Bistro at Sunset Hills Country Club – Edwardsville, IL

The “Elite” Margarita

We have some friends that live in a subdivision with a country club. They invited us out to dinner at “The Bistro” inside the country club and as usual, I wanted to sample a Margarita . They actually had two different types of Margaritas that the country club offered, so of course I needed to try both.

The first was called the “Elite” and was made with Patron tequila. Overall, it was a tasty Margarita. However, it did have a little bit of a bitter flavor up front and was a little more “fruity” flavored than I would normally like. So I give it a 7.5.

The glass may be curvy, but the Margarita is “skinny”

The country club also offered a “skinny” Margarita for those who are counting calories. The good news is that it was made with fresh lime juice, along with club soda. The bad news is that without much of a sweet component (as one would expect from a “skinny”) the lime flavor was overpowering. There wasn’t the balance of citrus and sweet flavors that a normal Margarita would have. But again, this is an attempt at a low-calorie Margarita so I can’t really knock it too much. However, I think they could probably add a low-calorie sweetener without really adding many calories. For a test, our friend had a packet of Truvia sweetener in her purse. Truvia is mostly made from Stevia, which is an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener. I mixed in the packet of Truvia into the “skinny” and that made all the difference in the world. The sweetness balanced the tartness of the lime juice and it was actually a very good Margarita after that. The “skinny” Margarita at the Sunset Hills Country Club is tricky to rate because it isn’t a normal Margarita. So I’ll refrain from a specific rating, but I’ll say that if you are after a normal Margarita, then you probably won’t like it unless you add some sweetener to it. However, if you really like lime juice and club soda and are watching your calories, then it’s worth a try.