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    Home » Recipes » Beverage Recipes

    Guava Cooler Tequila Cocktail Recipe - Tropical and Refreshing!

    Published: Sep 25, 2022 · Modified: May 4, 2023 by Ashley

    Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe·Leave a review

    This post may contain affiliate links, which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

    This guava tequila cocktail is made with guava nectar, triple sec, and a mix of fruit juices for a refreshing, tropical take on happy hour!

    Guava cocktails on a tray with fresh citrus fruit in the background.

    This guava tequila cocktail is a copycat recipe that we created based on the Guava Cooler at The Cabin Restaurant in White Plains, New York.

    My husband said the location isn't actually White Plains - it's more like Elmsford, but their website (and Google Maps) say White Plains. So I'm leaving it at that.

    This isn't the first restaurant copycat cocktail recipe that me and my husband have worked on. This Watermelon Sugar High Tequila Cocktail is another fantastic choice.

    Grab a glass and a plate of taquitos and let's dig in. Cheers!

    Jump To:

    • 🧡 Why we love this recipe
    • 📝 Ingredients
    • 🥃 Ingredient spotlight: tequila
    • 📌 Guava nectar vs. guava juice
    • ✅ How to make this recipe
    • 🍊 Tips for juicing citrus
    • 🔪 Equipment
    • 📖 Recipe

    🧡 Why we love this recipe

    • The combination of fruit in this Guava Cooler recipe is really unique and seriously delicious.
    • It's a great way to use tequila and triple sec outside of a traditional margarita.
    • Making cocktails at home is much more budget-friendly than ordering them when you're out and about.
    • Guava nectar gives this cocktail a beautiful color!


    Ingredients ready to make a guava tequila cocktail.

    📝 Ingredients

    Here's everything you need to make this Guava Cooler cocktail (see recipe card below for ingredient amounts and full directions):

    • Freshly squeezed lime juice
    • Freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (we love this large citrus squeezer to help w that)
    • Pineapple juice
    • Guava nectar
    • Triple sec
    • Tequila blanco (check out the spotlight box below for more info about various types of tequila!)

    🥃 Ingredient Spotlight: Tequila

    This recipe uses tequila blanco which can be found in your local liquor store.

    Tequila is a distilled spirit made from the agave plant that is produced in only 5 areas of Mexico.

    Pouring tequila into a jigger.
    Pouring tequila into a cocktail shaker.

    Depending on the aging process, tequila is bottled and sold in a few different styles:

    • Blanco (white) – Tequila that is unaged or slightly aged (less than 2 months). Some distillers call tequila blanco "the essence of tequila". Great for mixing into cocktails.
    • Joven (young) – Usually made from a blend of aged tequila and unaged tequila.
    • Reposado (rested) – Tequila that has been aged for at least two months, and up to a year. This tequila is darker and has a deeper flavor.
    • Añejo (aged) – Tequila that has been aged for at least a year but less than 3 years, traditionally in oak barrels. It has a deep golden color and complex layers of flavor from the aging process.
    • Extra Añejo (very aged) – Tequilas that have been aged for at least 3 years. This is a growing category of tequila that has a lot of complexity of flavor, depending on the types of wood used in the aging barrels.

    Here are a few resources if you'd like to learn more about the different varieties and styles of tequila:

    • 10 Questions About Tequila, Answered (Thrillist)
    • What’s the Deal With Extra Añejo Tequila, And Is It Actually Worth It? (InsideHook)
    • Learn about Tequila: Everything you need to know (Decanter)

    Squeezing grapefruit juice into a jigger.
    Pouring tequila into a cocktail shaker.
    Pouring a guava cocktail into a glass of ice.

    📌 Guava nectar vs. guava juice

    This guava cocktail recipe calls for guava nectar. Guava nectar is a product made from the pulp that comes from crushed fresh guava.

    Fruit nectars are diluted with water and additional ingredients and/or sweeteners. They are often more affordable and readily available than pure fruit juices, especially when it comes to tropical fruit.

    You can often find guava nectar sold in cartons in the Mexican or Latin food aisle at the grocery store.

    There's some great info on the differences between juice and nectar in this article over at The Daring Kitchen.

    Overhead view of 2 guava tequila cocktails on a tray with fresh citrus fruit.

    ✅ How to make this recipe

    This recipe comes together really quickly. We're using a mix of fresh and store-bought juices here. Adding the ingredients to your cocktail shaker in order of least expensive to most will help ensure you don't waste any of the "good stuff" if you accidentally goof up the measurements.

