Mistletoe Margarita Pitcher for Christmas Parties

Ten servings, one stir, no shaker. The whole recipe is six liquids poured over ice in a pitcher, which is what makes it work for a house full of people rather than for two.

The catch is that every one of those six has to go in cold. There is no shaking step to chill it, so whatever temperature the ingredients are is the temperature of the drink.

The Half Cup That Makes It a Mistletoe Margarita

The maraschino cherry juice is the ingredient doing the identifying work here, and it is the one most people leave out.

• Half a cup of the syrup, drained from the jar. It brings almond and vanilla notes that neither the orange nor the cranberry has.
• It is also the sugar. No syrup or agave goes into this recipe. The cherry syrup and the lemon-lime soda carry all of it.
• Buy the jar for the juice. A standard jar holds enough syrup for the pitcher with cherries left over.
• Cranberry juice, two and a half cups. Use unsweetened or cranberry blend depending on how tart you want it. Sweetened cranberry cocktail plus cherry syrup plus soda gets very sweet.

Everything Goes In Cold

The source recipe marks five of the six ingredients as chilled, and that is not decoration.

• Chill the tequila too. Two cups of room temperature spirit going into a pitcher will lift the whole thing several degrees and start the ice melting immediately.
• Chill the soda hardest. Cold liquid holds carbonation and warm liquid does not. A room temperature bottle goes flat in the pitcher within minutes.
• Ice goes in first, then the liquids over it. Poured the other way round, the ice sits on top and the drink underneath never chills.
• Serve immediately. This is stated in the recipe and it is the honest limitation of a pitcher drink. It is at its best in the first twenty minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups orange juice, chilled
• 2 1/2 cups cranberry juice, chilled
• 2 cups lemon-lime soda, chilled
• 2 cups tequila, chilled
• 1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice, chilled
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• ice
• fresh cranberries and rosemary sprigs, for garnish

Instructions

1. Combine all of the liquid ingredients over ice in a large pitcher or punch bowl. Stir well.
2. Garnish with fresh cranberries and rosemary sprigs. Serve immediately.

The Two-Glass Version

If a pitcher is more than you need, this is the shaken build for two, from a separate published recipe:

• 1 teaspoon white sugar and 1 teaspoon salt, for the rims
• ice cubes
• 1 orange, sliced, and 1 lime, sliced
• 4 ounces 100% cranberry juice
• 2 ounces silver tequila
• 1 ounce triple sec
• 1 orange, juiced, and 1 lime, juiced
• 8 ounces lemon-lime soda

Rim two wine glasses with the sugar and salt and fill them with ice, then add an orange slice and a lime slice to each. Shake the cranberry juice, tequila, triple sec, orange juice and lime juice together, pour evenly over the ice, and top with the lemon-lime soda.

The differences worth knowing: this one has a rim, uses lime rather than lemon, adds triple sec, and has no cherry syrup. It is drier and more like a standard margarita. The pitcher version is sweeter and more like a holiday punch.

Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

• It went flat: the lemon-lime soda was warm, or the pitcher sat for an hour. Chill the bottle overnight and stir gently once rather than repeatedly.
• It is too sweet: sweetened cranberry cocktail was used instead of a tart juice. Switch to 100% cranberry and it comes back into balance.
• It is watery: the ice went in and then the pitcher waited. Ten servings is a lot of surface area, and the melt is fast.
• The tequila is all you taste: two cups across ten servings is under two ounces each, so if it tastes hot the pours were oversized. Use a smaller glass and more ice.
• The lemon juice was measured wrong: it is a quarter cup, while the cherry syrup is half a cup. The published page renders both fractions as the same broken character, so it is an easy one to get wrong. Double the lemon and the pitcher turns sour.

Serving It at a Party

The recipe says serve immediately, so the trick is to stage everything and stir at the last minute.

• Put every bottle in the fridge the night before, tequila included.
• Measure the juices into a jug and keep it covered in the fridge. Leave the soda out of it until you are pouring.
• Fill the pitcher with ice as guests arrive, not before.
• Add the soda last and stir once, gently. Repeated stirring is what kills the fizz.
• Set the fresh cranberries and rosemary out in a small bowl beside the pitcher and let people garnish their own. Cranberries in the pitcher sink to the bottom and never reach a glass.
• If the party runs long, mix a second pitcher rather than topping up the first. A half-empty pitcher of melted ice does not recover.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many does this actually serve?

Ten, at a bit under a cup each. That is around nine and a quarter cups of liquid before the ice.

What kind of tequila should I use?

Anything you would drink. Two cups spread across ten servings means no single glass carries much, so an expensive bottle is wasted here. Silver or blanco keeps it cleanest against the fruit juice.

Can I make it without alcohol?

Two cups of tequila out of roughly nine cups of liquid is a smaller share than in most cocktails, so leaving it out gives you a sweet holiday punch that is perfectly drinkable. It is a different drink and worth tasting before you serve it, since the balance shifts sweet.

Can I mix it the night before?

You can mix the juices and tequila the night before and keep them covered in the fridge. Do not add the soda or the ice until you are serving, or you will pour something flat and watery.

What can I use instead of maraschino cherry juice?

There is no clean substitute, since it is the ingredient that makes this drink itself. Grenadine gets you the sweetness and the color without the almond note.

Do I need to rim the glasses?

The pitcher version does not call for it. If you want a rim, the two-glass build uses equal parts sugar and salt, and you would need to rim all ten in advance.

Is rosemary necessary?

It is garnish. It smells like the holidays sitting next to the pitcher and it does nothing to the flavor of the drink.