Casamigos Cocktails

These six Casamigos cocktails each use the expression that suits them best: Casamigos Blanco in a classic margarita and a Batanga, Casamigos Reposado in a spicy margarita, and Casamigos Añejo in a stirred Old Fashioned. Three Don Julio drinks round out the list, a Reposado paloma, a Blanco ranch water and a note on how to drink Don Julio 1942. Every drink has a short ingredient list, the method in a few lines, and the one move that makes it taste right.

Both tequilas come from the same company. Casamigos and Don Julio are two of the tequila brands owned by Diageo, and Diageo is credited as a Hell's Kitchen sponsor in the show's promotional consideration credits (our Hell's Kitchen sponsors page covers the full list). At least one Hell's Kitchen restaurant pours the brand: the Atlantic City cocktail menu (the restaurant sits inside Caesars Atlantic City) builds its watermelon & Fresno with Casamigos Blanco and its Pitchfork in Paradise with Casamigos Jalapeño. Every recipe here is for adults 21 and over, and each one starts from a 1.5-ounce pour of tequila, which is one standard drink.

Casamigos Cocktails at a Glance

The quickest way to pick from these Casamigos cocktails is by mood: shaken and sour (the two margaritas), long and fizzy (the paloma, ranch water and Batanga), or slow and stirred (the Añejo Old Fashioned and Don Julio 1942). The table lines up each drink with its tequila, its flavor, its glass and when to make it.

Cocktail	Tequila	Flavor	Glass	Best for
Casamigos Margarita	Casamigos Blanco	Bright, sour, clean agave	Rocks, half salt rim	Taco night, the first round
Spicy Margarita	Casamigos Reposado	Sour, warm chili heat, a little caramel	Rocks, half chili-salt rim	Spicy food, summer cookouts
Paloma	Don Julio Reposado	Tart grapefruit, fizzy, lightly bitter	Highball	Brunch, hot afternoons
Ranch Water	Don Julio Blanco	Dry, salty-mineral, very fizzy	Highball	Easy pool or patio drink
Batanga	Casamigos Blanco	Cola, lime, salt	Tall glass, salt rim	A casual crowd, pizza or burgers
Añejo Old Fashioned	Casamigos Añejo	Oak, vanilla, orange oil	Rocks, one large cube	After dinner
Don Julio 1942	Don Julio 1942	Caramel, oak, roasted agave	Snifter or rocks	Sipping neat or on one cube

If you only buy one bottle, buy a blanco: it covers four of the six drinks. A reposado is the next most useful, and an añejo only earns a place if you like stirred, brown-spirit drinks.

Blanco, Reposado or Añejo: Which Casamigos for Which Cocktail

Use Casamigos Blanco for citrus-forward, shaken or fizzy cocktails, Casamigos Reposado where you want a rounder drink that still has lime in it, and Casamigos Añejo for stirred, spirit-only drinks. The difference is time in oak. Mexico's tequila standard, NOM-006-SCFI-2012, requires at least two months in oak for a reposado and at least a year for an añejo, while a blanco is bottled with little or no wood contact.

Casamigos lists its Blanco as unaged and rested in stainless steel, its Reposado as aged six months and its Añejo as aged twelve months in American white oak, all at 40 percent alcohol. Don Julio ages longer: its Reposado rests eight months or more and its 1942 at least 24 months, according to Don Julio. The barrel is where the caramel, vanilla and cocoa notes on those labels come from, and those flavors fight fresh lime less than you might think but get lost under grapefruit soda or cola. So the fizzy, juice-heavy drinks below use blanco or a younger reposado, and the stirred drinks get the aged bottles.

Casamigos Margarita (Blanco)

The Casamigos margarita is the classic three-part sour: blanco tequila, fresh lime and orange, shaken hard and poured over fresh ice. Casamigos Blanco works well here because it is unaged, so its citrus and sweet-agave notes sit right on top of the lime instead of competing with oak.