    1. Add a king cube (a large ice cube also known as an "agitator cube") or several normal-sized ice cubes to your cocktail shaker.
    2. Pour in your juices, guava nectar, triple sec, and tequila, and shake well.
    3. Strain and pour in a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge and grapefruit twist, if desired.

    See recipe card below for full instructions.

    🍊 Tips for juicing citrus

    This recipe calls for fresh grapefruit juice, which you can absolutely squeeze by hand if needed. If you juice a lot of oranges or grapefruit, you may want to look into getting a large citrus squeezer like the one pictured above.

    Large citrus squeezer ready to make a cocktail.

    This is much larger than the standard lemon squeezer that can handle lemons and limes. The larger squeezer can also juice smaller citrus fruits, so if you only want to buy one gadget, I'd recommend that one.

    I've mentioned this tip in my virtual cooking classes before, but I still share it every time just in case anyone doesn't know about it...

    Lime in a citrus juicer.

    When you're putting halved citrus fruit into one of these squeezer-style juicers, you want to put the flat, cut side down into the tool.

    When I first used a squeezer I'd put it curved side-down to match the arch of the tool. But you want to do the opposite - that allows the squeezer to press down into the fruit, really getting all that juice out of the fruit.

    Grapefruit in a citrus juicer.

    Another quick tip is that if you want to make a citrus twist garnish, use a vegetable peeler or swivel peeler (my current favorite) before you cut into your fruit.

    Once you've grabbed some strips of zest, go ahead and juice that wonky-looking fruit.

    We even sometimes grab zest from fruit and then pop the rest of the fruit into a stasher bag in the fridge if we only need the zest.

    Pouring guava cocktails into glasses filled with ice.

    🔪 Equipment

    Aside from the aforementioned gear, there are a few things that will help make your cocktail mixing go much more smoothly.

    • A jigger for measuring your ingredients.
    • A cocktail shaker for mixing everything together.
    • King cube ice cube tray (if you want to make large ice cubes)
    • Cocktail picks or bamboo skewers for holding garnishes (I used these arrow cocktail picks for these photos)
    • A Hawthorne strainer if your shaker doesn't have a built-in strainer.

    Holding a guava cocktail glass garnished with lime and grapefruit.

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    Guava cocktails on a tray with fresh citrus fruit in the background.

    Guava Cooler Tequila Cocktail Recipe - Tropical and Refreshing!

    ★ 5 Stars ☆ ★ 4 Stars ☆ ★ 3 Stars ☆ ★ 2 Stars ☆ ★ 1 Star ☆ No reviews
    • Author: Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen – Ashley Covelli
    • Prep Time: 5 minutes
    • Cook Time: 0 minutes
    • Total Time: 5 minutes
    • Yield: 1 cocktail 1x
    • Category: Beverage
    • Method: Cocktail Shaker
    • Cuisine: Latin
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    Description

    This guava tequila cocktail is made with guava nectar, triple sec, and a mix of fruit juices for a refreshing, tropical take on happy hour!


    Ingredients

    Units Scale
    • ½ ounce lime juice
    • ¾ ounce grapefruit juice
    • 1 ounce pineapple juice
    • 3 ounces guava nectar
    • 1 ounce triple sec
    • 2 ounces tequila blanco

    Instructions

    1. Add lime juice, grapefruit juice, pineapple juice, guava nectar, triple sec, and tequila to a cocktail shaker with one large ice cube. Shake well.
    2. Strain and pour in a highball glass filled with ice.
    3. Garnish with lime wedge and a grapefruit twist, if desired.

    Equipment

    Image of swivel peeler

    swivel peeler

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    Image of guava nectar

    guava nectar

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    Image of large citrus squeezer

    large citrus squeezer

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    Image of cocktail shaker

    cocktail shaker

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    Image of jigger

    jigger

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    Image of king cube ice cube tray

    king cube ice cube tray

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    Notes

    This recipe is a copycat version of a cocktail from The Cabin Restaurant in White Plains, New York.

    Nutrition

    • Serving Size: 1 cocktail
    • Calories: 321
    • Sugar: 26.6 g
    • Sodium: 8.2 mg
    • Fat: 0.2 g
    • Saturated Fat: 0 g
    • Carbohydrates: 33.1 g
    • Fiber: 1 g
    • Protein: 0.3 g
    • Cholesterol: 0 mg

    Keywords: guava cocktail, happy hour, tequila cocktail

    Did you make this recipe?

    Tag @bigflavors on Instagram and hashtag it #cookbigflavors

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    Hi, I'm Ashley and I’ve been writing about food & recipes here at Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen since 2006. I want to help you (yes, you!) gain confidence in the kitchen so you are excited to cook at home for yourself and your loved ones.

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    2 guava cocktails on a tray with fresh fruit in the background.