Tequila Mockingbird Recipe

If You Want to Know More About the Tequila Mockingbird, Keep Reading

As mentioned, the name of this cocktail is a not uncommon play on the title of the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. We think we’ve seen the name on more than a few bars, and we’re sure there’s more than one cocktail called by this name. It’s a cool name, but it’s not entirely original. But even if the name is a little bit of a repeat, this cocktail is not. In fact, it’s a great cocktail! After all, how often do you find a cocktail with Jalapeño in it? Going further, how often do you find a cocktail that combines Jalapeño and Watermelon? Although it may sound a little unusual, the two ingredients actually go very well together. The medium spice of the Jalapeño is tempered by the sweetness of the Watermelon. In no way is this cocktail spicy (unless you’re quite sensitive to spice!). It’s all diluted enough by all the other ingredients in the recipe, creating only a hint of spiciness. It’s there for a little bit of interest rather than a full frontal assault.

All in all, this is a very interesting cocktail. It uses some unusual ingredients, but it’s quite welcome! Thankfully these slightly unusual ingredients aren’t terribly hard to come come by. That means you can easily make one of these at home to try.

Can I increase this recipe to make multiple cocktails?

You can increase this recipe, but keep in mind this is a shaken cocktail, so the size of the batch you’re making is up to the size of your cocktail shaker. If you overfill your shaker, you won’t be able to shake things properly and therefore won’t get good mixing or chilling. Keep it to make only two or three cocktails at a time and you should be fine.

Can I make this cocktail ahead of time?

We wouldn’t suggest making the Tequila Mockingbird ahead of time. When you muddle the Jalapeno, oils from the chili will be released and mix in with the drink; you want to keep these mixed. Letting this drink sit to long may allow the oils to be released and no longer be properly mixed. Enjoy this cocktail right away.

When would you drink a Tequila Mockingbird?

We’ll shy away from making any literary references to this cocktail (for now), but we always feel like any Tequila based cocktail lends itself well to hot and dry weather. Like many other Tequila cocktail recipes, this one adds Lime Juice to the mix. Although Tequila and Lime isn’t necessarily the most original combination, it’s used so often for a reason. Tequila just goes extremely well with Lime! It goes pretty well with Lemon Juice as well. In fact Tequila and any citrus really do the job. But Lime Juice is the best. So what you see with a lot of Tequila based cocktails is a riff on Tequila with Lime, which, in a lot of ways, is really just a riff on the Classic Margarita. The Tequila Mockingbird isn’t far off from a Margarita in many ways. replace the Agave Syrup with Triple Sec and you’re basically there; you could just call it a Watermelon Jalapeño Margarita!

So, like the Margarita, we see the Tequila Mockingbird as a cocktail perfect for hot and dry weather. It’s just refreshing when it’s a little warm, but not too humid. Like the Margarita, the Tequila Mockingbird does very well with Mexican food. Enjoy one before, after, or even during Mexican food.

If you’re like us and you enjoy multiple Margarita while having a Mexican feast, you may want to change things up a bit. Of course, keep up with the Margaritas, but perhaps throw in one or two of these in between Margaritas. Due to the little bit of extra sweetness found here, maybe a dessert cocktail is in order.

How strong is the Tequila Mockingbird?

No stronger than a Margarita! In fact, this cocktail has about the same amount of alcohol (in total) to the Margarita. Sorry to keep bringing it back to the Margarita, but it’s a good point of reference. The place of difference between the Tequila Mockingbird and an average strength cocktail like the Margarita is that the Tequila Mockingbird actually has more non-alcoholic liquid in it, so all in all it’s actually a bit more diluted than a Margarita. We’re getting a little bit of this from the muddled Watermelon as well as ingredients like the Lime Juice and the Agave Syrup.

Although the Tequila Mockingbird is only about average in terms of strength, we still encourage you to be careful. This cocktail is pretty easy to drink. And if you’re taking our advice and drinking one of these with Mexican and Margaritas, you’ll have too much in no time.

Is there a particular type of music that goes well with the Tequila Mockingbird?

Although it wasn’t invented in Mexico, we’re going to suggest a Mexican kind of music to go with the Tequila Mockingbird. We do this because does a lot to be Mexican. Pretty much everything in this recipe, except for the Watermelon, is pretty Mexican. All the flavours line up to be Mexican. We don’t care that it’s not an actual Mexican (or even Tex-Mex) invention like many other fine cocktails.

So combine the Tequila Mockingbird with a type of Mexican music of your choosing. We’d suggest something like traditional Mariachi music. It’s moody, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. It’s great music to listen to closely, and it’s also great music to have in the background. Basically perfect music for any cocktail!