This intriguing cocktail was created at The Fort restaurant in Morrison, CO, 17 miles southwest of Denver. The restaurant is a replica of Bent’s Fort, often visited by Kit Carson. Here’s how co-owner Samuel P. Arnold describes the origins of this drink in The Fort Cookbook:

“Stubby prickly pear cacti with their flat, pear-shaped lobes are a familiar sight throughout the Southwest. In the days of Bent’s Fort, traders sometimes came up from New Mexico bearing syrup made from prickly pear juice. In the 1830s, references were made to cold prickly pear drinks at the South Platte River fur trade forts: Lupton, Jackson, Vasquez and St. Vrain.”

The Fort’s Prickly Pear Margarita

2 oz. white tequila (preferably Herradura)
Juice of ½ large lime
1 teaspoon confectioners sugar
1½ oz. triple sec
1½ oz. prickly pear syrup
½ cup cracked ice
Salt for rim of the glass
Slice of lime for garnish

Shake all ingredients except the salt and lime slice with a little ice in a mixing glass. Strain and serve straight up in a salt-rimmed glass garnished with a slice of lime.

Edited by Patricia D. Sherman

©CocktailAtlas.com

Contact Us: Editor Webmaster