Sangrita

Sangrita - the essential ingredient for a "tequila completo"; a sidecar, if you will, to be served aside a fine tequila and sipped alternately. I first heard of sangrita in David Rosengarten's tome "Taste" which has a great section about wine and spirits. He does not offer a recipe, but rather shows a picture of a bottle of Don Julio reposado alongside a bottle of commercially produced sangrita (from Sauza). Also, David introduces the term "tequila geekos"

Although at least a few commercial products are available in SC most notably Viuda de Sanchez, I decided that this is something that should be homemade from fresh ingredients. After doing quite a bit of web searching and running across several different types of recipes and zealots arguing about whether sangrita should have no tomato juice or be all tomato juice, I came across a recipe from Rick Bayless that felt right. Rick has a show on PBS called "Mexico, one plate at a time" that is pretty good - he seems to appreciate and enjoy Mexican culture and to develop authentic recipes. Anyhow, I've made this version and I like the flavor and find it to be an excellent partner to a great blanco.

Sangrita #1 (and only for now)
1/2 cup orange juice
4t grenadine
1/4 cup tomato juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2t hot sauce (I used Pico Pica)
1/4t salt

I'll probably experiment some more in the future. I think that it could use some more spice, but definitely not more heat. I do not like a lot of heat with tequila. One recipe I saw used grapefruit juice - worth a try for sure...