The Prickly Pear Cactus Wren (Margarita) – a cocktail recipe by Michelle Hartsell Cocktail Engineer

A work colleague has Prickly Pear Cacti in her yard in Santa Cruz and the fruits are now in season so I was lucky enough to be given a bag.  Getting to the fruit on the inside is tricky and there are several websites showing how it's done safely.  We had about 14 fruit and yielded about 10oz of the juice for this cocktail.  It's amazingly sweet and brightly purple-red colored.  You can also find the juice frozen in some stores in parts of the U.S.A!  If you don't have access to prickly pear fruit juice you can use strawberry juice instead.

Glass prep:  Rim two martini or cocktail glasses in agave nectar then in kosher salt.

In a cocktail mixer add
1 1/2 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
4 1/2 oz. fresh Prickly Pear Cactus juice (or frozen if you don't have fresh)
4 oz. tequila blanco (I used Milagro brand)
2 oz. Cointreau

Shake over crushed ice and pour into the prepared glasses.  Yields 2 brightly colored and naturally sweet cocktails!

Here's a link to juicing instructions for prickly pear fruit (only do this if you are comfortable you can do it without getting hurt - else buy the frozen prepared juice/pulp):  http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-eat-prickly-pear-aka-cactus-fruit-aka-tunas/

Note we used a juicer machine once we extracted the edible pulp from the inside of the fruit and that worked fine in place of a food mill.