Maybe you don’t like margaritas.

Possibly, you’ve had too much way too cheap tequila during your formative years. Perhaps the only margaritas you’ve ever met are the ones served in giant buckets with tons of crushed ice, super sweet syrup, more cheap tequila, and not a real lime in sight, the kind of drink that leaves you with brain freeze and a profound sense of shame.

I would like to get you to reevaluate your position and give the queen of cocktails another try.

The margarita is an old drink, a classic drink, a drink that combines sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Your taste buds will be jumping around like unattended children given espressos and puppies.

As is often the case with cocktails, its origins are mysterious and likely multiple. If two people could invent the frickin’ telephone at the same time, I’m sure many people “first” shook together the three basic ingredients of this drink, tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice. The salt rim was a truly inspired touch though.

I’ve read at least six different stories about the invention of this wonderful drink, but the one I find most plausible, or at least to my liking, is a seventh. My favourite story involves some Americans wanting to get a little weird during prohibition and heading to Mexico for the purpose. We might speculate that Tijuana would have been the destination. In this story the margarita is not named after a beautiful Mexican woman but after the drink the booze travellers wanted to have in the first place, the daisy (early daisies did not have grenadine in them). Unfortunately the bar was out of rum, so tequila was substituted. Daisy in Spanish, is of course margarita. There’s much to recommend this story but there are a few things in the way as well. I propose we discuss them ’round a bar in some southern clime. I’ll likely be wearing a Diving & Chillin’ t-shirt, and I’ll buy the first rounds. Yes with an “s”, it’s a serious discussion.

And now to the mixing.

You will need a kick ass tequila of your choosing, it absolutely needs to be 100% agave, the rest is up to you. I like to mix with plata/silver or reposado, and only once in a blue moon with anejo. Currently, when I can get my hands on it, the Hornitos plata is my best bet, I love the bite it brings to the drink, but as you can infer from the pic below, it’s not always available. If mixing with reposado I add a little more tequila to offset its gentleness.

If I can’t find Hornitos, which happens frequently, my fallback is Sauza Blue, but make sure the label specifies 100% agave, I have seen some blue labels where this was not written. Things that make you go mmmm.

Hornitos, btw, is not how most people feel after a few shots (though…). Horno means oven, hornito is a little oven, it’s what  traditionally the agave piña was cooked in before fermentation. Fun fact, it’s also a geological term, it describes a low mound of cooled lava that still emits smoke. Oh yeah, you will score with that info at your next cocktail party. My pleasure.

Next you will need some orange liqueur. After extensive tests, we settled on Cointreau, dryer than generic triple sec, better tasting (to us) than Curaçao (the original one from the island) and brighter, but also much less expensive, than Grand Marnier. Though in a pinch I have used other orange liqueurs, the result is never quite perfect, Cointreau is really our favourite. As for Grand Marnier the taste profile is different, richer, woodier. It might work well as an after dinner margarita made with anejo tequila, but that would be a really different drink.

Your third ingredient is lime juice. Fresh lime juice squeezed by your own hands. Accept no substitute. And say a loud and proud HELLZNO! to any form of bar mix or powders or other such ersatzes. BUT, especially if you are in Mexico, do keep an eye out for fresh juice stands, it is sometimes possible to get lime juice there and that is an awesome time saver. Short of that however, get used to juicing those limes.

Some mixers I respect a lot use lemons and limes together in this drink, but on this we must part ways, I humbly steer you towards lime-a-palooza. However, always keep in mind rule number one of our drinkskultur, and try it out for yourself.

You will also need some salt.

The salted rim is a key ingredient of this drinks, it absolutely compliments all the flavours. Instead of doing a complete rimjob, may I suggest doing only half the glass? That way the person drinking can better gauge, with each sip, how much salt they want. To rim the glass you have two options. If your glasses are straight from the freezer you can just dunk them to the desired depth and circumference in salt you sprinkled on a plate. If your glasses are room temperature you’ll need to first run a wedge of lime around the rim, or half of it.

Should your glasses be room temperature you may choose to chill them with some ice cubes prior to riming them. Not only does this keep your drink colder longer, but it looks damn fancy and tells your guests that you know what you are doing and that you are doing this with attention to detail. As you should. There’s no reason this should be different than any other mind focusing ceremony.

Proportions.

If you like your drinks sweet, you can go 1:1:1, equal parts each. On my better focused days I tend to aim for 1.25 part tequila, 1 part of lime juice and 0.75 of cointreau, but that is a little subtle and in the heat of a party, most of the time it comes out 1.5 parts each tequila and lime juice and 1 part Cointreau with a little splash more for luck. The fun is in the experimentation, find what sends your mouth soaring. If you get goose bumps on your arms you’ve probably hit it right on the head. I honest to goodness have seen this happen.

Shaking.

Fill your shaker with ice, don’t try to save money on ice.  Pour your ingredients in, and shake it like the dickens for a solid seven steamboats. None of this lazy horizontal swirling motion. I like to shake until the tin is almost too cold to hold. This chills the liquid down lower and faster (so less dilution) and also breaks off little ice flecks that will float on top of your drink like so many reminders of perfection. Because at that point, when you pour out, that is exactly what it is and what very few bars can give you, the perfect drink in space and time. After 2 minutes sitting on the bar awaiting a waiter or travelling to you through a crowded room, it is no longer perfect. Yes I can get intense about such things. Issues yeah? Time to pour.

Hold your glass by the stem, take a good look at it. Appreciate the colour, the frost on the sides, the texture of the salt. Bring it to your lips for that first taste and let it hit you. Yes, you did well.

As a variation, especially if you are out by the grill on a hot day or maybe playing croquet in your garden (I don’t know what you get up to in your free time), you can also serve the drink on the rocks in a tumbler (but still shake it, don’t build it in the glass). It will be a quite a bit different as the ice cubes melt, but you can sip slower and for a longer time.

The margarita packs a solid punch and odds are good you are not on spring break (but if you are kudos for drinking well), so take your time. The pleasure is in the long run.