Spicy Ruby Red Grapefruit Margarita

Spicy Ruby Red Grapefruit Margarita, a spicy twist on the Mexican classic cocktail. With freshly squeezed grapefruit and lime juices, and a dash of spice from jalapeños, this homemade margarita is a tart treat that’s perfect for happy hour!

Love a good margarita with fresh juice and a bit of spice? You’re in luck! We’ve found the best homemade grapefruit margarita recipe made with muddled jalapeño that perfectly marries tart, sweet, and spicy.

👉 Here’s why you should mixing up your own homemade spicy grapefruit margaritas with this recipe:

• It’s perfectly balanced. The tartness of lime pairs perfectly with the slightly sweet ruby red grapefruit, and the spicy oils of muddled jalapeño give it a little kick. Don’t forget the salty rim!
• It uses fresh juices. We’re squeezing fresh limes, grapefruits, and muddling sliced jalapeños. No store bought mixes!
• You can mix up one or make a pitcher. Pour it for one, two, or ten! We’re giving you the recipe to make as many as you’d like.

Ready to learn how to make homemade spicy margaritas with ruby red grapefruit? Let’s do it!

---

🍹 How to make (step-by-step photos)

1️⃣ Step One: Muddle the jalapeño to release its spicy oils

You’ll start by extracting a bit of spice from jalapeño peppers, by muddling (or smashing) the pepper with a spoon or a muddling bar tool.

To do this, simply cut a jalapeño in half and drop it into a cocktail mixer. Then take a spoon or a muddling tool and smash the pepper a few times to help release its juices and natural oils (where the spiciness resides!).

🌟 Pro tip: If you don’t like too much spice, then don’t overdo the muddling and only give the jalapeño pepper a few little smashes. However, if you like more heat then feel free to smash away and get all of the spiciness you can out of the pepper.

---

2️⃣ Step Two: Combine ingredients + shake

Once the pepper is muddled, add the tequila, triple sec, and a dash of agave nectar syrup to the cocktail mixer.

Then squeeze the juice from one half ruby red grapefruit, 1 orange, and the juice from two limes into the mixer. Add ice and shake it all up until well combined.

Give it a taste and add more juices or sweetness, if needed.

🍊 Why use orange juice in a margarita? Orange juice might seem like a strange addition to a margarita, but it’s actually delicious! I bartended for years in a famous hotel in San Diego and one of the secrets was to add a splash of oj to our freshly made margaritas to help smooth out the tart taste from fresh lime juice. Give it a try!

---

3️⃣ Step Three: Pour into glass with salted spice rim

The final step is to add a salted spice rim to your margarita glasses!

To do this, simply pour kosher salt onto a plate and sprinkle a bit of chili powder and lemon zest on top. Then wet the rim of the cocktail glass and press it into the salt mixture so that it sticks and creates a salted rim.

Then add ice to the glass and pour the strained margarita mix into the glass. Add a sliced jalapeño and lime as a garnish, and enjoy!

---

🍹 How to make a grapefruit margarita pitcher

If you’re having a party and want to make more than a few glasses at once, follow these instructions for a whole pitcher:

1. Muddle jalapeños in a large pitcher. We typically do 1 jalapeño for every 2-3 cocktails, so if you’re making a pitcher of 10 margaritas then you’ll want 3-4 peppers.
2. Then, instead of shaking up 1-2 cocktails at a time in a cocktail shaker, pour the tequila, triple sec, lime juice, grapefruit juice, orange juice, and agave nectar into a large margarita pitcher.
3. Fill the pitcher up with ice and then use a long spoon to stir the ingredients to mix well. After the margaritas are mixed in the pitcher, add ice to the glasses and pour the margaritas as needed.

---

💡 Tools + quick tips

While you could make margaritas without fancy bar tools, I recommend investing in a quality mixology set to make mixing up happy drinks easier (affiliate links below).

• Cocktail shaker: A good cocktail shaker is made of metal and has amounts etched on the outside. We like this OXO cocktail mixer because it has two cups that fit inside one another for shaking.
• Muddler: A wooden spoon or any other long and flat-ended tool will do to smash fruits, herbs, and other ingredients, but a tried and true muddler like this one from OXO makes it much easier.
• Citrus squeezer: While hand squeezing is an option, a good culinary citrus squeezer makes squeezing fresh juice much easier (and it can be used in so many other ways in the kitchen!)
• Margarita pitcher: If you’re making more than two margaritas at a time, we highly suggest making a big batch and storing in a margarita pitcher to reduce how many you need to make by hand (and it allows guests to pour their own). We like this pitcher from Orion’s Table, a Mexican glass company.

---

👉 More margarita recipes

Looking for more fun margarita recipes? We’ve got you covered. Try out:

• Blood Orange Kiwi Mint Margarita
• Pomegranate Margarita

UPDATE: This recipe was originally posted in June 2018 and was updated with new instructions and more photos in May 2021.