Practical Magic Midnight Margaritas Recipe

What 90’s witch movie moment is more iconic than the Practical Magic midnight margaritas scene? 

You don’t have to be an Owen’s family woman to dance around your kitchen, a magical drink in hand. With these Practical Magic Midnight Margaritas, you too, can enjoy a bewitching brew at the witching hour!

I may not have eye of newt handy, but I assure you these margaritas are brewed with a witch’s touch.  With lavender for luck and rosemary for remembrance, you’ll fall in love with this luscious blackberry, agave, and pomegranate Practical Magic-inspired Midnight Margaritas recipe. 

So whether you’re breaking generational love curses in Owen’s family fashion, or shaking off the bad energy of the day (with a little lime and salt), this magic margarita will have you dancing in your witch’s kitchen.

In this blog post, I will walk you through how I arrived at my recipe, the meaning and (practical) magic of the ingredients, optional nonalcoholic substitutions for magic margarita mocktail, and how to brew up some margarita magic of your own!

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Creating A Practical Magic Margarita

As the cocktail witch who authored WitchCraft Cocktails in 2020 and has been posting on the subject since 2017, you gotta wonder why I didn’t do this sooner! Making Practical Magic midnight margaritas has certainly been on my list for a long time. 

However, there were a few things this midnight margaritas recipe had to hit for me:

• Include ingredients from the film’s opening lines: rosemary, lavender & salt
• Be true to Practical Magic & witchcraft themes
• Be darker in color. With a name like “Midnight Margarita,” I wanted this drink recipe to have that visual appeal to match the name (while still accessible)
• Taste great blended & shaken. While blended margaritas are the bane of most bartender’s existence, the Owen’s women made their midnight margaritas in a blender in the iconic movie scene.
• Be accessible, while still authentic & unique. While as a professional mixologist, I love to make layered recipes, the truth is not everyone has access to (or the time for) complicated ingredients. Plus, if you’re gonna sip this practical magic margarita while watching the movie, you want to keep the margarita magic flowing. It’s called “practical” magic after all!
• Use agave nectar. Agave nectar really melds better with tequila, and honestly is probably better for you than straight up sugar (but don’t take my word for it!).
• Be adaptable. I also wanted this midnight margaritas practical magic recipe to be alterable. This way, everyone can enjoy a midnight margarita, whether you’re making a nonalcoholic version, or substituting things out.

So, after lots of avoidance and finally some experimentation, I arrived at this recipe. Each ingredient in this midnight margaritas recipe is added with intention. So unlock your inner magic, and learn the herbology and meaning of each ingredient in this witches brew margarita.

Magical Ingredients for Midnight Margaritas

Whether it’s rosemary for remembrance, or lavender for luck, every ingredient in your witches brew margarita has a purpose & intention. In witchcraft, every ingredient has an energy, intention, or spirit associated with it. To make midnight margaritas Practical Magic style, each ingredient has a purpose. Whether you’re a beginner or experienced witch, learn more about the ingredient inspiration in this midnight margarita recipe. Below you’ll find the magic and folklore behind each ingredient in this cocktail recipe. 

Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder,
Keep rosemary by your garden gate,
Plant lavender for luck,
And fall in love whenever you can.

~Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic 1995 (from the Film Adaptation, 1998)

Ingredients at-a-glance

• Blackberries
• Rosemary, Fresh
• Lavender, Dried
• Agave Nectar
• Hawaiian Black Lava Salt (for a witchy touch) or Sea Salt
• Pomegranate Juice
• Orange Liqueur (Cocktail Version), or Lyre Orange Sec (for Nonalcoholic, Mocktail Version)
• Tequila, Joven or Anejo (Cocktail version) or for Nonalcoholic, Mocktail Version: Seedlip Garden 108 NA Sub or Jalisco 55 for Smoky Flavors

Disclaimer: The content on this website is provided for general informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as, nor should it be considered as any kind of medical claim. Always seek the advice of your physician before changing your health regimen.

Ingredients & Their Magical Meaning

• Blackberry: Beyond helping to add a darker color to this Practical Magic recipe, blackberry is a powerful ingredient in witchcraft. It is associated with the goddess Brigid and the fae. As a berry, blackberry is a symbol of abundance and sensuality, yet with long thorny vines for protection.

• Pomegranate: Pomegranate is another powerful witchy ingredient that will also contribute to the darker color of this magic margarita. This fruit has a history of use in magical ink, or even as a replacement for blood in ritual. And if that’s not witchy enough, this pomegranate is also associated with the greek goddess of the Underworld (and Spring) Persephone. With plentiful seeds, it’s also symbolic of abundance, fertility, and luck.

