Tepache Margarita - Recipe by Aedan Moore

Ingredients

50mL Reposado tequila
20mL lime juice
35mL tepache reduction
Lime zest
Salt rim garnish

Spiced pineapple tepache:

1 whole pineapple
3 cinnamon sticks
3 star anise
10 cloves
250 g brown sugar
2 L filtered water
Caster sugar, one-third volume of the chopped pineapple)

Method

Spiced pineapple tepache:

Take whole pineapple and remove fronds, chop off the crown and base of the pineapple and put these aside.

Slice off the pineapple skin and cut out the core of the pineapple (roughly 20 mm x 20 mm rectangular core), put these aside. Cut the remaining fruit into rough small cubes and put aside.

Take the pineapple skins and core along with the cinnamon, star anise, cloves, brown sugar and water and deposit into a thoroughly cleaned and sterilised fermentation jar, give this all a mix and then use the pineapple crown and base to weigh down the skins and core below the water line. Use a chux cloth and rubber band to seal the top of the jar away from flies, this allows air into the jar for fermentation. Leave for AT LEAST 3 days to ferment. You will know it’s done fermenting once the liquid has gained a cloudy look and there are bubbles formed at the top of the water line.

Take the remaining pineapple fruit and add one-third the weight in caster sugar to a vac seal bag. Leave this to macerate as long as the fermentation takes.

Take the finished fermented tepache and double strain into a container.

Take the finished macerated pineapple syrup and double strain into a separate container, then add equal volume of this macerated product in simple syrup to the same container, mix well and add back to the tepache.

Take the mixed final product and pour into a pot on an induction cooker, bring to a boil and then lower heat only slightly and reduce to a slightly thick syrupy consistency. Let the reduced product cool at the end to check for correct consistency, lengthen with water if needed, Aiming for roughly one-third the original tepache volume. Store in prep box.

Mix cocktail ingredients together in a Martini glass without ice.

Recipe provided by MIINE