Classic Margarita
Tequila, lime, orange liqueur. Salt on the rim. Everything else is editorial.
Ingredients
- 2 oz blanco tequila (100 percent agave)
- 1 oz Cointreau (or other dry orange liqueur)
- 1 oz fresh lime juice
- 0.25 oz simple syrup, optional, to taste
- Lime wedge and flaky salt, for the rim
- Cubed ice, for shaking and serving
Method
- Run the lime wedge around half the rim of a coupe or rocks glass; press the wet rim into flaky salt.
- Add the tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, and simple syrup (if using) to a shaker filled two-thirds with ice.
- Shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds — the drink wants emulsion and aeration.
- Strain into the prepared glass. If serving on the rocks, strain over fresh cubed ice.
- Garnish with the lime wedge.
Flavor
Bright, balanced, agave-forward. Real lime juice and 100 percent agave tequila are non-negotiable; the syrupy bottled-mix versions are a different drink that shares a name.
History
Multiple founding claims compete: Carlos Herrera (Tijuana, 1938), Danny Herrera (Rosarito Beach), Margarita Sames (Acapulco, 1948), and the simpler theory that the cocktail is a tequila-substituted Daisy ("margarita" is Spanish for daisy) that evolved from American bartenders' Prohibition-era cross-border drinking. Truth is probably all of them.
Salt the half-rim, not the full rim. The drinker chooses on each sip whether to take salt with the citrus or not. A fully salted rim removes that choice.
Pairs With
- Tacos al pastor
- Ceviche
- Salty popcorn
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