Is it the salty rim or simply the tequila? Whatever the reason, margaritas and summer go hand-in-hand. But the calorie load can be a bit extreme. These three margarita recipes cut the calories, and one recipe comes in at just about 150 calories! I use Simply Limeade in each recipe, but feel free to use fresh lime juice with Truvia or another sweetener of your choice to lower the calorie count. Cheers to salty rims, fabulous friends and some lazy summer days ahead.
Instead of using pitchers to premake your margaritas, consider mason jars. Why? You can shake them up and close them up, meaning the attraction of the hated black house fly will be lessened. Plus, it’s an easy way to set them out—each mason jar holds 16 ounces, so about two drinks per container. For our get-together, there were six people total, so we had six mason jars, or two drinks per person. After that, we had beer. An added bonus is that the mason jars are festive and make for a great display.
Use a container, with ice along the bottom, to hold your margarita-filled mason jars. Be sure to have a hand towel on hand to wipe down the jars as they come out of the ice.
Today, we’re featuring grapefruit margaritas, limeade margaritas and low-cal peach margaritas. They all come in with far fewer calories than your typical margarita.
Grapefruit Margarita Recipe
If you can get your hands on some fresh-squeezed, super-sweet, ruby red grapefruit juice, use that. It’s so sweet and tasty that you will get a better cocktail, hands down. If the best you can do is Dole Pink Grapefruit juice, well, that works just fine, but … better ingredients, better margaritas!
The best store-bought grapefruit juice I have found is at Fresh Market, without a doubt. It’s sold in the produce section. The Dole tastes like white grapefruits, which aren’t nearly as sweet. I have a theory that anyone who says they don’t like grapefruit hasn’t tasted a ruby red grapefruit from Texas. They are the best!
Yield: 16 ounces
- 8 oz. grapefruit juice
- 4 oz. limeade (Simply Limeade is great)
- 3 oz. Herradura tequila (Party Mart recommends this Brown-Forman product)
- 1 oz. Cointreau
- Squeeze fresh limes (I like at least two big pieces of lime.)
- Margarita salt for the rims of your glasses
Pour all of the ingredients except the salt into a mason jar and seal. This makes two servings at 220 calories per serving.
This grapefruit margarita recipe is delicious!
Limeade Margarita Recipe
These are all pretty easy margarita recipes, but this one is by far the easiest. With a bottle of easy-to-find Simply Limeade, some tequila and Cointreau, you have yourself a tasty margarita!
Yield: 16 ounces
- 10 oz. Simply Limeade
- 2 oz. fresh lime juice (if you don’t have time, just do all limeade)
- 3 oz. Herradura tequila
- 1 oz. Cointreau
- Margarita salt for the rims of your glasses
Pour all of the ingredients except the salt into a mason jar and seal. This makes two servings at 220 calories per serving.
Be sure to label your margaritas if any are similar in color. A Sharpie works best.
Low-Cal Peach Margarita
Start with some peach flavor Crystal Light. If you want something more natural, we suggest EVERLY in peach-mango flavor, a powdered drink mix made with stevia and all-natural ingredients. Everly is available at most Publix and Whole Foods locations in the Southeast or online.
Yield: 16 ounces
- 10 oz. peach flavor Crystal Light
- 2 oz. Simply Limeade
- 3 oz. Herradura tequila
- 1 oz. Cointreau
- Margarita salt for the rims of your glasses
Pour all of the ingredients except the salt into a mason jar and seal. This makes two servings at 158 calories per serving.
This margarita comes in at just over 150 calories!