Tea is the key ingredient in quite a few drinks at Travis Tober’s Nickel Metropolis bars: Mint tea fills out a slushy Southside, whereas inexperienced tea provides shocking nuance to frozen Hurricanes and Chi Chis. And for Tober’s signature frozen Margarita, well-diluted orange pekoe brings an extra layer of complexity and tannic spine.
“You don’t ever wish to add something [to a frozen cocktail] that doesn’t add any taste,” says Tober. That’s why his bars name on frozen tea instead of ice cubes.
Whereas the Nickel Metropolis bars—one every in Austin and Fort Price, plus a 3rd in Houston opening this fall—characteristic giant machines that swirl up scores of slushy drinks inside minutes, the dilution method additionally works for single servings, utilizing ice cubes constituted of one tea bag steeped in 32 ounces of water, then cooled.
The recipe has been in place since Nickel Metropolis first opened about seven years in the past, and it has barely modified since then. The tea method took place as a result of Tober was “enjoying with flavors.” He was impressed by the “Regal Shake,” which includes shaking a drink with a chunk of citrus peel so as to add nuanced aroma and important oils from the peel, whereas the pith provides a slight drying impact. Tea, he reasoned, would supply an analogous final result.
Whereas he’d experimented with a variety of teas through the years, he chosen orange pekoe, a sort of black tea, for the Margarita due to its versatility. Although there’s no precise orange within the tea, it harmonizes effectively with citrusy Cointreau. Additional, the tea is diluted to the purpose the place it provides only a trace of taste, accenting however not overpowering the primary elements.
It took only some tries to nail the recipe. The proportions are much like these of many traditional Margs. Winnowed right down to a single serve, an oz. and half of blanco tequila leads the drink; as of late he’s utilizing Tromba, an easy-to-find model with a grassy be aware that he feels goes effectively with frozen cocktails. “It had sufficient character in it, but it surely wasn’t so over-the-top it threw off different flavors,” says Tober.
From there, Cointreau was a simple choice, for its larger proof, acquainted taste and extensive availability. “It simply made sense to stay with the granddaddy of orange liqueurs,” he says.
Then, Cointreau is paired with wealthy easy syrup, fabricated from two elements sugar to at least one half water, persevering with the theme of holding dilution to a minimal. “The extra unflavored water I can take out, the higher,” Tober says.
He additionally tinkered with the lime juice element, mixing three elements Persian lime juice to at least one half Key lime, a way he first honed whereas making three-rum Daiquiris at Austin’s now-closed VOX Desk. The mix presents higher stability, is much less acidic and “makes a extra crushable cocktail.”
Probably the most difficult half was getting the correct consistency. “We needed it virtually like a comfortable serve, to carry as much as Texas summers and never soften too fast,” he says. After tinkering with the dilution, he discovered the candy spot to be between 20 and 26 % dilution, along with his present model of the cocktail ending up round 22 %. Whereas he makes use of a frozen-drink machine at his bar, for dwelling use he suggests freezing diluted tea into cubes, and mixing the drink utilizing a Vitamix or three-speed Hamilton Seaside blender.
The crowning glory is the drink’s presentation, which is without doubt one of the solely elements that has modified through the years. Whereas the Margarita has been served variously in goblets or “tacky cactus glassware,” as of late Nickel Metropolis serves it in 12-ounce plastic cups, as to-go drinks have flourished for the reason that pandemic. In the meantime, the garnish has morphed from a recent lime wheel to a dehydrated one, with the choice so as to add salt or a Tajín chile seasoning rim to style.
However, frankly, the Margarita doesn’t want a lot workshopping, Tober concludes.
“We attempt to not overthink it,” he says. “We had been attempting to recreate a extremely well-made frozen. Now, I’m the frozen man, I get questions on it on a regular basis.”
