Marguerita Cocktail - Drink Recipe

The Margarita is the most common tequila-based cocktail, made with tequila mixed with triple sec and lime or lemon juice, often served with salt on the glass rim.

The history of Margarita

Origin of the Margarita
There are many stories about who invented the margarita and why. The following are perhaps the most commonly repeated tales of the creator of the margarita cocktail:
Barman "Willie" from Mexico City, 1934 in the employ of the Melguizo Family
Marguerite Hemery lived in the Rio Grande Valley since the 1930s and went to a restaurant in Matamoros called Los Dos Republicas. She was friends with the owner and, as the story goes, his bartender composed a special drink for her.

Danny Negrete, 1936
Ratios: 1:1:1 = 6:6:6 (33% tequila, 33% Triple Sec, 33% fresh lime juice).
According to Salvador Negrete, the son of Daniel Negrete, the family story goes that Daniel opened a bar at the Garci Crispo hotel with his brother, David. The day before David's marriage, Daniel presented the margarita as a wedding present to Margarita, his sister-in-law.
It was a combination of one-third Triple Sec, one-third tequila and one-third squeezed Mexican lime juice. The drink was not blended and was served with hand-crushed ice.

Enrique Bastate Gutierrez, early 1940s
Gutierrez, who lived in Tijuana, Mexico, boasted to have created the Margarita as a homage to actress Rita Hayworth, whose real name was Margarita Cansino.
Other versions of the story claim the Margarita was indeed named after the actress, but in the 1930s, before she adopted her screen name. As a teenager, Margarita Cansino worked as a dancer at the Foreign Club, in Tijuana, where she supposedly inspired a bartender.

Francisco "Pancho" Morales, 4th of July, 1942
A bartender, Pancho Morales invented the margarita on July 4, 1942, at a Ciudad Juárez bar named Tommy's Place. Supposedly, a woman requested a Magnolia (brandy, Cointreau, and an egg yolk topped with Champagne). Morales was a little fuzzy on the recipe; he improvised and his ersatz creation was a big hit.

Santos Cruz, 1948
According to the promotional flayer for the legendary Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas, head bartender Santos Cruz created the Margarita for singer Peggy (Margaret) Lee in 1948.
The Balinese Room was opened in 1941 and was Texas's finest nightclub with A/C, casino gambling, superb food and drinks, and stellar entertainment until the Texas Rangers finally shut it down in 1957.

Margaret Sames, December 1948
Ratios: 2:1:1 = 4:2:2 (50% tequila, 25% Triple Sec, 25% fresh lime juice).
Sames, who created the drink at her Acapulco bar, gave the reason of being "close with a lot of famous hotel and restaurant people" in introducing the margarita.
Sames used one part Cointreau, two parts tequila and one part lime juice for her margarita. Knowing that most people drank tequila preceded by a lick of salt, she chose to garnish her cocktail with a rim of coarse salt.
Sames moved to El Paso, TX in 1958 where she was well known for her lavish parties. In 1982 she appeared on NBC's Today show demonstrating the proper way to make a margarita.

Margarita - The Recipe
You will need:
Glass: 10 oz rocks or 5 oz Martini
Common ratios for a margarita are:
2:1:1 = (50% tequila, 25% Triple Sec, 25% fresh lime or lemon juice)
3:2:1 = (50% tequila, 33% Triple Sec, 17% fresh lime or lemon juice)
3:1:1 = (60% tequila, 20% Triple Sec, 20% fresh lime or lemon juice)
1:1:1 = (33% tequila, 33% Triple Sec, 33% fresh lime or lemon juice)
The standard is:
7:4:3 = (50% tequila, 29% Triple Sec, 21% fresh lime or lemon juice)
You can add 1 tsp. of powdered sugar or a dash of syrup to the mix

Put all the ingredients into a mixing glass and fill with ice. Cap with a Boston shaker and shake for a few seconds. Strain either over ice in a rocks glass or fine strain straight up into a cocktail glass that has been frosted with salt. Garnish with a perky lime wedge or lime wheel which can be used to take the salt off the rim of the glass.

If you did it right, this is how it's supposed to look like.


You have made a great Margarita. Enjoy responsibly!

Flavored liqueurs
Other than triple sec, other types of orange-flavored liqueur are sometimes used, such as Patrón Citrónge (produced in Mexico), Cointreau (produced in France), blue curaçao yielding the blue margarita. The "grand", "royal", or "Cadillac" margarita often contains Grand Marnier or Gran Gala. Such higher quality or "top shelf" margaritas will usually use a better grade of tequila as well. Often, when sweeter fruit juices or freshly puréed fruits are added to the margarita, the amount of orange-flavored liqueur is often reduced or it is eliminated entirely. In addition to orange-flavored liqueurs, secondary liqueurs may occasionally be added to the cocktail, including black raspberry-flavored Chambord.

Other fruits
Alternate fruits and juice mixtures can also be used in a margarita. When the word "margarita" is used by itself, it typically refers to the lime or lemon juice margarita, but when other juices are used, the fruits are typically added as adjectives in the name; with lime juice or lemon juice added like a condiment (and a wedge of lime often added to the glass). Examples of popular combinations are:
Raspberry margarita, with lime juice
Strawberry or peach margarita, with lemon juice
Mango margarita, with lime juice
Melon margarita, often with melon liqueur such as Midori


Margarita variations
A classic twist on the margarita is the Japanese Slipper, which substitutes a melon liqueur for the Cointreau. The Margarita can be twisted similarly to the Daiquiri, using fresh fruit, Funkin purées, syrups or liqueurs. Also using rested and aged tequilas can change the dimension of this classic tequila cocktail.

You have made some great Margaritas! Enjoy responsibly!