Margarita
Tequila, lime and orange liqueur, with salt on half the rim
The Margarita belongs to the old daisy family, a spirit brightened with citrus and sweetened with a liqueur, and it is the one daisy the world remembers. Blanco tequila brings pepper and cooked agave, lime brings the sharpness, orange liqueur ties them with a ribbon, and a line of salt on half the rim lets each sip choose its own seasoning. Shaken hard and served cold, it is sunlight with an edge, and it has carried more parties than any drink of the twentieth century.
The classic tequila sour: blanco tequila, fresh lime juice and Cointreau with a touch of agave, shaken and served with salt on half the rim.
Ingredients
- 2 oz / 60 ml Blanco tequila, 100% agave
- 1 oz / 30 ml Lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 0.75 oz / 22 ml Cointreau
- 0.25 oz / 7.5 ml, optional Agave nectaroptional
- 1 pinch on a saucer Flaky or kosher salt, for half the rimoptional
- Technique
- Shaken
- Glass
- Double Rocks
- Ice
- Cubed
- Prep
- 4 min · Easy
- Garnish
- Lime wedge on the unsalted side of the rim; salt on half the rim.
- Approximate strength
- about 22% ABV in the glass (Estimate. Ethanol from 60 ml tequila at 40% (24 ml) and 22 ml Cointreau at 40% (8.8 ml) is about 33 ml in a 120 ml pre-dilution volume; assumed 25 percent dilution from a hard shake gives about 150 ml and roughly 22% ABV on the first sip, falling as the ice melts in the glass.)
- Allergens
- None listed
Method
Run a lime wedge around one half of the outside rim of a double rocks glass (or coupe, if serving up). Hold the glass at an angle and press that half into a saucer of salt so the salt clings to the outside only. Fill the glass with fresh cubed ice.
Salt on one side only: a shoreline, not a wall.
Measure the tequila, lime juice, Cointreau and agave nectar (if using) into the small tin of a shaker.
Pepper, citrus and orange, waiting for the cold.
Fill the large tin with cubed ice, seal and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, until the tin frosts over and is uncomfortable to hold.12s
Shake until the tin stings your palm.
Strain over the fresh ice in the salted glass, or double strain into a chilled coupe for a drink served up.
Pale green over clear ice, the salt catching the light.
Garnish with a lime wedge on the rim, placed on the unsalted side.
A wedge of lime on the clean side, for those who want more edge.
Flavor notes
Lime zest and green pepper on the nose. The first sip is tart and bright, then the tequila's cooked agave and white pepper come through, held by the Cointreau's orange and sweetness. The salt on the rim sharpens the citrus and softens the bitterness of the lime pith. Clean, short finish; it wants to be cold.
Variations
- Tommy's Margarita: 2 oz 100% agave tequila, 1 oz lime, 0.5 oz agave nectar, shaken, over ice, lime wedge; Julio Bermejo, San Francisco, early 1990s. source
- Picador: 2 parts tequila, 1 part Cointreau, 1 part lime, shaken, up; Cafe Royal Cocktail Book, 1937, the earliest printed version of the formula. source
- Spicy Margarita: Headline spec plus 2 thin jalapeno slices shaken in, chili-lime salt rim.
- Frozen Margarita: 2 oz tequila, 1 oz lime, 0.75 oz Cointreau, 0.25 oz agave, blended with 1 cup crushed ice; the 1971 Dallas machine era.
- Mezcal Margarita: Headline spec with mezcal for tequila.
Substitutions
- Cointreau: 0.5 oz (15 ml) agave nectar, no orange liqueur · Makes Tommy's Margarita: 2 oz tequila, 1 oz lime, 0.5 oz agave nectar, shaken, served over ice. The purest expression of the tequila.
- Blanco tequila: Mezcal, or a half-and-half split with tequila · Smoke and earth; the Cointreau and lime carry it well. Use the same 2 oz total.
- Cointreau: Dry curacao · Lighter and more bitter-orange; a little less lime, about 0.75 oz (22 ml), keeps the balance.
