How to Make a Tequila Sunrise

Here at HQ, we were gifted a bottle of Espolón tequila and it's been kicking around the office just begging to be enjoyed. So, after a particularly hectic Tuesday, I decided to branch out from my usual safety net of rum and coke (dark rum, diet coke) and try my hand at making a tequila sunrise.

I have to admit, I've always been kind of intimidated by this drink because of the really pretty color gradient in the glass and I thought it would be really hard to make, but I am happy to report that it was much simpler than I expected! It's cold, delicious, refreshing, and easy to make which makes it the perfect cocktail for summer! Read on!

If you look around the internet, there are a few different versions of this drink. This is just the version that I made.

You will need the following ingredients:

• 1.5 oz tequila (I used Espolón, which I hadn't tried before. I would definitely recommend it, it was delicious!)
• .75 oz grenadine
• 3/4 cup orange juice (it's better if you can get fresh squeezed, of course, but I bought this kind at Safeway. I looked at the label, it has one ingredient, orange juice)
• orange for garnish
• maraschino cherry for garnish
• ice

Other things you will need:

• paper cocktail umbrella for garnish (optional)
• straw (optional)
• 12 oz glass (I used a mason jar, you can use whatever, but clear glasses tend to look better so you can see all the pretty colors!)

Combine your orange juice and tequila in a shaker if you have one, and shake it to combine.

I don't have a shaker, so I combined them in a big measuring cup and stirred it thoroughly. Fill you glass with ice and pour the orange juice and tequila mixture into the glass, over the ice.

Measure out your grenadine and slowly pour it into the glass in a steady stream. This is where the beautiful color gradient comes from. This is the step that you start to see the gradient. The grenadine is denser than the orange juice and tequila, so it sinks to the bottom of the glass and creates the beautiful color changes throughout the glass as if by magic! Just don't stir it after you add the grenadine!

It might take a few minutes for the grenadine to settle to the bottom of the glass, so while you're waiting for it to settle, move on the the next step.

While you're waiting for the grenadine to settle, it's a perfect time to make the garnish.

Cut the orange in half lengthwise, then cut a slice off one of the halves that's about 1/4-1/3 inch thick. Cut a slit in this disc of orange that goes from the center out to the side and through the rind, so you can slide it over the edge of your glass in a way that looks like a shining sun rising over a delicious, delicious ocean of alcoholic orange juice. Spear a maraschino cherry on the cocktail umbrella and stick the cocktail umbrella with the cherry on it through the rind of the orange.

You can make your garnish however you want, but it's important to get five servings of fruit and vegetables every day, so I made mine huge.

This drink is so pretty that I took about a million glamor shots of it before I drank it!

Fortunately, it tastes as good as it looks!