Cantarito Cocktail Recipe
A three-citrus tequila cooler with a salted rim, traditionally served in a clay cup that keeps it icy and adds an earthy note.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Highball glass
- ABV: 9%
- Difficulty: Easy
- Prep time: ~4 min
Ingredients
- Blanco tequila60 ml (2 oz)
- Fresh lime juice20 ml (0.7 oz)
- Fresh orange juice30 ml (1 oz)
- Grapefruit juice30 ml (1 oz)
- Grapefruit soda120 ml (4.1 oz)
- Salt1 pinch
How to Make It
- Rim a clay cup or highball glass with chilli salt and fill it with ice.
- Stir the lime, orange and grapefruit juices with the pinch of salt until it dissolves.
- Add the tequila and pour the mixture over the ice.
- Top with cold grapefruit soda and stir once gently.
Garnish
Chilli-salt rim, a lime wheel and an orange slice
What it tastes like
It smells of lemon and lime peel and it drinks cool and easy.
The technique
Built in the glass. Ice goes into the serving glass, the ingredients go on top, and you stir once if at all. Anything carbonated goes in LAST and never gets stirred; every turn of the spoon costs you bubbles. Fill the glass to the rim with ice: less ice melts faster, not slower.
Glass and ice
A tall, narrow highball. The narrowness does real work — less surface area means the carbonation lasts longer and the ice melts more slowly.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Blanco tequila
- Unaged tequila — the rawest form of agave flavour. If the label does not say "100% de agave", it contains cane spirit as well, and the drink will not taste the way it should.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Fresh orange juice
- Fresh orange juice. Carton juice is sugar-adjusted, so it sweetens the drink and drops its acidity; when you squeeze your own, pull back a little on the syrup.
- Grapefruit juice
- Grapefruit juice. Pink is sweet and soft, white is bitter and sharp — when a recipe does not say which, pink is the safer call.
- Salt
- A pinch of salt lifts the sweetness and pulls the bitterness back — most of all in grapefruit and tomato drinks. Coarse salt for the rim; dissolved brine when it goes into the drink.
The Story
The drink comes from Jalisco, the heartland of tequila, and takes its name from the small clay jug — the cantarito — it is poured into.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Cantarito mixed?
- It is built in the glass and served in a highball glass.
- How strong is a Cantarito?
- Roughly 9% ABV as served — lighter than a beer — a long-conversation drink that takes a second round.
- Can a Cantarito be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Cantarito hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.