I’ve never seen a li hing mui margarita in the wild anywhere in the vast midwestern wasteland. And we do have a few bars or restaurants here where you’d think they might be hiding.
I don’t think they are as popular as they used to be in Hawaii either. On our last trip to Honolulu in February, I was horrified to find out that the Royal Hawaiian Hotel’s beachside Mai Tai Bar no longer serves them. How can the famous pink hotel cut a pink drink from its menu? That is just plain wrong.
Oh. Li hing mui is Chinese preserved dried plum. It’s sweet, sour and salty.
There are still a lot of recipes for li hing mui margaritas available online, and I did think far enough ahead to buy some li hing mui powder on one of our Honolulu trips. It took a while to go through the recipes as I was simply not interested in anything frozen with extra fruit.
My days of tequila shots are far in the past, and even the “correct” margarita mix that is 50% tequila just doesn’t work for me these days because it makes it too easy for the Rottweilers to knock me over. Although it might be a surprise to anyone who knew me back when, I picked a recipe that ended up being only 20% tequila: Homemade Li Hing Margarita from House of Annie.
I did make my own sweet and sour mix, too, but with Rose’s Lime Juice and ReaLemon instead of fresh squeezed juices. My tequila was Jose Cuervo Silver (my favorite is actually Herradura Silver) and my orange liqueur was Cointreau.
So my drink ended up being:
2 oz. sweet and sour mix
1 oz. Jose Cuervo Silver tequila
1 oz. Cointreau orange liqueur
1 oz. Rose’s Lime Juice
1/4 tsp. li hing mui powder (this goes in the drink; what goes on the rim is extra)
I like to mix some kosher salt with li hing mui powder for the rim of the glass. I know not everyone agrees with that, but it was my drink.
And it was really good!
(NaBloPoMo | June ’09: 30 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 157 of 274)
Nate says
I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for the link back!
.-= Nate´s last blog ..Marble Cake Recipe =-.
kathi says
Thanks for posting the recipe, and may I say that your photograph of the drink is almost as tasty as the actual drink!