Margaritas for a Crowd

Having a going away party for my son for about 70. We will be having a variety of drinks, but the main drink will be margaritas. Any recipes for large batch margaritas without having to squeeze a hundred limes? Would rather not resort to a mix, but if someone has a very good brand, that might work too.

You can squeeze ahead of time and freeze the lime juice. I think it’s about a lime and a half to 2 for us per Margarita.

That’s my problem, I’m figuring about 70 drinks (quite a few college kids) and that means well over a hundred limes. Just trying to think if concentrate or some other solution is viable.

You can buy fresh lime juice. I’ve used Odwalla before and had good results, though I still prefer squeezing my own. Speaking of, a decent juicer will make quick work of 100 limes.

I know, I know, just so many other things to do before the party. I’ll look for the Odwalla, that’s a good call.

This is widely available at Whole Foods by me. Is it ideal? No. But it’s a very, very good substitute and saves the trouble of juicing limes (and is way cheaper).

I’ve never ever had an enjoyable margarita made from a mix. They are always too sweet and cloying.

Congrats on the graduation.

Thanks Mike, I’m going to try that today.

https://www.simplyorangejuice.com/product/limeade

3-4 parts Simply Limeade
2 parts Tequila
1 part triple sec (Grand Gala works well)

just squeeze the limes.
if you are near a Restaurant Depot they have great prices on limes by the box or giant bag.

BTW the Simply Limeade pictured above has 7 teaspoons of sugar in a one cup serving

What Suzanne wrote. That limeade is very, very sweet.

I guess I’m a lazy heathen, we routinely use the Cuervo mix, at least as a base. I’ll often squeeze a half a lime into my glass to punch it up, but for a big crowd there’s no way I’d go to the trouble of dealing with fresh limes, particularly for a bunch of college kids who would probably drink rum and fanta [wow.gif]

We use Lefty O’Doul’s Margarita Mix. No high fructose corn syrup, I think.

Tommy margarita -

2 parts Tequila
1 part Lime juice
1/2 part agave nectar

I generally prefer a Tommy’s margarita, but when you make a standard margarita using Cointreau, it seems richer to me, which can be a good thing.

my recipe
2 tequila
1 lime juice
1.5 triple sec- I use luxardo triplum

3 oz. mezcal (Vida) or decent reposado
1.5 oz. lime (preferably fresh)
1 oz. simple syrup (1:1 ratio water to sugar preferably raw sugar)

rent a machine like this: Senoritas Margaritas - Southern California Margaritas

As mentioned by Julian and Corey, I’d go for Tommy’s Margarita Mix for that size crowd. They sell their mix (lime juice, agave nectar, and water…that’s it) in 32oz bottles, each makes 16 margaritas. Grab 4-6 bottles of this, tequila of your choice (I prefer silver), and some Cointreau if you wanna jazz it up.

When I worked at a wine/gourmet shop here in Louisiana, we had several frozen drink machines. I discovered that 7-Up worked magically at correcting a Margarita that was either too alcoholic or had too much tart sweetness.

Probably too late now, but I’ve used a blend of lime juice (bottled), simply limeade, and water mixed to taste to get a not too sweet but lime-centric base. Add juice from a couple fresh oranges. Cointreau, Maestro Dobel. I prefer fresh lime juice, tequila, grand marnier and that’s it, but for a big group that’s a bitch and most people expect something less overtly acidic. I hate most margarita mixes. I’ll check out Tommy’s, but Cuervo mix and most of that kind are too sweet, make me feel sick, and have a strange overtly artificial color.