Margarita

The Margarita is one of the best-known cocktails in the World, a simple blending of Tequila, Triple Sec, and Lime juice served in a glass with a salted rim that has been wowing crowds, and getting people into party mode for over eighty years.

The blending of a spirit, a liqueur, and citrus juice makes the Margarita part of the Daisy family of cocktails, the Sidecar, and the Cosmopolitan being two other well-known Daisy cocktails.

Quite who was the first to mix a margarita is lost to history, and while among the many claimants there are some compelling cases, it is impossible to know exactly who came up with the recipe first. The Café Royal Cocktail book published in 1936 has a recipe for a Picador, which uses the same ratios of the same ingredients as a Margarita, which leads us to understand that the Margarita was around before it was called a Margarita.

Tequila mogul Jose Cuervo claimed that the Margarita was invented in 1938 but does not tell us where or by whom. People were claiming the Margarita as their creation right up to 1961, which is quite ludicrous when it is known that Jose Cuervo was advertising the Margarita as early as 1942.

As versatile as any other cocktail the Margarita can be served in three slightly different forms; on the rocks, straight up, or frozen. For the first two here the only difference is ice in the glass or not, but for a frozen Margarita crushed ice is blended with the ingredients. It should be noted that when making a frozen cocktail the ice will wash out a lot of the sweetness and dilute the alcohol, so a frozen Margarita will need the essential flavours ramped up a little.

50ml Silver Tequila

25ml Cointreau or Triple Sec

25ml Lime Juice

10ml Sugar Syrup

If using a homemade Lime Syrup replace the Lime Juice and Sugar Syrup with 35ml of your Lime Syrup.

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled Margarita glass with a lightly salted rim and garnish with a Lime wedge.