The BEST Margarita Cocktail Recipes, Variations and Origin
The ultimate Margarita cocktail recipe, Variations and History Guide
Looking for the ultimate Margarita cocktail recipe? Throughout this guide we will go through the classic Margarita cocktail recipe as well as all the popular and best Margarita cocktail variations you can make.
But first, let’s cover the basics.
The Popularity of the Margarita Cocktail
The Margarita is incredibly popular and it's easy to see why, it’s perfect balance of sweet and sour makes for easy and delicious drinking. Part of the reason it's grown so popular is because of how many variations there are to the Margarita recipe. Although it’s only this year that the Margarita has managed to make it to the most popular cocktail of the year.
It's the perfect example of a cocktail that you can use as a guide or a base to creating your very own cocktail recipes. Just swap out the syrup or orange liqueur and replace them with whatever you’d like.
I love Margaritas, they’re hands down my favourite cocktail, so as you can imagine, I’ve created enough margarita twists to make a margarita cocktail recipe book if I wanted. Actually that’s not a bad idea…
Note to self. Margarita cocktail book.
Margarita Drink Ingredients
In it’s most simple form, the Margarita cocktail consists of just 3 ingredients; Tequila, Cointreau and Lime Juice.
The lime juice is what makes it sour.
Cointreau Sweetens the Margarita Cocktail and gives it an orange flavor.
Then the heart of the Margarita Cocktail is the Tequila. Without the Tequila it simply isn’t a Margarita. Swap it for gin and it’s a White Lady, swap it for rum and it’s a Daquiri. So out of all the ingredients, the Tequila is the most important for making it an actual Margarita.
Optionally, a lot of people like to add sugar syrup or agave syrup to their Margarita’s for extra sweetness. But technically, that’s more of a Tommy’s Margarita (which we will get into during the Margarita Variations section).
The Best Tequila for The Margarita
The heart of any Margarita is the Tequila, to understand how to make a great Margarita, you must first understand Tequila. Check out this ultimate guide on tequila which explains how it’s made and what exactly tequila is.
After that, check out this guide on agave to understand more about what goes in to this amazing cocktail.
You always want to go for the 100% agave tequila. It’ll cost a little bit extra but not much and believe me, its worth the extra 30 pence or so in a bar or extra £5 for a bottle. It’s easy to find the good stuff. It will say on the front of the bottle if they use 100% agave or not.
Check out Ocho 8 for a solid blanco tequila or Herradura for an amazing reposado.
The Margarita cocktail Origins
The origins of the Margarita cocktail are just as shrouded in mystery as Tequila itself. There's tales a plenty and everyone has their theory about the origins or someone who has laid claim to the discovery of the Margarita.
There is however, a lot of evidence that suggests that the Margarita cocktail was invented in 1938 by Tijuana-based Carlos ‘Danny’ Herrera. But as you will learn below, the Margarita is essentially a variation on the “Tequila Daisy” cocktail.
So to find the origins of the Margarita, you’d have to go back and find the origins of the tequila daisy. Even then you’d have debates over if the person who gave it the name ‘Margarita’ should be credited with its creation, or the person who first mixed the ingredients…
That being said, there are some interesting stories out there which make for good reads. However, and mind the pun, It's best you take them with a pinch of salt.
6 Margarita Cocktail Facts
The first frozen margarita machine was invented in 1971.
After seeing a Slurpee machine in a 7-Eleven, 26-year-old Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez transformed a soft-serve ice cream machine into one that pumped out frosty margaritas.
The world’s largest margarita was made in Las Vegas.
The Flamingo Hotel’s Margaritaville Casino in Las Vegas holds the honour of making the largest margarita in the world. The “Lucky Rita” was 8500 gallons (32,176 litres) in a 17-foot-tall tank and took 60 people 300 hours to create.
Friday, 22nd February is national Margarita day.
Margarita Day was established by Nationalmargaritaday.com to help celebrate this amazing drink.
Margarita means Daisy in Spanish.
The Daisy is an old sour drink from the prohibition era. It consists of a base spirit, sugar and sour. It’s a recipe that has inspired cocktails from the Margarita to the side car. The original Margarita cocktail would have been called a Tequila daisy.
The most expensive margarita cost a whopping $1200.
That's £970.82. It’s sold at a Hotel bar in New York and rightly named “The Billionaires Margarita” and wouldn’t you believe it, it's a frozen margarita. The reason it fetches such a high price is due to its costly ingredients. The tequila alone costs around $1800 dollars. The margarita is poured into a Ralph Lauren hand-blown Hungarian crystal glass that can be taken home afterwards.
The first known publication of a margarita recipe was in 1953.
It was published in December 1953 in an issue of esquire and called for “an ounce of tequila, a dash of triple sec and the juice of half a lime or lemon”
Margarita Salt
A margarita is noticeable in its salted rim. But why do we do this?
