Tomato Margarita
>> Wednesday, May 28, 2025
This cocktail may sound a little weird with the tomatoes, but it's actually really good. My wife was the first to try it at La Cava del Tequila in the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot years ago and was blown away by it. Between her and one of my daughters, I think they polished off four of them that day. We knew there was obviously tomatoes in it, but it also had this nice, really bright watermelon character and with lime juice it was so refreshing in Florida's heat and humidity.
If you don't already know, Disney restaurants and bars will often share recipes if you ask. However, not all restaurants are owned by Disney and this appears to be the case with La Cava del Tequila. In those cases they may not be willing to share some or even any recipes with park guests. This was essentially the case with the Tomato Margarita when we first asked. Each time we visited we asked for the recipe and were told they couldn't share it. We tried our best to replicate it on our own but we couldn't figure out the watermelon character (we tried puree, straight juice, etc.) and the tomato character always seemed too prominent.
At some point they pulled the drink off the menu (maybe it'll come back in the future?) which was a bummer, but I think this was the key to us finally being let in on the secret. One time a bartender who shall remain nameless, finally filled us in with the recipe below. The hardest part may be finding a good watermelon liqueur. You do not want to use the artificially flavored sour watermelon liqueur garbage. If you can't find a good one, it's really easy to make your own. I've included the recipe I used below, but definitely don't use the "pucker" stuff. For the cherry tomatoes, use your favorite. We used both heirloom cherry tomatoes and some of the extra sweet hybrids and they all worked well.
Tomato Margarita Recipe
2 oz Teremana Tequila Blanco
2 oz Watermelon liqueur (not sour watermelon liqueur)
1oz lime juice
5 cherry tomatoes
1 oz agave syrup (1/2oz for less sweet)
~1 cup ice
Blend until mostly smooth but don’t over blend to the point that all the ice turns to water.
Optionally, add a dash of gum powder while blending. This is available in better cooking stores and on Amazon and will help prevent separation. IME it will separate without it, but you can meditate it a bit by stirring it ... but use gum powder if you have it.
Watermelon Liqueur Recipe
Basically what you're doing is creating a sweetened watermelon tincture. This is one of those cases where a slightly overripe melon can be the best choice to get the strongest watermelon character. You really don't care about texture so it's fine if it's a little mushy. Seeded tend to have more flavor and aroma than seedless, so that's something to consider as well, but I'd probably recommend removing as many seeds as possible before pureeing.
2 cups pureed watermelon
1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups vodka.
Blend watermelon and sugar until sugar dissolves then combine with vodka in an airtight container for a week, and store in a cool dark place. The alcohol should prevent any fermentation from occurring, but you could also put it in the fridge if you're worried. After a week, strain out the solids and store it in a bottle (flip top bottles or an old liquor bottle work well). I got some ultra fine strainers off Amazon that did a great job of filtering out solids for tinctures. Most of the red from the watermelon will be filtered out so you'll be left with a straw colored liqueur. That said, you may see a little pink/red and could even get a little sediment if it lasts long enough. If you store it in a cool dark place, it should last for months before the flavor and aroma start to fade.
