The Secret Ingredient for the Ultimate Summer Margarita: Grilled Pineapple

When the warm weather finally settles in for the spring and summer months, I’m outside cooking just about everything on my grill—even my cocktails. If grilling for company, my mentality is that I may as well put those hot coals to good use and come up with a creative grilled drink for everyone, which is how this big-batch smoky pineapple margarita recipe was born. 

This margarita gets its distinct golden hue and smoky sweet flavor from charred pineapple rings and limes that are blended with standard margarita ingredients like good quality 100% agave blanco tequila (or reposado if you prefer and have the budget) and triple sec (preferably Cointreau) before it’s strained and chilled for serving. It’s a batch-sized cocktail that’s large enough for a gathering, but you can easily scale the recipe in half to make enough for just a couple of margaritas.

If you’re a margarita purist, now is probably the time you should click away and check out our classic margarita recipe. But, if you approach your margaritas with a “more is more” mentality, this is definitely a riff you should try.

Fruit-forward margaritas can be cloyingly sweet and overshadow tequila’s nuanced, grassy, floral, and mild citrus flavor. The key, then, is to make a fruity, fun margarita where the added flavors actually enhance the tequila, and don’t cover it up. Grilling the pineapple and limes over a hot fire with smoldering wood chips imparts a delicious charred and smoky flavor. The fruits caramelize and sweeten while developing a subtle and complex smokiness, for a drink that’s fruity and festive, without being too sweet.

The Grill Setup

I’ve written this recipe with instructions for both a charcoal and gas grill setup. But the truth is the grilling of the fruit works just as well if you’re using the last of the smoldering embers of your grill, or even right when you’re firing up the grill. The fruit needs only a few minutes to cook, so it’s easy to do it while grilling other foods. 

Whether using a charcoal or gas grill, the best way to achieve the smoke is to make a foil packet with wood chips and place it directly over the heat source. For a charcoal grill, this is on the hot coals, and for a gas grill this is over the primary burner (that’s the burner that ignites first on the grill). Enclosing the wood chips in a foil packet is just a neater, easier way to add the loose wood—just make sure to cut a few vent slits roughly two inches in length on the top so the smoke escapes in a steady flow. Of course, you could skip this smoking step entirely and still have a delicious, though sweeter charred-fruit margarita.

A Note on the Smoke

My favorite ingredient in this margarita is the one not even listed: The smoke. You might be wondering why I didn’t just call for mezcal given the smoky flavor I was chasing.The answer is that the smoke imparted in this grilled drink is softer and more subtle than that of most mezcals. So while you can use mezcal, I find it overtakes the smoky notes from the grilled fruit and shifts the drink in a very different direction

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