• Rosemary: A Practical Magic cocktail has to have rosemary! “Rosemary for remembrance,” rings true to the magic of this ingredient. Rosemary is often used for clarity, cleansing energy, and the mind (for peace, but also memory and focus).

• Lavender – With those famous opening lines (“plant lavender for luck”), this Practical Magic midnight margaritas recipe needed lavender. In witchcraft, lavender shares a lot of themes with its uses in aromatherapy: peace, calm, and stress relief. But this also extends to communication, harmony, and attraction magic in modern witchcraft.

• Lime –  You can’t have a margarita without lime! In magical practices, lime is great for cleansing away hexes and getting energy moving. And if you’re lucky, perhaps you can score some from Barbados just like the Owens Family.

• Salt – Salt is part of the Owen’s family iconic midnight margaritas recipe, so of course I had to use it! In witchcraft, salt is for cleansing, protection, grounding, and to represent the earth element. For an extra witchy touch, I use Hawaiian black lava salt (food grade), but you can use any food-grade salt you have on hand. (Please be sure to use food-grade and be conscious of activated charcoal and the impact it may have on any medications.) 

• Orange – The best margaritas always have orange in them. In magical folklore, oranges are often associated with themes like inspiration, luck, wellbeing, and abundance.

• Agave Nectar & Tequila – And of course, Tequila! You can also use anejo or a nonalcoholic substitute. As a professional bartender, you just have to mix a margarita with agave nectar. If you want to learn more about the magic of agave and tequila, check out my mixology books: WitchCraft Cocktails and Moon, Magic, Mixology

Nonalcoholic Substitutes

Magic brings people from all walks of life, so I always love to create nonalcoholic versions where I can. And with the growing plethora of zero-proof spirits, it’s getting more and more possible for every cocktail to have an equal mocktail or nonalcoholic version. Here are my suggestions for making this magic margarita nonalcoholic:

• Orange – For a nonalcoholic margarita, I tried Lyre’s Orange Sec. I have honestly been pretty impressed with this and recommend it as a great replacement for triple sec or orange curaçao. I haven’t tested it (because I didn’t want to the recipe to be juice-like) but you can also try fresh orange juice. 

• Tequila Replacement – I tried Seedlip’s Garden 108 and thought it worked great. While Garden 108 isn’t a tequila replacement, it can get expensive trying to find equal substitutions for every spirit. And this one worked well with the flavors of the recipe! If you want that smokey tequila-like flavor, I’ve also tried Jalisco 55. If you’d rather not invest in a replacement for the spirit, you can also experiment with using soda water (added last) or seeing if the zero-proof margarita even needs it at all. 

Blended vs. Shaken Midnight Margaritas

Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog.

Adder’s fork and blindworm’s sting, Barbados lime is just the thing!

Cragged salt like a sailor’s stubble, Flip the switch and let the cauldron bubble!

~Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic 1995 (from the Film Adaptation, 1998)

In the iconic Practical Magic movie scene, they blend their magic margaritas. It certainly adds to the fun of the moment! I designed this practical magic midnight margaritas recipe so that you can shake or blend. 

Blending allows for you to easily make more than one (great for a Practical Magic Movie night) and takes away the need to muddle or the work of shaking. Just note that it can dilute the midnight margaritas faster, so keep any extra chilled in the fridge.

So whether your “cauldron” is a shaker or a blender, you can enjoy midnight margaritas Practical Magic-style!

Practical Magic Midnight Margaritas Recipe

Ingredient Themes: Luck, Lust, Purification, Protection, Abundance

With lavender for luck and rosemary for remembrance, you’ll fall in love with this luscious blackberry, agave, and pomegranate Practical Magic Midnight Margaritas recipe. This magic margarita doesn’t just have ingredients used in the movie, but also ones that correspond to themes of love, lust, purification, and abundance. 

Blackberry and pomegranate contributes to a darker, red-purple color (befitting the name midnight). They also add the themes of abundance, luck, and lust. Lime is great for love and removing hexes, and Hawaiian Lava Salt adds a spooky touch for protection and grounding. (And if you spill any, be sure to throw it over your left shoulder!). 

Practical Magic Margarita Fun

Whether you are falling in love (when you can), or breaking generational love curses (like the Owen’s women), you can have a bit of fun while you do it. So grab your cauldron (or a blender or shaker) and throw a movie night with some practical magic midnight margaritas or dance in your kitchen at the witching hour with a magical margarita in hand.