Aam Panna Margarita: Summer House Parties Are Made Of These
In summer, providing you a respite from the sweltering heat are lots of cooling, hydrating drinks made from seasonal, citrusy fruits that arrive during this season to help you beat the rising temperatures. Blended with sugar, water or soda and lots of different spices, these drinks quickly become crowd pleasers because of their sweet and tangy taste and their soft, cooling properties.
One such drink which tops the charts during summer is the aam panna, or a drink made from raw mangoes popular across the Indian subcontinent. Over time, this concoction prepared using unripe, green mangoes has been adopted by mixologists to craft inventive cocktails incorporating the tangy and tart qualities of the aam panna syrup into alcoholic mixes.
The aam panna margarita is such a cocktail which blends the sour and sweet flavour notes of this signature summer drink with the intensely boozy and sweet textures of a premium blanco tequila.
Aam Panna Margarita
As with any other margarita variation, aam panna margarita can be prepared and served in large pitchers, batch after batch at a pool party on a hot summer’s day. What’s more, it can be accompanied with a lot of different savoury snacks like chips and dips, sliders and other barbecue treats when you host a summer party outdoors akin to a picnic. Making aam panna margarita is then a sheer delight for your taste buds because it counteracts some of the spicy notes from your culinary summer feast with its slightly tart and prominently sweet profile. With generous helpings of a premium Don Julio Blanco, the drink also acquires a very boozy quality and packs quite a kick.
While using the booze for this cocktail, going with a classic blanco means you can actually keep to the margarita recipe that includes adding silver, blanco or plata tequila into its making. With its sweet, fruity yet slightly bitter profile, blanco tequila helps to even out some of the tartness in the drink crafting a well-balanced concoction.
You can prepare the aam panna margarita either using panna syrup or by mixing tequila into the aam panna mocktail. However, using the syrup allows you to experiment more with the flavours of the cocktail because you have more control over how much of its intense taste you want to release into the mix. You can accompany the aam panna with freshly squeezed lime juice to keep up with the margarita properties in the recipe and add a dash of agave syrup as a sweetener. But use agave syrup only when required because an aam panna concentrate would include its fair share of sugar.
When prepared using lots of spices like saffron and cardamom, the panna syrup not only acquires a vibrant taste but also carries a very warming yellow hue characteristic of summer weather. You can garnish this margarita with a slice of raw mango coated in chilli, threaded into a cocktail skewer to give the drink a spicy finish. Alternatively you can also rim your glass with salt and chilli powder reminding you of a classic margarita. Either way, the coming together of sweet and spicy flavours gives the drink a very bright quality, making it a more layered concoction. Serve the drink chilled to enjoy it as a refreshing summer quencher.
Here’s a simple recipe to prepare an aam panna margarita at home:
Ingredients:
60 ml Don Julio Blanco Tequila
3 tbsp aam panna syrup
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp agave syrup (or, as needed)
For garnish:
Chilli powder and salt
Raw mango slice
Method:
1. Spread a mixture of chilli powder and salt on a small plate. Rub the rim of your margarita glass with lime and then dip it in this mix creating an even coat.
2. In a cocktail shaker, add ice, Don Julio tequila, aam panna, lime juice and agave syrup. Stir well before pouring into the margarita glass.
3. Garnish with a raw mango slice threaded into a cocktail skewer. Your aam panna margarita is now ready to be savoured.
