Garden to Glass: The Story Behind Our Hibiscus Margarita
Every margarita on our list starts the same way: with something growing near the bar. That has been the idea since the beginning. Crafted with care and inspired by what grows around us, our cocktails are built to bring out the clean, bold flavors of the spirits we pour, and each one is a little ode to the gardens here in Sayulita: bright, balanced, and made to sip slow.
But if you asked me to pick the one drink that tells the whole Cachasol story in a single glass, it would be the Hibiscus Margarita. Here's why.
The only margarita made with a spirit born on this farm
Most of our cocktails are built on Cachasol Blanco, our award-winning tequila made for us by fifth-generation Master Distiller Jaime Villalobos Sauza. We are proud of that partnership, and you can taste why.
The Hibiscus Margarita is different. It is the one drink on our list made with Cachasol Raicilla, and raicilla is the spirit we make right here, on our six acres, from agave grown on this land. Raicilla is tequila's wilder, older cousin: a traditional agave spirit of the Jalisco and Nayarit coast that most visitors have never heard of before they sit down at our bar. When you order the Hibiscus Margarita, the spirit in your glass never traveled farther than the walk from our still to the bar.
That is what garden to glass means to us. Not a slogan. A distance you could pace off in a minute.
What's in the glass
Floral, tart, and super refreshing, this one feels like a garden party. The recipe is simple, and we share it gladly:
- 1.5 oz (45 ml) Cachasol Raicilla
- 1 oz / 30 ml Hibiscus Juice
- 0.33 oz (10 ml) Fresh Lime Juice
- 0.33 oz (10 ml) Simple Syrup
- 0.25 oz (7 ml) Orange Liqueur
Rim your glass with hibiscus-chili salt. Shake and strain. Garnish with a dehydrated hibiscus flower.
The hibiscus does two jobs at once. It brings a deep floral tartness that stands up to raicilla's character, and it turns the drink a red that looks like the last ten minutes of a Sayulita sunset. The chili in the rim salt is there to wake everything up.
The jamaica plants are grown right here on the property, harvested and dried in the sun. When we need hibiscus juice, we soak those dried flowers, and that is the whole secret. If you want to do this at home, dried hibiscus flowers are easy to find; just soak them in boiling water to make a hibiscus concentrate.
Why raicilla deserves the spotlight
Tequila made raicilla's family famous, but raicilla kept the old ways. It is a smaller, stranger, more regional spirit, and for a long time it barely left the villages where it was made. We think that is exactly what makes it worth building a drink around. Our guests come to Sayulita for something they cannot get at home. Raicilla is that, in liquid form.
If this is your first introduction to raicilla, the Hibiscus Margarita is the friendliest possible handshake: familiar enough in shape, completely new in soul.
Make it at home, or let us make it for you
The full recipe above is yours, along with five more garden inspired margaritas, on our Cocktail Recipes page: tamarind, spicy, soursop, guava, and our skinny-ish classic. Every one of them was developed at our bar and built around our spirits.
Better yet, come taste the original. The farm is an easy trip from anywhere in the Riviera Nayarit: 8 minutes from Sayulita, 18 minutes from Punta Mita. Book a tour and tasting, stay for dinner at our farm-to-table restaurant, and try the Hibiscus Margarita a few steps from the still that made the raicilla in it. If you are planning a bigger trip, our Sayulita Guide covers everything worth doing in town.
The best moments don't find you. You catch them. This one comes with a hibiscus flower on top.
