Celebrate Stay-at-Home Cinco de Mayo in Style
So, why is Cinco de Mayo such a big deal
north of the border? The origins of its celebration began in California in 1863
as a symbol of solidarity with Mexico against France. And, Americans being
Americans, we love having a reason to celebrate.
Since we can’t join our friends at a Mexican
restaurant or share a toast at our neighborhood bar this year, we’ll just have
to bring the party home.
Spice up Your Space and Your Energy
Prep your home with the red, white and green
colors of the Mexican flag using bandanas, towels, streamers or anything you
might have on hand. Involve the kids in making a colorful piñata that you can
fill with candy or small toys. If you have some balloons, any colors will work!
Set the mood with an all-day Instagram fiesta
put on by Solmar Hotels &
Resorts @Solmarhotelsandresorts. Through a series of IG stories dubbed “An Ode to the Avocado,”
you’ll get the intel for making avocado-inspired facials and typical Mexican
recipes and cocktails where avocados are king.
Add an educational dimension to the fiesta with
a free online cooking class. TakeLessons TV
will show you how to cook a lime
chicken taco bowl with sweet corn and avocado salsa. You’ll also mix up a
pineapple-mint agua fresca drink.
You’ll need a soundtrack for the evening, and
Spotify has some great Cinco de Mayo playlists. I especially like the one put
together by sassyshannah -- it will keep you rocking into the wee hours
-- as well as listanauta’s compilation
of traditional Mexican
tunes.
Visit Your Favorite Bar Virtually or Bring a Restaurant Home and
Support the Hospitality Industry
If a bar date on Cinco de Mayo is more your
speed, Virtual Cheers invites you to create your “night
in” while also supporting the hospitality industry. By downloading a Zoom
background from your favorite watering hole, you
“purchase a round,” with all proceeds going to employee relief efforts. In the
spirit of Cinco de Mayo, Latin-American bar Leyenda offers a paloma, a refreshing tequila cocktail with a grapefruit-flavored
soda mixer.
Tanteo Tequila + The Wayland’s “Party in Place” will
deliver a margarita party package in NYC in concert with cocktail-caterer
Cocktails in Motion, keeping you safe at home while also benefiting hospitality
workers via The LEE Initiative.
Show your support to local restaurants
offering to bring the fiesta to you. The East End’s Bistro Ete and K Pasa
will put together a takeout package covering the entire Cinco de Mayo celebration
from margaritas to dessert.
A Stay-at-Home Trip to Margaritaville
No Cinco de Mayo celebration would be
complete with some sort of margarita.
There are many traditional margarita recipes using either fresh
limes or Rose’s lime juice. I’ve listed some of the ones devised by mixologists
at hotels and restaurants that go beyond tradition to inspire you to invent
your own new favorites with ingredients that won’t be impossible to find.
You can also opt for a pre-made margarita mix
like Lt Blender’s Margarita in a Bag.
Just add tequila and Triple Sec or Cointreau and freeze the entire bag to make a
slushy margarita.
This video from Andaz Mayakoba
Resort Riviera Maya shows you all the right steps to create the classic version.
PATRON offers a twist using coconut and cucumber:
1.5 oz. PATRÓN Silver
2 oz. coconut water
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
½ oz. simple syrup
7 thin slices of cucumber, 3 for garnish
1.5 oz. guava nectar
3 oz. tequila reposado
Garnish with a lime wedge
2 oz.
El Tesoro silver tequila
1 oz.
fresh squeezed lime juice
1 oz.
simple syrup
1/2 oz.
Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey
To
garnish, turn half a lime husk inside-out to create a "shot glass,” fill with
Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey and carefully set on top
My smoky favorite is a Mezcalita that substitutes mezcal for tequila. Add pineapple juice,
muddle a piece of roasted pineapple (if you have it), sprinkle in a bit of Cointreau and
rim the glass with Tajin, the classic Mexican chili, salt and lime mix (which
you can order from Amazon).
1 oz. sweet Vermouth
3
dashes Angostura Bitters
Garnish
with an orange peel, maraschino cherry or brandy cherry
You can create a Mexican-inspired meal with
these four dishes from chefs in North America:
Guacamole is a must-have starter at any Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Solmar Hotels & Resorts shares this recipe for a version with a
kick: one ripe avocado, chili pepper, ¼ cup of onion, half a tablespoon of
crushed garlic, chopped cilantro, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons
of lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Mexican Fajitas
with Red Sauce and Avocado, courtesy of Velas Resorts,
are easy to make with ingredients that you likely already have in your cabinet
Teach Me, Please and Feed Me
If staying at home has made you kind of
of lazy and you’d rather have someone else do most of the work, sign up
for this margarita
making class and happy hour. All
you’ll need to do is supply your own tacos.
Jose Cuervo
has that covered for you, too. In the spirit of
#TakeoutTuesdays and #TacoTuesday, Jose Cuervo is offering to pick up the
tab for thousands of taco orders nationwide on Cinco de Mayo. Just tweet a
photo of your receipt with the hashtags #CincotoGo and #CuervoContest to
@JoseCuervo to be eligible.
And, finally, since this really is a holiday
revolving around tequila, you’ll need to know the proper way to taste and drink
the potent spirit. Javier Moreno Gomez,
tequila and wine sommelier at Grand Residences Riviera Cancun, offers these tips:
To taste the subtleties of tequila,
drink it in a wine glass.
Similar to the methods used
for wine and other spirits, the basic tasting method is swirl, sniff, sip
and swallow.
Check the color; there will
be noticeable differences in a reposado or añejo. While color doesn't affect
the flavor, the density or hue can suggest the amount of wood in the tequila
and hint towards its complexities.
Swirl the tequila. Look for
the legs, the tears of the agave. These suggest essential oils in the tequila and
the presence of alcohol. If the tears fall quickly they have less alcohol but
if the tears fall slowly you have more alcohol. Swirling the liquid also
releases some of the molecules into the air.
Tequila has more alcohol
than wine. Different parts of the tequila will have different aromas. Tequila
is known to have 600 different aromas including citrus, mint, freshly cut
grass, floral, honey, oak, almond, vanilla, butterscotch, chocolate, leather
and caramel.
Sip a small amount and hold
the tequila in your mouth for about 10 seconds while sucking in a bit of air.
Move it around to get it over your tongue, and suck in some air over top of the
tequila to bring the aromas up to your nose. Breathe out through your nose
before swallowing. There are different taste zones on your tongue -- four
specific areas for salty, sweet, bitter and sour. Have the tequila wash over
the entire tongue.
Swallow and savor the
finish and aftertaste. Remember that everything you eat before a sip will
affect the taste of the tequila.
Salud!
Review mine, puh-leeze!!!
ReplyDeleteALL - OF - IT!!!
Been lookn for a reviwer.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful post
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