Frozen mango margarita

Ingredients (serves 8)

2 x 300g pkts frozen mango cheeks
250ml (1 cup) silver tequila
160ml (2/3 cup) fresh lime juice
160ml (2/3 cup) Cointreau liqueur
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
2 cups ice cubes

Method

Place half the mango, tequila, lime juice, Cointreau, sugar and ice in the jug of a blender and blend until smooth. Pour evenly among half the serving glasses. Repeat with the remaining mango, tequila, lime juice, Cointreau, sugar and ice. Serve immediately.

Source

Australian Good Taste

Cocktails

A popular cocktail for Cointreau is known as the Wolverhampton Wonder, made from either a single or double measure of Cointreau and blackcurrant cordial. It is called this due to the orange taste and the blackcurrant, in reference to Wolverhampton Wanderers football teams' kit of orange and black. The cocktail was created in an Eastbourne pub called The Cavalier, but has spread in popularity to the Midlands where the name was coined.
Another simple yet popular cocktail is known as a Scoundrel, and consists of one measure of Cointreau, a splash of Coke and a single cube of ice. More ice detracts from the flavor, making it a 'fake scoundrel'. The cocktail was created at the award winning Rook and Gaskill pub in York.
Cointreau has also become very popular in premium Margaritas, often known as "Gold Margaritas". Cointreau replaces the Triple sec in the standard Margarita recipe and adds a more intense orange flavour.

Production

Cointreau Distillery was set up in 1849 by Adolphe Cointreau, a confectioner, and his brother Edouard-Jean Cointreau from Angers. Their first success was with the cherry liqueur, guignolet, but it was when they concocted a blend of sweet and bitter orange peels and pure alcohol from sugar beets that the success of the enterprise was confirmed definitively. In 1875, the first bottles of Cointreau were sold. It is now estimated that thirteen million bottles are sold each year, in more than 200 countries. 95% of production is exported.
The production methods and recipe are a family secret, but tours of the distillery are open to the public. Photography is restricted in many areas to protect the production process from being copied.
In early 2008, burlesque entertainer Dita Von Teese became the new face of Cointreau's "Be Cointreauversial" advertising and marketing campaign, an arrangement slated to continue through 2010

History

Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1656. The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, which they called octli (later, and more popularly called pulque), long before the Spanish arrived in 1521. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill this agave drink to produce North America's first indigenous distilled spirit.
Some 80 years later, around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco. By 1608, the colonial governor of Nueva Galicia had begun to tax his products. The tequila that is popular today was first mass-produced in the early 1800s in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Don Cenobio Sauza, founder of Sauza Tequila and Municipal President of the Village of Tequila from 1884-1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States. Don Cenobio's grandson Dan Javier gained international attention for insisting that "there cannot be tequila where there are no agaves!" His efforts led to the practice that real tequila can only come from the State of Jalisco.