BevX - Making Cocktails
The Unmistakable Pleasures of the Margarita

Without compare, the Margarita is the most routinely made, and consumed, cocktail in my home (albeit exclusively in the warm spring & summer months). I’m in love with everything about this emerald beauty. I love the Margarita’s pure drinkability factor. I love its simplicity and its complexity; how it brings together three commodities of substance to create something whose sum is truly greater than its parts. I love the name Margarita. It’s exotic while affable and mysterious while wholesome. Margarita could be a beautiful young lady or a perfectly matured woman, wealthy with life experience whilst having never lost the youthful glitter in her eye nor in her wry smile. Yes, this is the nature of the mind’s unaccompanied dialogue formed while seated in a relaxed position, shoes ideally off, and sipping a well-made Margarita. The Margarita is faithfully a mind and mood altering concoction.

Like many of the world’s greatest inventions or discoveries, Margarita’s origins are shrouded in mystery. There are no fewer than a dozen compelling stories of Margarita’s invention but I cannot verify any of these tales. What is understood is that this classic cocktail was likely created somewhere between the mid 1930s and 1940s. The place of birth varies from the US West to Mexico, most commonly in the popular seaside towns of Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. We also know that Tequila had long been mixed with fresh juices and has had an historical affinity with the lime. It would be a massive derailment of this commentary to chronicle all of the various claims and accounts of Margarita’s origins here in these pages. However, I will relate my favorite Margarita invention legend.

Americans Bill and Margaret Sames kept a home seaside in Acapulco, Mexico. They traveled with the jet set and counted among their friends several prominent hoteliers and restaurant owners. While entertaining a group of friends near Christmas, Margaret was dreaming up a new cocktail to serve her guests. Tequila was plentiful and Cointreau her favorite liqueur. After a few experiments she decided upon a mix of white Tequila, Cointreau with limejuice. She served the cocktail in Champagne glasses with salt adorning the rim. Her new cocktail was a hit and after days of enjoying the new creation the group decided that it needed a name. No name seemed more appropriate than the name of its creator, albeit in its Spanish translation, Margarita.

Building the perfect Margarita
No great Margarita can be made with inferior Tequila. Some may argue that the best in any category of Spirits should be relegated to a solo performer but in the case of Tequila, and the Margarita, this is simply not true. (Yes, swanky Vodka in a bold cocktail is a waste.) Tequila really comes alive in a fresh cocktail showing many of its unique flavors and marrying perfectly with most fruit juices. On the topic of fruit juices, fresh squeezed limejuice is vital to any great Margarita. Prepackaged limejuice and sourmix are just not found in a quality Margarita (see more below in “Crimes against the noble Margarita”). Orange liqueur is the third element. In many of the early, or perhaps original recipe, Cointreau is the orange liqueur of choice as it is mine. Cointreau delivers bright orange flavors with a dose of sweetness as well as being free of the influences of wood aging as is Grand Mariner and any other brandy based orange liqueur.

In my humble opinion, wood aged spirits have no place in the Margarita. Tim Boyd, Oro Azul Tequila, says, “We suggest using our Blanco in a Margarita with fresh ingredients. Our Blanco is double distilled and bottled.” In my view the Margarita is a cocktail that emphasizes and celebrates all that is fresh and vibrant. For this reason I insist upon using only the best Blanco Tequila and an orange liqueur that is also free of wood aging. Others may disagree but I believe that logic and good taste are firmly on my side. Robert Plotkin, Bar Media, concurs stating, “I am a staunch advocate of using silver tequila in Margarita, primarily because of its inherent exuberance and vitality.” Faithfully being a man of the people, Plotkin offers this caveat; “In instances where one is crafting an ultra-premium Margarita it can be advisable to use an Añejo Tequila, for the reason that the consumers perceive Añejo Tequila as more of a premium spirit.”

Last, but not least is the method. Shaken, not stirred or blitzed in the blender is the superior method. Shaking the Margarita gives the cocktail the perfect temperature, an ideal dose of water (via melted and broken ice), integrates the ingredients perfectly, and provides the ideal froth to the cocktail. Now all that is left is serving the drink. I believe that the preferred method in serving the Margarita, once shaken, is straight up in a cocktail glass (sometimes called a Martini glass). However, I am not opposed to serving it on the rocks (fresh ice, not remaining ice from the shaker) especially if you are having several, or if it’s quite a balmy day as the rocks soften the drink a bit. Salt the rim if you like.
Crimes against the noble Margarita
Bad Tequila. Inferior Tequila is an assault to our senses be it in a cocktail or served straight. The days of “gold” Tequila in a shot glass accompanied by a shaker of salt and a lime wedge are long behind us (right?). A starting point to finding quality Tequila is to find “100% Agave” printed on the label. (You can get all of the Tequila knowledge that you will ever need at BevX.com.) If those words are not present that means that you are in the presence of a “mixto” which is only required to contain just 50% agave, the sole ingredient in quality Tequila. The remaining 50% is likely the cheapest fermentable sugar available. If, while out, you asked for your favorite beer or wine and the bartender diluted it by 50% with a cheap and inferior product kept under the bar you would be understandably irritated. Why let a Tequila producer do the same thing to you?

Sourmix. The standard, pre-packaged bar sourmix is fairly criminal on its own accord but in the case of the Margarita it dares to take the place of one of the cocktail’s three essential elements, fresh limejuice. Sourmix is not used for your pleasure rather for the convenience, speed, and economy of the bar. Any bar, or bartender worth their salt will offer you only the freshest ingredients.

The blender. Another troublesome tool used in crimes against the Margarita is, in my opinion, the blender. I suppose that you could use quality Tequila & orange liqueur with fresh squeezed lime and then choose to blitz the ingredients in a blender with ice rather than shaking. However, most places offering “frozen” Margaritas are not taking care to bring the highest quality ingredients to the party. For a moment, let’s assume that your Margarita was being built with the very best elements. Is the blender still the wrong choice? Yes, it is. In the shaker the liquid ingredients begin to melt the ice on contact. When shaken the friction promotes melting as well as breaking tiny shards of ice from the cubes which quickly dissolve into the cocktail. Additionally, the shaker method allows the ingredients to become “one” as well as creating a desired amount of frothing. Post shaking, the cocktail is strained from the remaining ice as the perfect cocktail is being poured. When the blender is used, ice becomes an additional ingredient being forced into the cocktail often in excessive quantity. Remember, ice is water. To mix the three essential ingredients without shaking would render a cocktail that was unpleasantly strong while the blender method results in a diluted cocktail. Shaking the Margarita gives us a drink that is just right.

Tequila in America
Without doubt, Tequila has ascended greatly in status at the American bar. Is Tequila’s success due to better marketing efforts or a better-educated consumer? I tend to believe that it’s a bit of both. Boyd relates, “Over the past 10 years, the American consumer has become more sophisticated when it comes to Tequila. We find many wine, scotch and cognac drinkers turning their attention to 100% Blue Agave Tequila.”Plotkin hold a slightly less glowing assessment when asked about the knowledge of the American consumer. “Honestly, only a few meters more advanced than they were a decade ago. Outside of the well informed minority, most people have little understanding of what Tequila is, what it's distilled from, and the distinctions between the types.” One thing that we all can agree upon is that an educated consumer is the quality brand’s best friend. Also, we all agree that the growth of quality Tequila is a trend, not a fad.