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Cocktail History
The Dr. Jekyll’s Monster Margarita is a Sips From Scripts original Halloween cocktail that we created as a variation of the Black Magic Margarita first published by Delish, an online food and beverage blog. Our hope was to find a way to make their dark-hued drink without needing to use food coloring to achieve its black color, but we ended up with this orange version after some experimentation instead.
The recipe calls for a unique list of spicy and sweet ingredients including two types of tequila, citrus, raspberry, agave syrup, and black salt. This disparate mix of flavors worked surprisingly well and reminded us of Harry Jekyll and his split personality Mr. Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which is where we got its name.
Cocktail Ingredients
To make this cocktail, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Añejo Tequila: This is one of the base spirits. We chose Camarena Añejo Tequila smooth taste with notes of citrus, apple, oak, baking spices, and caramel. For a mocktail version of this drink, try Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Agave Reserva Spirit in place of the añejo tequila.
Ancho Chile Tequila: This is the other base spirit. We made ours at home by infusing ancho chile peppers in blanco tequila for a few days. For a mocktail version of this drink, try Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Agave Blanco Spirit in place of the blanco tequila.
Triple Sec: This is an orange liqueur. It adds sweet citrus flavors for balance. We went with Cointreau because it’s one of the highest quality triple secs on the market. For a mocktail version of this drink, try Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Orange Sec in place of the triple sec.
Raspberry Liqueur: This adds berry flavor. We used Chambord, a French liqueur made with raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, Cognac, vanilla, citrus peel, honey, and spices. For a mocktail version of this drink, try Escape Liqueurs Non-Alcoholic Framboise Liqueur in place of the raspberry liqueur.
Lime Juice: This adds sour citrus flavor. We prefer to use fresh citrus juice because it’s less bitter than the bottled stuff and tastes better.
Agave Syrup: This is adds agave sweetness to balance out the harsher ingredients. We made ours using Alex’s homemade recipe.
Black Salt: This is added to the rim for savoriness on the tongue as you sip.
Tasting Notes
The Dr. Jekyll’s Monster Margarita begins with the sweet aroma of raspberry and slight ancho spice, has a taste that starts with a kick of salt and is followed by a sweet raspberry-forward taste accented with tequila and orange, and goes down with an unexpected throat-tingling heat that accompanies more raspberry and agave sweetness.
Our Opinion of This Cocktail Recipe: The dueling flavors of this drink are really where it shines as the raspberry makes the ancho almost entirely undetectable until its hits the back of your throat. We found sipping the Dr. Jekyll’s Monster Margarita to be a fun exploration of its flavors’ unsuccessful struggle to repress the others.
Which of our palates is yours most like?
Find out if your palate is most similar to Alex’s or Kendall’s by answering five questions.
Which of our palates is yours most like?
Find out if your palate is most similar to Alex’s or Kendall’s by answering five questions.
Alex’s Take: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This recipe ended up being a pretty far cry from its inspiration, which was essentially a Margarita dressed up with food coloring. Since we try to stay away from ingredients that serve no purpose other than decoration, we wanted to create something of a similarly thematic color using liquid ingredients, and we settled on a combination of añejo tequila, homemade ancho Chile tequila, and raspberry. Honestly, the result has a pretty odd flavor but not a bad one; while it maintains great balance, the juxtaposition of bitingly spice ancho chile next to sweet raspberry liqueur definitely plays some tricks with the palate, and no two sips are quite the same.”—
Kendall’s Take: ⭐⭐⭐
“As Alex mentioned, this drink ended being entirely different than the one we attempted to recreate. Turns out it is surprisingly difficult to create a true black drink without either food coloring or activated charcoal, neither of which are ingredients we care to use for various reasons. Even though the ingredients we ended up using after some experimenting sound a bit odd together on paper, they do work quite well. The amount of ancho chile tequila we used lended too much heat for my taste, so I’d scale back on that if we made it again. But overall, I liked this spooky variation of the classic Margarita quite a bit.”
Recipe
Pour black salt onto a plate, rub part of outer rim of glass with lime wedge, and roll in black salt until coated.
Add añejo tequila, ancho chile tequila, triple sec, black raspberry liqueur, lime juice, agave syrup, and ice to a shaker.
Shake for 10-20 seconds.
Strain into black salt-rimmed glass.
Ingredients
Directions
Pour black salt onto a plate, rub part of outer rim of glass with lime wedge, and roll in black salt until coated.
Add añejo tequila, ancho chile tequila, triple sec, black raspberry liqueur, lime juice, agave syrup, and ice to a shaker.
Shake for 10-20 seconds.
Strain into black salt-rimmed glass.
Make It a Mocktail: Use Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Agave Reserva Spirit in place of the añejo tequila, Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Agave Blanco Spirit in place of the blanco tequila, Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Orange Sec in place of the triple sec, and Escape Liqueurs Non-Alcoholic Framboise Liqueur in place of the raspberry liqueur to try a booze-free version of this drink.
Tools & Glassware We Recommend
More Halloween Cocktails
If you like this Halloween cocktail recipe, here are a few others we’ve tried that you may enjoy:
Vampiro: A tequila cocktail made with tomato juice, orange juice, lime juice, grenadine, hot sauce, salt, black pepper, and a lime slice
Butterbeer (Harry Potter): A stout beer and spiced rum cocktail made with evaporated milk, butter, margarine, vanilla extract, brown sugar, whole cloves, whole allspice berries, cinnamon sticks, whipped cream, and nutmeg
Empress Corpse Reviver No. 2: A gin cocktail made with triple sec, Lillet Blanc, lemon juice, absinthe, and an orange twist
Tatooine Sunset (Star Wars): A tequila cocktail made with blue curaçao, pomegranate juice, grenadine, orange juice, lemon juice, and cherries
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