Cranberry orange margaritas are tart, sweet, and perfectly complimented with a bit of warm spices. It’s a beautiful and festive holiday sip to get the party (or cozy evening at home) started. I love garnishing mine with cinnamon sticks and frozen cranberries.
I was hesitant to call these margaritas because in my mind, the classic recipe is the definitive version of a margarita and that’s that. But as I was drinking one of the many trials we attempted with this recipe, the vibe of a traditional margarita with just a little bit of holiday “dressing” came through.
I also feel like using “margarita” in the title might help some people better understand what the drink is like before scanning the ingredients. Either way, these spiced cranberry orange margaritas are really good. The tart-sweet flavor combination just works! If you love cranberry and orange, check out my orange cranberry smoothie recipe as well.
For this drink, we make a spiced cranberry syrup with ginger and cinnamon, and shake that up with cranberry cocktail, orange juice, a squeeze of lemon, tequila, and Cointreau. Other great uses for the syrup: as a spritz with ginger beer, kombucha or sparkling water, or in an apple cider-based cocktail/mocktail.
Spiced Cranberry Orange Margaritas
Ingredients
Spiced Cranberry Syrup
- 1 cup cranberry cocktail (NOT pure cranberry juice)
- 1 cup cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- ½ cup frozen or fresh cranberries
Cranberry Orange Margaritas
- 3 oz silver tequila
- 2 oz Cointreau
- 3 oz cranberry cocktail
- 1½ oz lemon juice
- 1 oz orange juice
- 1 oz Spiced Cranberry Syrup
- ice
TO GARNISH
- cinnamon sticks
- frozen cranberries
- orange slices
Notes
- The syrup keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge!
Instructions
- First, make the syrup. In a small saucepan, combine the cranberry cocktail, cane sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cranberries. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring to a strong simmer, stirring often. Once the cane sugar has dissolved and the cranberries are popping and splitting, remove the syrup from the heat. Run the syrup through a fine mesh strainer and press on the cranberries to extract their juice. Let the syrup cool before bottling and storing in the refrigerator.
- Make the cranberry orange margaritas. In a cocktail shaker, combine the tequila, Cointreau, cranberry cocktail, lemon juice, orange juice, and cranberry syrup. Top it up with lots of ice. Place the lid on the cocktail shaker tight and shake vigorously, until the outside of the shaker has condensation and feels very cold.
- Strain the spiced cranberry orange margaritas over two glasses filled with ice. Garnish the beverages with cinnamon sticks and a few frozen cranberries.
What is cranberry cocktail?
Cranberry cocktail is a blend of cranberry juice, apple/white grape juice! It’s easy to drink straight away. 100% cranberry juice is too sour to enjoy on its own.
-L
OMG. Made this with dinner on my husband’s birthday. INSTANT LOVE! We both were pleaslantly surprised how good it turned out. I personally enjoyed making the syrup. It definitely elevated the drink. We even subsituted burbon during one mix. Yum yum yum.
Thank you. If you want to do a book just on cocktails. I wouldn’t mine.
Is the orange juice in this recipe squeezed fresh orange or is it a bottled juice?
Hi Megan, either will work fine here!
-L
Excited to make this. I’m having double tracking down whole cranberries. Could the syrup be made without it?
Just founds some cranberries! Good thing since based on looking at other recipes, think they’re indeed needed.
Glad you could find some, Laura!
-L
This is the perfect fall drink! I paired it with Thanksgiving dinner, very tasty!
LOVED THIS! I used patron citronge instead of Cointreau. I like it a little more sweet so I added a little more syrup to the drink.
As someone who loves fruity drinks, I can’t wait to try this spiced cranberry orange margarita out and will drink this all year round :)
I only had cranberry juice, so while on the tart side, this was delish!
This drink was amazing! Made a few rounds for my husband and I on Halloween. Now I have to replenish the Cointreau so we can enjoy them again. Thanks!
This drink sounds fantastic. I love the adorable doggie photo and very festive front door area! Thank you for all the inspiration :)