Brian Nagele
Tequila is a spirit made from distilling roasted agave. It is a type of mezcal with stricter regulations, requiring tequila to be made from only the blue weber agave plant.
Tequila is synonymous with Mexican culinary culture. Enchiladas, tacos, and guacamole are delicious, but without a tasty tequila cocktail, you’d be left feeling incomplete.
While Mexico may be the land of eternal summer, tequila is a spirit you can enjoy during every season.
As spring approaches, I’ve compiled the following list of spring tequila cocktails for you to try using the spring’s fruitful bounty.
If you’re a fan of the dainty Cosmopolitan, this spicy spring twist is a major upgrade. Instead of tasteless vodka, you use alcohol-forward, spicy Blanco tequila.
Pomegranate juice is richer and more velvety than cranberry juice, pairing well with the orangey Cointreau.
This is an elegant cocktail that is sweet, spicy, and tangy.
The Paloma is second in popularity only to margaritas for the most iconic tequila drink.
This Strawberry Paloma cocktail adds some extra fruity sweetness to the original recipe with a yummy strawberry-infused simple syrup.
The grapefruit soda and lime juice add tang and bitterness to balance the sweetness.
As the weather gets warmer and the flowers bloom, outdoor parties commence. This refreshing and easy tequila lemonade makes a pitcher’s worth of drinks for your next al fresco soiree.
To ensure that the sugar infuses equally throughout the lemonade, this recipe has you boil the water with the sugar, creating a simple syrup to add to lemon juice and tequila.
For those amateur mixologists looking for a challenge, this recipe has you make grenadine from scratch!
Grenadine is a sweet and bitter syrup that’s a deep red hue. We’re used to seeing it in Shirley Temples, but it tastes great in tequila cocktails too.
Combining bitters, lime juice, and soda with grenadine makes for a refreshing trifecta of sweet, tangy, and bitter to receive a hearty helping of Blanco tequila.
A tried and true classic that’s sure to impress your eyes before impressing your tastebuds, the Tequila Sunrise is a colorful blend of sweet juices and grenadine.
Combining fresh lime, cranberry, and orange juice to get its sunrise hue, this delicious cocktail is sweet enough to stand up to Silver tequila’s alcohol-forward palate.
Another party-sized spring tequila cocktail, this recipe blends silver tequila with triple sec and pink champagne for a supremely boozy refreshment.
Lemon-lime soda, oranges, and limes give this sangria a bright and cheerful citrus foundation to receive the frozen raspberries.
This sangria is as beautiful as it is delicious and a great option for your next spring cookout.
Smash cocktails get their name from their preparation method of muddling liquids and solids to release flavor into a drink.
This tequila sage smash muddles fresh sage leaves in lemon juice before receiving a scratch-made honey syrup and tequila.
The distinct smokiness of Anejo tequila works beautifully with the richness of the honey.
If you’re a fan of botanical drinks, this Elderflower Tequila Slipper will be your new obsession.
It’s a simple, three-ingredient cocktail that blends silver tequila, St. Germain, and grapefruit bitters.
Bitter and botanical flavors from the grapefruit and elderflower make for a sophisticated cocktail.
If you enjoy this, check out other botanical spring gin cocktails as well.
Ruby red grapefruits are the sweetest variety of grapefruit, known for their deep red coloring.
This cocktail blends ruby red grapefruit juice, lime juice, and reposado tequila for a sweet and tangy palate with a smokey, bitter finish.
I love this cocktail because it is refreshing without being too sweet, unlike many juice-based cocktails.
Refresco means “soft drink” in Spanish, so you know this cocktail involves bubbles!
It also involves a blend of watermelon and lime juice with a dash of simple syrup. Watermelon juice is very easy to make by just throwing seedless watermelon slices in a blender if you can’t find it at the store.
The lime juice complements watermelon’s flavor perfectly in this supremely refreshing spiked soda.
A more refined take on the classic Paloma, this Tequila Breeze uses fresh grapefruit juice and soda water with lime.
It also uses gold tequila for a smoother, smokier finish. This tequila breeze is a classy recipe that doesn’t require any fancy equipment, just a highball glass with some ice!
This sweet and sour apple tequila cocktail gets its pale green hue from sour apple liqueur and lime juice.
This is a good cocktail for a harsher, alcohol-forward Blanco or silver tequila.
The strength of sweet and sour needs a nice alcoholic kick that lets you know you’re drinking a cocktail and not an apple soda.
Another more elegant and rich take on the classic Paloma, this more elaborate cocktail infuses fresh grapefruit and lime juice with the distinct sweetness of fresh honey.
To ensure that the honey doesn’t just sink to the bottom of your cocktail glass, you’ll need to make honey syrup.
I like to use a spicy honey variety to add a kick and bring out the smokiness of the tequila.
I know you were waiting for a springtime margarita recipe! This strawberry margarita simply adds fresh strawberries to the classic trifecta of tequila, limes, and orange liqueur.
You throw fresh strawberries into the blender with the classic recipe, and voila, you get a blast of berry freshness to your margarita. I like to add a bit of simple syrup as well.
This pastel-colored cocktail is the perfect spring centerpiece. It’s also a botanical take on the Paloma, infusing grapefruit juice and tequila with homemade lavender simple syrup.
This recipe requires you to infuse the tequila with butterfly pea flowers for a super floral flavor palate that matches its periwinkle hue.