No ones knows booze better. With years of bartending under their belts, Vanderpump Rules couple Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix shared all their best cocktail recipes in Fancy AF Cocktails: Drink Recipes from a Couple of Professional Drinkers, and they gave Us Weekly a margarita recipe perfect for Cinco de Mayo — or any day that ends with a tequila craving.
“Before you saw any Vanderpump Rules relationships unfold, we were both bartenders,” Sandoval, 38, and Madix, 36, write in the introduction to their book of Insta-worthy creations, which was cowritten by Danny Pellegrino. “We worked in some of the most popular bars in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles. We served drinks to celebrities, socialites, housewives, cool people, and definitely a few assholes. When it comes to life and our emotions we may be lacking, but when it comes to alcohol, and drinking . . . we are professionals.”
The pair, who have been together since 2014, told Us exclusively ahead of the Fancy AF release that the ideas didn’t just come from their bar menus. “Some of these cocktails came from us being out late at night, after the bar closes,” Sandoval revealed. “Somebody’s [like], ‘Yeah, come back to my place.’ You go back to their place, and they have a bottle of vodka. They have no mixers. So we end up going through their cabinets, their fridge, and basically over the years we’ve almost learned how to make a cocktail pretty much out of anything.”
He added at the time, “That’s where this Desperate Bloody Mary comes into play. For instance, you fill up a water bottle to the first line, it’s exactly two ounces. The next line with water, another ounce. Three ketchup packets, two Cholula packets, little bit of Tabasco, and that is a damn good Bloody Mary.”
This marg recipe, however, is a bit more posh. “All the drinks have a trash-o-meter,” Madix explained to Us. “So you’ve got classy on one side, trashy on the other, and it’ll tell you exactly where the drink lies on that scale.”
The Cucumber Pomegranate Margarita is all the way on the classy side of the scale.
This refreshing libation almost looks too good to be served at home. “Cucumber and pomegranate go together beautifully,” Sandoval notes in the book. “You’ll often find them paired in a salad, but you can also combine them in drink form.”
Pro tip: Make sure you have a cocktail shaker and muddler handy! The pair prefer Boston-style cocktail shakers, which work best with a Hawthorne-style strainer.
“Generally, when we say to ‘shake’ the ingredients in cocktail shaker, you should shake to a count of ten. More will dilute the drink, and less won’t properly mix the ingredients,” the Pump Rules duo writes.
Cucumber Pomegranate Margarita
Ingredients for 1 serving:
- 10–15 pomegranate seeds (or use pomegranate juice)
- 1/4 oz cardamom syrup
- 2 oz blanco tequila
- 1 oz cucumber juice
- 3/4 oz lime juice
- Cucumber slice, pomegranate seeds (for garnish)
Garnishes:
- Cucumber slice, pomegranate seeds
Instructions:
1. In a cocktail shaker, muddle the pomegranate seeds with the cardamom syrup. Fill the remainder of the cocktail shaker with ice. Add the tequila, cucumber juice and lime juice. Shake and strain into a glass over fresh ice.
2. Garnish with a cucumber slice, pomegranate seeds or both.
Fancy AF Cocktails: Drink Recipes from a Couple of Professional Drinkers is available now from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