Why do we salt the rim of a Margarita?
The salt helps bring out the sweet and sour flavours within the drink. It softens the bitter notes and enhances the drinks aroma. Salt stimulates your gustatory receptor cell, which makes up your taste buds.
The fact is, a pinch of salt will help enhance most drinks. You want to add enough to intensify the flavours, but not so much that you can taste the salt.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the salted rim Margarita, I find it to be overpowering and inconsistent. Depending on how much salt you get with each sip you can either get one big hit of salt and that's all you can taste, or you get little to no salt.
However, I do believe the salt helps what could be considered “simple cocktails” so I opt for a different approach.
Saline for Margaritas
A good way to do this is to add a few drops of a Saline solution. Which is what i do. Saline is just salt water. Salt can be difficult to dissolve in cocktails so by mixing it with boiling water first. Then adding it by drops, makes for much easier mixing and consistency.
Full recipe and guide to saline found here.
The Classic Margarita Cocktail Recipe
The Classic Margarita Cocktail
Ingredients
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with cubed ice.
- Fine strain into a chilled coupe glass (with salt around the rim if preferred) or a rocks glass.
Notes
Keep scrolling for all the best Margarita Variations including the Watermelon Margarita and Mezcal Margarita.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
182.86Fat
0.28 gSat. Fat
0 gCarbs
45.71 gFiber
0.22 gNet carbs
45.47 gSugar
39.04 gProtein
0.17 gSodium
2.84 mgCholesterol
0 mgThe nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Margarita Cocktail Variations
As for the best Margarita Cocktails, there are a whole lot you could choose from. But below are by far the most popular and the best ones. Every time I hear or taste a new Margarita that deserves to be on this list, I shall add it.
Meaning this list will be constantly updated and you can have faith that I personally have tried and tested each of these Margarita recipes.
Tommy’s margarita
The Tommy’s margarita was created in the early 1990’s by Julio Bermejo. A bar owner from San Francisco. He named the cocktail after his parents restaurant - Tommy’s.
Julio has become a legend in the drinks industry for his creation of the Tommy’s margarita and his knowledge of Tequila. The Tommy’s margarita has become a staple of cocktail variations and is seen on bar menus across the world.
Recipe
50ML 100% Agave Tequila
25ML Fresh lime juice
15ML Agave syrup
1 Pinch of salt or 3 dashes of saline (Optional)
Method
Mix all ingredients in a shaker with cubed ice.
Fine strain into a chilled coupe glass (with salt around the rim if preferred)
Mezcal Margarita
As the name suggest this Margarita recipe uses Mezcal as well as Tequila. Mezcal adds a smokiness to this cocktail, almost like Whiskey.
If you love whisky but don’t like Margaritas, this is the recipe for you.
Get the Mezcal Margarita recipe here.
Aloe Vera Margarita
A functional twist on the classic margarita cocktail with the addition of aloe vera juice, perfect for Cinco de Mayo at home. This, is the Aloe Vera Cocktail.
Get the Aloe Vera Margarita recipe here.
Picante de la Casa
Created by Chris Ojeda at the West Hollywood bar and restaurant ‘Soho House’ the Picante De La Casa cocktail also goes by the name ‘Soho House Tonic’ as it quickly became the most popular serve in all the Soho Houses globally. The popularity of this cocktail has been solidified in 2021 when it made it to the 17th spot on the Diffords Guides top 100 cocktail list.
Get the Picante de la Casa recipe here.
Watermelon Margarita
The Watermelon Margarita is a summertime classic with a bunch of ways to make it. And today, we’ll be going through all those recipes and more. With this best ever Watermelon Margarita recipe which also happens to be super easy to make with just 3 ingredients.
Get the Watermelon Margarita recipe here.
Spicy Margarita
This recipe will take you through the best ever spicy margaritas. Including the Jalapeno Margarita and a Padron Pepper Margarita. It also shows you how to create Jalapeno infused Tequila and Padron Pepper Tequila.
Get the Spicy Margarita recipe here.
Little Mermaid Frozen Margarita
When it comes to the humble frozen margarita, there are so many ways to go about it but this one right here, this one is just pure amazing. It’s both a blue margarita and frozen margarita in 1.
Get the Little Mermaid Frozen Margarita recipe here.
Halloween Margarita
As for Halloween and all your spooky drink lovers. No cocktail hit’s the brief quite like the Halloween Margarita.
Get the Halloween Margarita recipe here.
Non-Alcoholic Margarita
Now for all you who are not drinking/those who just want to slow it down. For that you need the Virgin Margarita, also known as the Margarita Mocktail, but better known as the best ever non-alcoholic Margarita cocktail recipe.
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Hi, I’m Cameron, guv’nor of Smartblend and author of this article. If you liked this then you’re in luck, I have a bunch of agave spirit content here. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up below to receive the Smartblend monthly newsletter!