- Salt rim: Tajin-style chili-lime salt · Adds heat and a sour kick; pairs with a muddled slice of fresh jalapeno in the shaker for a spicy Margarita.
- Lime juice: Half lime, half grapefruit juice · Softer and more aromatic; with a pinch of salt in the shaker it sits between a Margarita and a Paloma.
Without alcohol
Shake 2 oz (60 ml) of a zero-proof agave spirit alternative, 1 oz (30 ml) lime juice, 0.5 oz (15 ml) agave nectar and 0.25 oz (7.5 ml) orange juice with ice, strain over fresh ice into a half-salted glass and garnish with a lime wedge. The orange juice stands in for the liqueur's aroma; the salt does the rest.
Batching
For 8 drinks combine 16 oz (480 ml) blanco tequila, 6 oz (180 ml) Cointreau and 2 oz (60 ml) agave nectar in a bottle; this keeps for weeks. Within four hours of service add 8 oz (240 ml) fresh lime juice and refrigerate. Shake each 4 oz (120 ml) portion with ice to order for the proper chill and texture. For a self-serve pitcher, add 7 oz (210 ml) cold water to the full batch, keep it on ice and pour over fresh ice into pre-salted glasses. Tajin-style chili salt on the rims is a good party option.
Origin and sources
What is documented is the shape, not the inventor. The Margarita is a tequila daisy: spirit, citrus and a sweet liqueur, a Victorian family of drinks. A Tequila Daisy is mentioned in the Moville Mail of July 23, 1936. W. J. Tarling's 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book prints a Picador of half tequila, a quarter Cointreau and a quarter lime or lemon juice, the modern Margarita's proportions under another name. Charlie Connolly's 1939 Cotton Club book has a Tequila Sour sweetened with Cointreau and served with a salted rim. The name Margarita first appears in print in a California newspaper on September 17, 1953, and Esquire named it cocktail of the month that December with a recipe of one ounce tequila, a dash of triple sec and the juice of half a lime or lemon. Sauza and Cuervo reached the American market in force in the 1950s, Mexican resort tourism grew in the 1960s, and in 1971 Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez adapted a soft-serve machine into the first frozen Margarita dispenser. In the early 1990s Julio Bermejo of Tommy's Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco replaced the orange liqueur with agave nectar, creating Tommy's Margarita, now a standard in its own right.
Contested: At least eight people are popularly credited and none is documented at the time. Danny Negrete, said to have made it for a girlfriend named Margarita at a hotel in Tehuacan in 1936. Carlos 'Danny' Herrera, said to have made it in 1947 or 1948 at Rancho La Gloria near Rosarito for actress Marjorie King, with the salt rim and a Spanish form of her name. Margaret 'Margarita' Sames, a Dallas socialite, said to have mixed it at a Christmas party in Acapulco in 1948; Robert Simonson notes that a non-bartender credited with a famous drink is a warning sign. Johnny Durlesser of the Tail o' the Cock in Los Angeles, credited in a 1955 column with making it in 1937 for a tequila distributor; the restaurant opened in 1939, so the date is at least two years adrift, though David Wondrich considers the story unlikely to be wholly invented. Also named: Dona Bertha in Taxco around 1930, Francisco 'Pancho' Morales in Ciudad Juarez on July 4, 1942, Santos Cruz in Galveston for singer Peggy Lee, and the Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana in the early 1930s. The 1937 London Picador predates every named Margarita claim, which is why this record marks the origin as contested between Mexico and the United States rather than choosing a country, and it treats the legends as legend.
- Margarita cocktail origins and history, Difford's Guide · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- Picador recipe and history, Difford's Guide · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- How Well Do You Actually Know the Margarita?, Punch (2017-05-05) · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- Margarita recipe, Punch · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- Tommy's Margarita recipe, Punch · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- Is That Classic Cocktail's Origin Story Actually True?, Punch (2019-01-07) · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
Fact check: verified · Credit: The Fabled Pour editorial team