The tequila sunrise is a
cocktail made of
tequila
Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands ('' Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican s ...
,
orange juice
Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As well as vari ...
, and
grenadine
Grenadine is a commonly used nonalcoholic bar syrup characterized by its deep red color. It is a popular cocktail ingredient renowned for its flavor as well as its ability to give a reddish or pink tint to mixed drinks. Grenadine is traditiona ...
syrup. The drink is served unmixed in a tall glass. The modern drink originates from
Sausalito, California
Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sausalito's ...
, in the early 1970s after an earlier iteration created in the 1930s in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...
. The cocktail is named for its appearance when served—with gradations of color resembling a sunrise.
History
The original tequila sunrise contained
tequila
Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands ('' Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican s ...
,
creme de cassis,
lime juice
A lime (from French ''lime'', from Arabic ''līma'', from Persian ''līmū'', "lemon") is a citrus fruit, which is typically round, green in color, in diameter, and contains acidic juice vesicles.
There are several species of citrus trees ...
, and
soda water
Carbonated water (also known as soda water, sparkling water, fizzy water, club soda, water with gas, in many places as mineral water, or especially in the United States as seltzer or seltzer water) is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, ...
, and was served at the
Arizona Biltmore Hotel
The Arizona Biltmore Hotel is a resort located in Phoenix near 24th Street and Camelback Road. It is part of Hilton Hotels' Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts. It was featured on the Travel Channel show ''Great Hotels.'' The Arizona Biltmore h ...
where it was created by Gene Sulit in the 1930s or 1940s.
The more popular modern version of the cocktail contains
tequila
Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands ('' Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican s ...
,
orange juice
Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As well as vari ...
, and
grenadine
Grenadine is a commonly used nonalcoholic bar syrup characterized by its deep red color. It is a popular cocktail ingredient renowned for its flavor as well as its ability to give a reddish or pink tint to mixed drinks. Grenadine is traditiona ...
, and was created by Bobby Lozoff and Billy Rice in the early 1970s while working as young bartenders at
the Trident
The Trident () is Poseidon's(Angel Gabriel Garcia's) ridge surmounted by three peaks, the highest 1,335 m, standing at the east side of Briggs Glacier in South Georgia, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The name is descriptive of the t ...
in
Sausalito, California
Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sausalito's ...
north of San Francisco. In 1972, at a private party at the Trident organized by
Bill Graham to kick off the
Rolling Stones' 1972 tour in America,
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
had one of the cocktails, liked it, and he and his entourage started drinking them.
They later ordered them all across America, even dubbing the tour itself their "cocaine and tequila sunrise tour".
At the time, the Trident was the largest outlet for tequila in the United States, and in 1973
Jose Cuervo
Jose Cuervo is the best-selling brand of tequila,Dana Cimilluca, Paul Sonne and Simon Zekaria“Diageo Ends Its Attempt to Buy Jose Cuervo Tequila,”''Wall Street Journal'', December 11, 2012. selling a fifth of the tequila consumed worldwide. ...
picked up on the new drink as a marketing opportunity and put the recipe for the new drink on the back of their bottles of tequila, and promoted it in other ways. Later that same year, the
Eagles
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...
recorded a song called "
Tequila Sunrise" for their ''
Desperado'' album as the drink was soaring in popularity.
In 1988, a successful film titled
Tequila Sunrise was released, starring
Michelle Pfeiffer,
Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apoca ...
and
Kurt Russell, and directed by
Robert Towne
Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz;'' Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' by Peter Biskind page 30, 1999 Bloomsbury edition November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He started with writing films for Roger ...
.
Preparation and serving
The tequila sunrise is considered a
long drink
A long drink or tall drink is an alcoholic mixed drink with a relatively large volume (> 12 cl, frequently 16–40 cl or between 5–9 fluid ounces). In Finland, a ‘long drink’ specifically contains gin plus a mixer, almost always a fruit sod ...
and is usually served in a
collins or
highball glass
A highball glass is a glass tumbler that can contain . It is used to serve highball cocktails and other mixed drinks. An example size is diameter by in height.
A highball glass is taller than an Old Fashioned glass (lowball), and shorter and ...
. The International Bartender Association has designated this cocktail as an
IBA Official Cocktail
The IBA official cocktails are the cocktails selected by the International Bartenders Association (IBA) for use in the annual World Cocktail Competition (WCC) in bartending.
List of cocktails
IBA official cocktails are divided into three categ ...
.
The drink is mixed by pouring in Tequila, ice, then the juice and, lastly, syrup. The signature look of the drink depends on adding the syrup without mixing with the other ingredients. A spoon may be used to guide the syrup down the glass wall to the bottom of the glass with minimal mixing.
Variations
* Aperol sunrise – substitute Aperol orange liqueur for grenadine
* Tequila sunset – substitute blackberry brandy, or dark rum, for grenadine
* Caribbean sunrise – use rum instead of tequila
* Vodka (or Russian) sunrise – use vodka instead of tequila
* Southern sunrise – use
Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort (often abbreviated SoCo) is an American, naturally fruit-flavored, whiskey liqueur with fruit and spice accents. The brand was created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron in New Orleans in 1874, using whiskey as the base spirit. W ...
instead of tequila
* Astronaut sunrise – use
Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...
instead of orange juice
* Amaretto sunrise – use
Disaronno
Disaronno Originale (28% abv) is a type of amaretto—an amber-colored liqueur with a characteristic almond taste, although it does not actually contain almonds. It is produced in Saronno, in the Lombardy region, and is sold worldwide. Accordin ...
amaretto instead of tequila
* Florida sunrise – use equal measures of pineapple and orange juice
* Panama sunrise – use pineapple juice instead of orange juice
* Red Sea sunrise – non-alcoholic version that uses lemonade or Sprite instead of tequila
* Enamorada sunrise – substitute
Campari
Campari () is an Italian alcoholic liqueur, considered an apéritif (20.5%, 21%, 24%, 25%, or 28.5% ABV, depending on the country where it is sold), obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit (including chinotto and cascarilla) in alcohol a ...
for grenadine syrup
* Colorado sunrise – use
Captain Morgan
Captain Morgan is a brand of flavored rums (including, in Europe, some rum-flavored "premium spirit drinks") produced by British alcohol conglomerate Diageo. It is named after the 17th-century Welsh privateer of the Caribbean, Sir Henry Morgan. ...
and
Sunny Delight instead of tequila and orange juice
* Goon sunrise – use
box wine instead of tequila
* Arizona Biltmore tequila sunrise – Hornitos Plata tequila, creme de cassis, fresh lime juice, and club soda
See also
*
List of cocktails
*
Queen Mary (beer cocktail)
A Queen Mary beer cocktail is a mixture of grenadine and beer, which is commonly garnished with maraschino cherries. This mixed drink is typically served in beer glassware, leaving room for a generous amount of beer head which can take on a pin ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tequila Sunrise (Cocktail)
Cocktails with tequila
Citrus cocktails
Three-ingredient cocktails
Sour cocktails
Sweet cocktails