50 Fun Facts About Margarita

What are the three classic ingredients of a margarita?

It is the most popular tequila cocktail in the United States and can be served on the rocks, straight up or frozen.

What does the Spanish word 'margarita' mean in English?

Cocktail historian David Wondrich links the drink to the brandy daisy, remade with tequila.

What is traditionally rubbed on the rim of a margarita glass?

Tajín, the chili-lime seasoning, is an increasingly common alternative.

What is the International Bartenders Association ratio of the spirit to the liqueur to the citrus?

Cointreau's own 'Original Margarita' is 1 part tequila to half a part each of Cointreau and lime.

For which dancer, allergic to every spirit but tequila, did Carlos Herrera claim to invent the margarita in 1938?

The story, set at his Rancho La Gloria between Tijuana and Rosarito, was debunked by the San Diego Reader in 1992.

Which Ensenada bar claims the margarita was created there in 1941 for a customer named Margarita Henkel?

Bartender Don Carlos Orozco supposedly named it for the regular; whether she was an ambassador's daughter is disputed.

In which city did Francisco 'Pancho' Morales say he first mixed a margarita on July 4, 1942?

He later moved to the US and worked as a milkman for 25 years.

Dallas socialite Margarita Sames said she invented the drink in 1948 at her holiday home in which resort?

The best-selling tequila brand was already advertising margaritas in 1945 with the slogan 'It's more than a girl's name'.

Which singer supposedly had the drink named after her by Santos Cruz in Galveston in 1948?

Margarita is the Spanish form of her first name; it is one of at least half a dozen competing origin stories.

Which magazine published the first known margarita recipe as its 'Drink of the Month' in December 1953?

It called for an ounce of Sierra tequila, a dash of triple sec and the juice of half a lime or lemon.

Substituting Grand Marnier for triple sec makes which variation?

Grand Marnier's Cordon Rouge dates from 1880 and was reportedly named by hotelier César Ritz.

Tommy's margarita, an IBA new-era drink, replaces the triple sec with what?

It comes from Tommy's Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco and is served in a rocks glass over ice.

Who introduced the dedicated frozen margarita machine in Dallas in 1971?

Albert Hernandez had first blended margaritas in La Jolla in 1947, but Martinez adapted a soft-serve machine to dispense them.

Where did Albert Hernandez first serve blender-made frozen margaritas in 1947?

Hernandez ran the La Plaza restaurant and is credited with popularising the drink in San Diego.

Which grapefruit-soda variant is the margarita's closest cousin?

In Mexico it is usually made with Squirt or Jarritos; the cantarito adds lemon and other citrus juices.

Swap the tequila for vodka and a margarita becomes which drink?

The cosmopolitan adds cranberry; a gimlet is gin or vodka with lime cordial.

What is a 'beergarita' or 'Coronarita'?

The bottle slowly drains into the drink as you sip.

Which citrus are margaritas usually made with in Mexico, rather than Persian limes?

Mexican limes are smaller, thinner-skinned and more tart.

Whose 1977 song 'Margaritaville' helped make the drink famous?

It reached number eight on the Hot 100 and spawned a resort and restaurant empire.

What position did 'Margaritaville' reach on the Billboard Hot 100?

It topped the Easy Listening chart and was Buffett's highest-charting solo single.

In 2023, 'Margaritaville' was selected for preservation by which institution?

It joined the National Recording Registry, seven years after entering the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Which British band's 1983 single 'Marguerita Time' took the drink as its title and cover art inspiration?

The margarita's mix of salt, sweet and sour is often cited for its popularity.

Tequila must be made from which plant?

Mezcal can be made from many agaves; tequila only from Agave tequilana Weber blue variety.

Tequila production is centred in which Mexican state?

The town of Tequila sits about 65 km northwest of Guadalajara, and the region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

What is the name for the workers who harvest agave?

They strip the leaves with a coa, a long pole with a circular blade, to expose the piña.

What is the harvested heart of the agave plant called?

