Coco Margarita

By
Colleen Graham
Photo of Colleen Graham
Colleen Graham
Freelance writer and cocktail book author Colleen Graham is a seasoned mixologist who loves sharing her knowledge of spirits and passion for preparing drinks.
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Updated on 12/22/21
Coco Margarita

The Spruce / Karen Hibbard

Prep: 3 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 3 mins
Serving: 1 serving
Yield: 1 cocktail
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
614 Calories
29g Fat
65g Carbs
4g Protein
Show Full Nutrition Label Hide Full Nutrition Label
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 1
Amount per serving
Calories 614
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 29g 38%
Saturated Fat 26g 129%
Cholesterol 17mg 6%
Sodium 249mg 11%
Total Carbohydrate 65g 24%
Dietary Fiber 10g 35%
Total Sugars 47g
Protein 4g
Vitamin C 60mg 298%
Calcium 37mg 3%
Iron 2mg 9%
Potassium 478mg 10%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Can't decide between a piña colada and a margarita? The coco margarita is the best of both worlds. This fun cocktail recipe has the tequila base of a margarita and the delicious combination of pineapple and coconut that makes the piña colada great. It's a perfect cocktail for any summer party and a great way to show off your favorite tequila.

A delicious drink, the coco margarita is very easy to mix up. It's a shaken margarita and, as with all pineapple cocktails, the shaking produces a wonderful froth that complements the creamy coconut. You'll also find that switching from the colada's rum to tequila gives it an interesting background flavor.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces tequila

  • 1 ounce pineapple juice

  • 1/2 ounce sour mix

  • 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

  • 1/2 ounce cream of coconut

  • Pineapple wedge, for garnish

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Coco Margarita ingredients

    The Spruce / Karen Hibbard

  2. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, pour all the ingredients.

    cocktail ingredients in a cocktail shaker

    The Spruce / Karen Hibbard

  3. Shake well and strain into a chilled margarita glass.

    cocktail in a glass

    The Spruce / Karen Hibbard

  4. Garnish with a pineapple wedge. Serve and enjoy.

    Coco Margarita garnished with a pineapple

    The Spruce / Karen Hibbard

Tips

  • The sour mix is very easy to make at home and is nothing more than lemon-lime-flavored simple syrup. You can control the flavor to suit your taste, and it's much better tasting and cheaper than buying those sugary sour mixes at the liquor store.
  • Fresh lime juice is also highly recommended. The average lime yields between 1/2 and 1 ounce of juice, so you can easily get one or two margaritas out of a single fruit.
  • If you have an electric juicer, grab a fresh pineapple. You'll want it for the garnish, anyway. It will produce a superior coco margarita to one made with canned pineapple juice.
  • Pineapples are so juicy that you can even muddle chunks to extract the juice without a juicer. It takes a little more work, but it's one of the easier fruits to juice by hand. Simply strain out the chunks of pineapple through a fine mesh strainer, pressing it to get as much juice as possible. Squeezing it in a cheesecloth bundle can also maximize your juice yield.

Choose Your Tequila

As with all margaritas, the tequila you choose to pour will enhance the flavor of the coco margarita. Since it does have such strong flavors, you don't have to pour your best tequila, but it should be one of a decent quality.

For a margarita like this, a good blanco (or silver) tequila is a great way to go. These unaged tequilas have a neutral flavor that's similar to rum, though it's not sweet. Instead, you get that great earthy flavor that is a signature of tequila.

Blanco tequilas also tend to be the most affordable. If you have a favorite brand, you can typically expect to pay $10 less for the blanco than you would for the slightly aged reposado. Yet, there is something to be said for adding that slight oak flavor to the coconut-pineapple mix. It's intriguing and worth trying at least once.

Recipe Variation

  • If you like, this margarita can be blended. Simply pour the ingredients into a blender with about 1 cup ice (5 or 6 ice cubes). Add more ice or cream of coconut if it's not quite as thick as you like.

How Strong Is a Coco Margarita?

The coco margarita is one of the lightest shaken margaritas you can mix up because tequila is the only liquor in the recipe. Though it will vary slightly, this drink should have an alcohol content around 13 percent ABV (26 proof). That's comparable to a glass of wine, only the margarita is far more delicious.