• 1.5 oz Casamigos Blanco
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz orange liqueur (Cointreau or a good triple sec)
• 1/4 oz agave syrup (agave nectar thinned 1:1 with water), to taste
• Coarse salt for half the rim, ice and a lime wheel

Run a lime wedge around half the outside rim of a rocks glass and roll it in coarse salt, then fill the glass with fresh ice. Shake the tequila, lime, orange liqueur and agave with plenty of ice for 12 to 15 seconds, strain into the glass and add the lime wheel. Casamigos' own margarita skips the liqueur and uses a half ounce of fresh orange juice with a quarter ounce of agave, which makes a lighter drink with less alcohol; try both. Grab the bottle at Casamigos Blanco at Total Wine.

The shake is part of the recipe. Cocktail scientist Dave Arnold measured on Cooking Issues that a hard shake takes a drink down to about 19°F (minus 7°C) in under 17 seconds, and that chilling and dilution always move together. A metal tin helps, because steel conducts heat out of the drink quickly, which is why the outside frosts over. Punch measured working bartenders adding about 20 percent water in a 10-second shake and about a third in a full one, which is what softens the tequila's edge. Taste your margarita cold, too: the sweet-taste channel TRPM5 responds more weakly as temperature drops (Nature, 2005), so a mix that tastes balanced warm reads tart once it is shaken. Salt the rim on only half the glass so each sip can be salty or not.

Spicy Casamigos Margarita (Reposado)

A spicy Casamigos margarita uses Casamigos Reposado and two muddled jalapeño rounds; the reposado's six months in oak add a caramel note that rounds out the chili heat. Its build follows the Casamigos spicy margarita, which takes either Blanco or Reposado.

• 1.5 oz Casamigos Reposado
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz agave syrup
• 1/4 oz fresh orange juice
• 2 thin jalapeño rounds, plus 1 for garnish
• Chili salt for half the rim, ice and a lime wheel

Muddle the jalapeño rounds in the bottom of the shaker, add the tequila, lime, agave and orange juice, fill with ice and shake hard. Fine-strain through a small sieve into a half chili-salt rimmed rocks glass over fresh ice, so no pepper bits or seeds get through, and float one jalapeño round on top. Casamigos Reposado is available from ReserveBar.

Muddling works because capsaicin, the heat compound, barely dissolves in water and dissolves freely in alcohol, according to its PubChem entry; crushing the pepper opens its cells and the tequila pulls the heat out during the shake. To dial it down, trim out the pale ribs before slicing: New Mexico State University's chile program notes that the heat is made in the placenta, the white tissue the seeds hang from, and not in the seeds themselves. For a fruitier, restaurant-style version, our Hell's Kitchen watermelon Fresno margarita steeps red Fresno chili in triple sec, the same drink the Atlantic City menu builds with Casamigos Blanco.

Don Julio Paloma (Reposado)

The Don Julio paloma is tequila, fresh grapefruit and lime, topped with something fizzy, and Don Julio's own recipe calls for its Reposado. Eight-plus months in ex-bourbon barrels give it enough body to stand up to grapefruit, which has a bitter edge a blanco can disappear under.

• 1.5 oz Don Julio Reposado
• 1 oz fresh pink grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/4 to 1/2 oz agave syrup
• 1 small pinch of salt
• 2 oz chilled grapefruit soda or soda water
• Ice and a half-moon grapefruit slice

Shake the tequila, grapefruit, lime, agave and salt with ice for about 10 seconds, strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice, then top with the cold soda and give it one gentle stir. Tuck the grapefruit slice into the glass. Casamigos makes the same drink as its Casa Paloma with Blanco or Reposado. Pick up Don Julio Reposado at Total Wine.

That pinch of salt is the trick. In a study published in Nature, Paul Breslin and Gary Beauchamp showed that salt suppresses bitterness more than it suppresses sweetness, so a few grains in a grapefruit drink mute the bitterness and let the fruit taste sweeter and fresher. You should not be able to taste the salt itself. If you squeeze your own grapefruit often, our guide to juicer blender combos covers machines that handle citrus.

Ranch Water with Don Julio Blanco

Ranch water is the simplest drink here: Don Julio Blanco, a lot of fresh lime and very cold sparkling mineral water, built in the glass. Don Julio Blanco is unaged and double distilled in pot stills, with a light, crisp agave flavor that a mineral-water drink shows off.

