Mountain Margaritas: The How-To

Cape Townians (well… a large portion of them) are known for being active and spending their mornings and / or evenings outdoors maximising on the longer summer days.  I personally love a sunset mountain adventure!  We are spoilt for choice when it comes to epic places to bid farewell to another beautiful day in Africa…  and what better way to do so than with your friends and a sundowner in hand.

So inspired by my favourite (And LOCAL) distiller, I decided to make mountain margaritas a thing.  This was first introduced on Kloof corner, Table Mountain in Cape Town.  A close friend and I would do a weekly hike to catch the sunset over the Atlantic Seaboard, and on one of these occasions I made sure to pack my backpack with the essential Leonista Margarita items to make sundowners with a view.  Needless to say, this went down exceptionally well and became the new normal for our Wednesday evening hike.

This past December, I embarked on a Cederberg adventure which turned out to be a recce for the Cederberg Experience which The Cape Guide now hosts.  After catching a glimpse of the images that we took, and hearing about the enormous amounts of fun that was had, my mountain margarita friend booked her tour immediately and followed up the booking request with ‘I would like to add Leonista Mountain Margaritas to the experience please…’ And Thus, Mountain Margaritas have wonderfully woven their way into 2 of our signature experiences.

The Cederberg Experience was an absolute blast, and one of the highlights (literally and figuratively speaking) was cheersing to the sun setting over the vast majestic Cederberg Mountains with a delectable and refreshing margarita. So, I thought I would share a little ‘How-To’ so that you can add sunset margaritas to your next sunset mission.  You can thank me later...

It is pretty simple actually.  Well, I kept it as simple as possible to make sure we were not carrying excess weight whilst scaling the mountain through The Wolfberg Cracks to sleep on the mountain for the night.

What you’ll need

ESSENTIALS

• 1 x bottle of Leonista (I like to use the Honey Reposado)
• 2 limes per person
• A knife / something sharp to cut the limes with (Teeth are a close second if you’d prefer not to hike with a knife or if you forget one)
• A cup / drinking apparatus (One per person)
• Water
• Honey / Agave Syrup / Triple Sec
• Ice

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

• A flask / closable container / cocktail shaker if you want to get fancy and have the space

Step 1 - The Sour

Cut the limes in half and squeeze the lime juice into the flask or container that you are going to use to shake all the ingredients together in

Step 2 - The Source

Add one shot of Leonista per person / margarita

Step 3 - The Sweet

Add a teaspoon of honey per person / margarita

Step 4 - Met Eish!

Add some ice

Step 5 - The Mandatory

Close the flask or container tightly to avoid spillage

Stand up immediately

Shake the margarita mixture whilst performing your finest dance moves

Pass the mix to all the friends who are patiently waiting for their sundowners and make sure that they also shake the margarita mixture whilst performing their finest dance moves

Step 6 - The Serve

Evenly distribute the Margarita mixture between friends and enjoy the endorphin-fueled sunset experience

If you'd like to join for one of my trips, please email me on hello@thecapeguide.com and we can book an experience with Mountain Margaritas in some of South Africa's most beautiful destinations.