Last updated on November 25th, 2020
This Low Carb Keto Rosemary Margarita is a refined sugar free holiday version of your favorite tequila drink. It’s made with simple ingredients that you likely already have sitting around this time of year. It’s sweetened with a homemade sugar free rosemary simple syrup. Complete with fresh lemon, orange and lime juice. Add a healthy pinch of salt if you love salty margaritas like us! This drink is definitely boozy, as well as a bit savory, sweet, herbaceous, citrusy and refreshing, all while being well balanced and under 4 net carbs per drink.
Looking for a fun and festive holiday cocktail to enjoy the holidays at home this year? Fear not! We’ve got you covered! This Low Carb Keto Rosemary Margarita was something we came up with in December of 2019, and man, we never looked back. Many margaritas are sweetened with orange liqueur, and other super sugary ingredients. Not ours! We make our very own sugar free simple syrup that’s steeped with fresh rosemary, and it’s just so refreshing!
Making your own simple syrup is truly an amazing way to create some wonderful quality drinks, and level up any night of drinking at home. As we’re sure you’ve noticed on this site, most of our drinks are 10 net carbs or under, meaning you can imbibe a little bit, without worrying about throwing off a low carb or low sugar lifestyle! We have plenty of fun creating cocktails like this, and there’s so many flavors to choose from. We aim to show you just how tasty and fun a low sugar lifestyle can be. Keep reading to see how to make this super tasty rosemary margarita!
Here’s What You Need For This Low Carb Rosemary Margarita:
- Fresh squeezed lemon juice
- Freshly squeezed orange juice
- Fresh squeezed lime juice
- Tequila of choice (reposado)
- Homemade sugar free rosemary simple syrup* (made with allulose sweetener, water, and rosemary, see instructions below!
- Pink Himalayan salt or kosher salt+ more to rim your glass
- Citrus wedges and rosemary sprigs for garnish
What Sweetener Do I Use To Make The Sugar Free Rosemary Simple Syrup?
We advise sweetening this to taste with the homemade rosemary simple syrup. We use allulose for most of our simple syrups, because it is amazing and it won’t crystallize like other sweeteners. Feel free to use other sweeteners to make a simple syrup, but we have to warn you that they won’t work the same. We really only have experience with allulose. It is slightly less sweet than sugar, so when making simple syrup, add 1 and 1/4 cup for every 1 cup of water to achieve the sweetness level of sugar. This simple syrup will keep indefinitely in the fridge. As long as it smells okay, it’s probably fine to use. We’d give a range of 7-10 days to be safe, but it will likely last for much longer than that.
For this drink, we do advise using about 1.5 ounces of simple syrup per cocktail (so at least 3 ounces for 2 cocktails), because this is really the only element of the drink that adds much sweetness. Of course you will get some sweetness from the citrus juices, but they are also quite tart. We promise that 3 ounces will give you that lovely hint of rosemary while balancing the sweet and tart. This isn’t too sweet for most palates.
Will This Rosemary Margarita Kick Me Out Of Ketosis?
Honestly, this is a hard question to answer, since ketosis is a metabolic state. Keto isn’t a food! Ketosis is basically the absence of carbs and sugars, and using fat for fuel in your body. While some foods are higher in carbs and sugar than others, we pretty much believe in eating what you want to an extent. When you’re first starting out with a low carb lifestyle, it might be easier to limit some things, but in time, we have found that moderation for us is key.
Alcohol in general can be known to kick people out of ketosis, because alcohol will be used for fuel before any other food source. After alcohol, your body will turn to carbs for fuel, and then lastly, fat burning! Basically, on nights of heavier drinking, your body is running off of alcohol before anything else. When you add extra sugars and carbs to the mix with your alcohol, things can get a little tricky.
We will provide a more detailed breakdown of the nutrition facts of this drink below, but overall, this drink is only 3.9 net carbs per glass, and 1.4 grams of sugar. We think that’s pretty low carb and keto friendly! Each person is different though and how their body reacts to alcohol, and it does depend on the brands you use. We don’t like to guarantee anything, but we do hope we can guide you in the right direction of a healthier cocktail that will be fun and festive for the holidays. We’re trying not to worry too much if we get kicked out of ketosis if we decide to imbibe a little, and instead, we just worry about minimizing the carb, sugar and calorie count.
Love This Recipe? Try Some of Our Other Favorite Low Carb Holiday Inspired Cocktails!