• 1.5 oz Don Julio Blanco
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 4 oz very cold sparkling mineral water
• Ice and a lime wedge; a pinch of salt is optional

Fill a highball glass with ice, add the tequila and lime, then pour the mineral water gently down the side of the glass and lift the ice once with a bar spoon. Add the lime wedge. Don Julio Blanco is on ReserveBar.

Keep the mineral water in the coldest part of the fridge until the moment you pour. As Miami University chemist Michael Crowder explains in The Conversation, carbon dioxide dissolves less as a liquid warms, so warm sparkling water poured over ice foams up and goes flat fast, and cold water holds its bubbles. The same reason is why the fizz never goes in the shaker: shaking knocks the gas out just like shaking a can.

Batanga with Casamigos Blanco

The Batanga is tequila, lime and cola in a salt-rimmed glass, and it comes from La Capilla, the bar in the town of Tequila run by Don Javier Delgado Corona, who stirred each one with the long knife he used to cut the limes, according to Australian Bartender. Casamigos Blanco keeps it clean, since the cola carries all the caramel the drink needs.

• 1.5 oz Casamigos Blanco
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice (about half a lime)
• 4 oz cold cola
• Coarse salt for the rim, ice

Salt the whole rim of a tall glass, fill it with ice, add the tequila and squeeze in the half lime, then top with cold cola and stir once. A long bar spoon is fine; the knife is tradition. La Capilla's own pour uses 60 milliliters of blanco, about 2 ounces, so this home version is a little lighter. The salt does the same job as in the paloma, cutting cola's sweetness so the drink tastes less like a soda.

Casamigos Añejo Old Fashioned

A Casamigos Añejo Old Fashioned swaps bourbon for añejo tequila: a little agave syrup, two kinds of bitters and an orange peel, stirred and served over one large cube. Twelve months in American oak give Casamigos Añejo the caramel and vanilla this drink is built around, and Don Julio recommends its own Añejo the same way.

• 2 oz Casamigos Añejo (about 1.3 standard drinks)
• 1 bar spoon (about 1/4 oz) agave syrup, agave nectar thinned 1:1 with water
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1 dash orange bitters
• One large ice cube and a wide strip of orange peel

Put the tequila, agave syrup and both bitters in a mixing glass or the large shaker tin, fill it with ice and stir steadily for about 30 seconds. Strain over one large cube in a rocks glass, squeeze the orange peel over the top so its oils spray across the surface, then drop it in. Casamigos Añejo is stocked at Total Wine.

Stirring is what keeps this drink clear and silky. Arnold's measurements show that even fast stirring only reaches about 27°F (minus 3°C) after nearly two minutes, against 19°F for a 15-second shake, so a stirred drink ends up warmer, with less water in it and no air bubbles. That suits a drink that is all spirit. The single large cube has less surface area for its weight than a handful of small ones, so it melts more slowly in the glass. And the agave is thinned first because thick syrup stiffens in the cold and settles to the bottom instead of mixing in when it is stirred rather than shaken.

Don Julio 1942: Sip It, or Stir It

Don Julio 1942 is best drunk neat or over one large cube, which is how Don Julio describes it: made for sipping, aged at least 24 months in ex-bourbon American white oak, with caramel, chocolate and roasted-agave notes. Lime juice, grapefruit and soda cover exactly the flavors that make it expensive, so it is a poor choice for a margarita or paloma.

If you want a Don Julio 1942 cocktail, make the Old Fashioned above with 1942 in place of the Casamigos Añejo and cut the agave to a few drops, because the longer aging already reads sweet. Pour it in a snifter or a rocks glass and let it sit a minute before the first sip. Don Julio 1942 is available from ReserveBar.

The Bar Tools for Casamigos Cocktails

Every Casamigos cocktail on this page needs just three tools: a shaker for the margaritas and paloma, a strainer to hold back the ice and jalapeño, and a jigger so each pour stays at 1.5 ounces. A Boston shaker set covers all three, and its large tin doubles as the mixing glass for the Old Fashioned.

