoy and then dip in chili powder. Add some chamoy to the bottom of the prepared cup and then pour in the prepared mangonada margarita.