- Apple Cider Bourbon Cocktail
- Spiced Apple Cider Spritzer
- Rosé Ginger Paloma
- Spiced Cranberry Old Fashioned
- Fall Harvest Whiskey Sangria
- Spiced Pear Moscow Mule with Lemon
Tools:
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cup
- Jigger (for measuring alcohol)
- Sauce pan
- Metal Sieve/Strainer
- Jar for simple syrup
- Heavy duty citrus squeezer
- Cocktail shaker
Need supplies for this recipe? We’ve linked our favorites above and right here in our Amazon Store! You don’t pay anything extra if you shop using our link, but we get a small percentage of the sale. A Full Living is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associate program, an affiliate advertising program designed to promote a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking products to amazon.com. We only share products we use and love. It doesn’t cost you anything extra to shop using our links, but we earn a small commission that helps us keep this site going!
Let’s Make This Low Carb Keto Rosemary Margarita:
The first step will be preparing the rosemary simple syrup. You can do this up to 10 days in advance. You can store the simple syrup in the fridge to use for later! We don’t know exactly how long this will last, but as long as it smells okay, we think it’s probably fine to use.
Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, then stir in your allulose (or sweetener of choice). Once the sweetener is dissolved, add in your rosemary. Move the heat to low. Steep for 30 minutes to 1 hour. We steeped it for 30 minutes and felt it had a lovely flavor, although longer would have been preferred for an even stronger flavor.
After at least 30 minutes have passed, strain the simple syrup into a jar. Once it’s cooled down a bit, add it to your cocktails! Set aside until you’re ready to use.
Next, prepare your orange, lemon and lime juices. Then measure 1.5 ounces of lemon juice, 1 ounce of orange juice and 1 ounce of lime juice and pour them into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
Next, measure out 3 ounces of your pre-made rosemary simple syrup (or to taste, see notes) and add to the cocktail shaker. Also add in your tequila. Add in your salt, and then shake until your shaker is icy cold, about 30 seconds.
Strain into ice filled glasses that you’ve rimmed with lime juice and salt.
Garnish with pieces of citrus of choice, and a rosemary sprig. We used pieces of orange for a pop of color!
If you get a chance to try this low carb keto rosemary margarita, let us know what you think, would ya?! Leave us a comment, or catch up with us on Facebook or Instagram, or pin to your favorite Pinterest board for later. We love sharing your versions of our creations over on Instagram @afullliving! Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to subscribe to our email newsletter so you’re the first to know about new recipes we post on our blog.
Until next time,
Briana & Chamere
This Low Carb Keto Rosemary Margarita is a refined sugar free holiday version of your favorite tequila drink. It's made with simple ingredients that you likely already have sitting around this time of year. It's sweetened with a homemade sugar free rosemary simple syrup. Complete with, fresh lemon, orange and lime juice. Add a healthy pinch of salt if you love salty margaritas like us! This drink is definitely boozy, as well as a bit savory, sweet, herbaceous, citrusy and refreshing, all while being well balanced and under 4 net carbs per drink.
- 1 cup water
- 1 & 1/4 cup allulose (or preferred sweetener)
- 5 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1.5 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 ounce fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
- 4 ounces tequila of choice
- 3 ounces homemade sugar free rosemary simple syrup* (made with allulose sweetener, see notes and instructions)
- 1/2 tsp pink Himalayan salt + more to rim your glass
- Citrus wedges and rosemary sprigs for garnish
The first step will be preparing the rosemary simple syrup. You can do this up to 10 days in advance. You can store the simple syrup in the fridge to use for later! We don’t know exactly how long this will last, but as long as it smells okay, we think it’s probably fine to use.
Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, then stir in your allulose (or sweetener of choice). Once the sweetener is dissolved, add in your rosemary. Move the heat to low. Steep for 30 minutes to 1 hour. We steeped it for 30 minutes and felt it had a lovely flavor, although longer would have been preferred for an even stronger flavor.
After at least 30 minutes have passed, strain the simple syrup into a jar. Once it’s cooled down a bit, add it to your cocktails! Set aside until you’re ready to use.
Next, prepare your orange, lemon and lime juices. Then measure 1.5 ounces of lemon juice, 1 ounce of orange juice and 1 ounce of lime juice and pour them into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
Next, measure out 3 ounces of your pre-made rosemary simple syrup (or to taste, see notes) and add to the cocktail shaker. Also add in your tequila. Add in your salt, and then shake until your shaker is icy cold, about 30 seconds.
Strain into ice filled glasses that you’ve rimmed with lime juice and salt.
Garnish with pieces of citrus of choice, and a rosemary sprig. We used pieces of orange for a pop of color!
Enjoy responsibly!
Macros: Makes 2 cocktails, 159 calories, 2.3g sugar, 4.8g total carbs, 0.9g fiber, making 3.9g net carbs. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of these macros, they are provided as a courtesy and estimated via MyFitnessPal.
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