One of the most important steps to making great cocktails is using fresh juice. That plastic lime stuff that you get at the supermarket, you don’t want that, it’s full of preservatives and it tastes totally different. Fresh is so much better. Just like it is when cooking regular food; fresh equals better.
We’re going to make some lime juice. Really, the most important thing is to have your system setup so you can move right through it. I already have some limes soaking in hot water, or warm water. The reason you want to do that is that it will soften up the fruit and make it easier to juice, and it will actually give you more juice. The colder the fruit is, the more stingy it’s going to be. What you need setting up is a couple of bowls, a hand juicer; you can find this in most supermarkets, a cutting board, a knife, and a strainer. You don’t need one, but it does give it a nicer texture without the pulp in there.
We can dump out our water now because; these limes are nice and soft. Just move right through it. Cut them in half. I like to cut them all first. I do one step at a time; cut them all, juice them all. I can already feel how easy it is to cut right through them. When they’re cold and tough, it’s just a chore to slice the fruit open; you know you’re in for a long day.
I’m just going to position my bowl and strainer. Another thing I should mention, it’s good to have a rag nearby, because when you’re making cocktails or anything in the kitchen, as we all know, it makes a mess. Good to have a rag, and also, a trash can to throw away the discarded limes and stuff. Away we go.
I think it’s just Zen inactivity, you’re listening to music. I like to think of it like chopping vegetables, it’s just kitchen prep. It’s always a really good idea to make the juice the day that you’re going to use the juice, the day you’re going to make the cocktails. Lime juice, especially, will go bad in a day. Even lime juice that was juiced 2 hours ago as opposed to 20 minutes ago, you’re probably going to notice a little bit of a difference. Of course if you have a party or a lot of people coming over, by all means, juice it a couple hours beforehand. If you’re just making it for you or you and your wife, or something, why not juice your limes right before you make those margaritas? It smells amazing.
We’re almost done here. I only got 2 more limes to go. This has probably been . . . I’ve been juicing, or working on this, maybe 4 or 5 minutes. I’m going to have enough juice to make about 10 cocktails here. Really, it doesn’t take that long, and the benefits are overwhelmingly better than a store-bought alternative. Now we can dump out the pulp. We can even throw away our limes. We are ready to go. That is how you make fresh juice.