Named for its pineapple look, it can weigh around 70 kg and is baked to convert its fructans into fructose.

What is the special knife used to trim the agave leaves called?

A tahona is the stone wheel that crushes baked piñas; the quiote is the flower stalk the harvesters cut back.

What is unaged tequila called?

Also called silver, it may be aged less than two months; 'gold' or joven usually just adds caramel colour.

How long must añejo tequila be aged in oak?

Reposado needs two months, and the extra añejo class created in 2006 requires three years.

What alcohol range must a spirit fall within to be legally sold as tequila?

It must also be produced in the tequila heartland state or a few municipalities of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit and Tamaulipas.

Which family received the first licence from the Spanish crown to make tequila commercially?

Jose Cuervo dates itself to 27 May 1795 and remains the world's best-selling tequila.

Who was the first to export tequila to the United States?

Sauza was also municipal president of the town of Tequila in 1884-85.

Is there a worm in tequila?

The regulatory council bans worms and scorpions in tequila; the mezcal 'worm' is a moth larva added as a gimmick.

A limited-edition bottle sold in 2006 for $225,000 set a Guinness record. What was the bottle made of?

Tequila Ley .925 sold the two-kilo display bottle in the town of Tequila.

Cointreau, the triple sec in the IBA recipe, is produced in which country?

Despite its famous amber bottle, the liqueur inside is colourless; the distillery was set up in 1849 in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou.

Triple sec is flavoured with which fruit?

The name is French for 'triple dry'; whether it refers to a triple distillation or three kinds of peel is disputed.

Grand Marnier blends bitter-citrus essence with which spirit?

Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle created Cordon Rouge in 1880; hotelier César Ritz reportedly named it.

Patrón tequila was sold to which company in 2018 for $5.1 billion?

John Paul DeJoria and Martin Crowley had bought the brand rights in 1989.

In 2024, roughly what share of US tequila cases did best-selling brand Jose Cuervo sell?

That was 8.9 million cases in 2024, under sixth-generation leader Juan-Domingo Beckmann.

Tequila's source plant sprouts its flowering stalk at about what age?

The harvesters cut the quiote back so the plant keeps storing sugar in its core instead of flowering and dying.

Before distillation reached Mexico, what fermented agave drink had been brewed for thousands of years?

Filipino sailors are credited with bringing distillation to the coast of what was then Nueva Galicia.

What is a 'skinny' margarita?

One version is just tequila, lime, fruit juice and a natural sweetener, with no liqueur at all.

Per historian David Wondrich, the margarita is a tequila remake of which older drink?

Daisies are a family of cocktails built on a base spirit, liqueur and citrus, and 'margarita' is Spanish for daisy.

A 1937 UK cocktail book lists a drink with the margarita's exact proportions under what name?

The Cafe Royal Cocktail Book's recipe combined tequila, triple sec and lime juice a year before the earliest margarita origin stories.

Jose Cuervo says a bartender created the margarita in 1938 for which Mexican showgirl?

Cuervo was already advertising the cocktail by 1945, undermining later claims of a 1948 invention.

What job did claimed inventor Pancho Morales do for 25 years after leaving bartending in Juárez?

Mexico's official news agency Notimex and many experts say Morales has the strongest claim to inventing the drink.

The classic margarita glass is a variant of which older glass?

The wide-stepped glass is also pressed into service for guacamole and shrimp cocktails.

In which French town does a distillery claim triple sec was invented in a kitchen in 1834?

They sun-dried orange peels for at least 48 hours, distilled the mixture in copper pots and then ran it through a third distillation.

Who is credited with first bringing agave distillation to the coast of what is now Jalisco?

Mezcal distillation then spread inland to the highland valleys of Amatitán and Tequila; pulque, by contrast, is fermented but never distilled.

In which city did Harry J. Karns open America's first tequila distillery in 1936?

Karns had also served as mayor of Nogales; Mexico declared the word 'tequila' its intellectual property in 1974.