Measuring matters for more than balance. A free pour into a glass of ice is easy to misjudge, and a jigger is how a single drink stays a single standard drink. Casamigos also sells ready-to-drink canned margaritas, which is what most people searching for a Casamigos margarita are shopping for; the recipes here are for mixing your own.

Drink Responsibly

These Casamigos and Don Julio cocktails are for adults 21 and over: drink responsibly, and never drink and drive. In the US, one standard drink holds about 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol, the amount in 1.5 ounces of 40 percent spirit, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Each recipe here starts from that 1.5-ounce pour, so most are one standard drink; the margarita's orange liqueur adds about a third of another, and the Old Fashioned's 2-ounce pour is about 1.3.

The CDC defines moderate drinking for adults of legal age as two drinks or fewer in a day for men and one or fewer for women, and advises no alcohol at all for anyone under 21 or anyone who is pregnant. When you host, keep a good alcohol-free option on the table; our party mocktails and non-alcoholic holiday drinks are built with the same care as these cocktails.

Casamigos cocktails reward the same habits as good cooking: fresh juice, an exact measure, and tasting before you serve. Pair the margaritas and the paloma with something charred and salty, like a seared skirt steak with chimichurri, and for the tequila drink tied to Ramsay's own restaurants, read our piece on Gordon Ramsay's favorite cocktail. More drinks live in our Food & Drink section.

More drinks from the Hell's Kitchen world: Hell's Kitchen watermelon Fresno margarita, Gordon Ramsay's favorite cocktail, party mocktails and the Hell's Kitchen sponsors. Browse everything in Food & Drink.

Casamigos Cocktails FAQs

The questions that come up most: what the best Casamigos cocktails are, what mixes well with Casamigos, whether Blanco or Reposado makes the better margarita, which Don Julio is best for cocktails, how to drink Don Julio 1942, who owns Casamigos and Don Julio, and whether Hell's Kitchen serves Casamigos.

What are the best Casamigos cocktails?

The classic margarita with Casamigos Blanco, a spicy margarita with Casamigos Reposado, a paloma, a Batanga and an Añejo Old Fashioned. Blanco suits the bright, shaken and fizzy drinks; Reposado suits drinks that want a rounder, slightly caramel note; Añejo suits stirred, spirit-only drinks.

What mixes well with Casamigos?

Fresh lime, grapefruit, orange, agave syrup, sparkling mineral water, grapefruit soda and cola all work with Casamigos Blanco or Reposado. A pinch of salt helps citrus and cola drinks, because salt suppresses bitterness. Casamigos Añejo is better with bitters and an orange peel in an Old Fashioned.

Is Casamigos Blanco or Reposado better for a margarita?

Blanco makes the brighter, more citrus-forward margarita, since it is unaged. Reposado, aged six months in American oak, makes a rounder margarita with caramel notes and is the better pick for a spicy margarita. Casamigos lists both for its own margarita recipe.

Which Don Julio is best for cocktails?

Don Julio Blanco for margaritas and ranch water, and Don Julio Reposado for palomas and Old Fashioneds; Don Julio recommends its Reposado for exactly those drinks. Save Don Julio 1942 for sipping.

How should you drink Don Julio 1942?

Neat or over one large ice cube, the way Don Julio describes it. It is aged at least 24 months in oak, and lime, grapefruit or soda cover those flavors. If you want a cocktail, use it in a stirred tequila Old Fashioned with only a few drops of agave.

Who owns Casamigos and Don Julio?

Both are owned by Diageo, the spirits company that also owns brands such as Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray and Ketel One. Diageo lists Casamigos and Don Julio among its tequila brands, and it is credited as a Hell's Kitchen sponsor in the show's promotional consideration credits.

Does Hell's Kitchen serve Casamigos?

The Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Atlantic City lists two Casamigos drinks on its cocktail menu: the watermelon & Fresno, made with Casamigos Blanco, and the Pitchfork in Paradise, made with Casamigos Jalapeño. Menus differ by location.

How many standard drinks are in a Casamigos margarita?

With 1.5 ounces of Casamigos (40 percent alcohol), the tequila alone is one standard drink by the NIAAA measure. A half ounce of 40 percent orange liqueur adds about a third of another. Casamigos' own recipe swaps the liqueur for orange juice, so it stays at one.