This sweet and sour margarita uses the classic Indian combination of flavor, Ginger and Tamarind. And as a bonus, candied ginger garnish! So good it won a contest at our local Mexican bar.

Steve’s Tamarind Ginger Margarita won the contest at Playa Grill and Margarita Bar! Last week, his margarita was selected as top 5 and on Saturday night he competed for the win.

We got to invite two friends and were treated to a feast. We were served classic Margaritas and a bunch of the new items that will be on the menu. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to taste the competing margaritas. They sounded very good though. There was a Limoncello Margarita, a Cinnamon Fireball Margarita, a Mai-Tai Margarita and the second place winner was a Raspberry Basil Margarita.
I talked to one of the judges after the winner was announced, and she told me that it was the ginger salt rim that sealed the victory for Steve. That made sense to me because when he came up with it for our tasting, I instantly fell in love with spicy, gingery accent. It goes perfectly with the sweet and sour tamarind.






Ginger Tamarind Margarita

Inspired by the classic Indian combination of tamarind and ginger

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 oz Tequila
- 1 1/2 oz Tamarind juice (boil 1 cup tamarind in 2 cups water for at least 5 minutes, strain out the tamarind)
- 2 tbsp ginger syrup (1/2 cu sugar, 1/4 cu water, 5 ginger slices, bring to boil, allow to cool before removing ginger)
- .5 oz Cointreau
- 1 key lime (juice)
Instructions
- Rim glass with ginger salt (make ginger salt by mixing salt with grated ginger and letting it dry out a bit).
- Garnish with candied ginger.
- Serve on rocks.