Margarita Trivia
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49 free Margarita trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Nobody agrees on who invented the margarita, which makes it perfect quiz material. Was it a Tijuana bartender mixing for a dancer allergic to every spirit but tequila? A Juárez bar on the Fourth of July 1942? A Dallas socialite in Acapulco? This quiz walks through every claim, then covers the drink itself: the IBA ratio, why it is really a daisy, the salt rim, the Cadillac and Tommy's variations, the frozen margarita machine built from a soft-serve unit in 1971, and the Jimmy Buffett song that turned it into a lifestyle. Because a margarita is mostly tequila, the second half covers the spirit: the blue agave, the jimadores and their coa, Jalisco, blanco versus reposado versus añejo, the Cuervo licence of 1795, the truth about the worm, and the most expensive bottle ever sold. Easy questions ask what the three classic ingredients are; hard ones want the Esquire recipe date and the name of the Ensenada cantina that claims the drink. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the margarita, tequila, the liqueurs and the brands, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up. Made for Cinco de Mayo parties, National Margarita Day and bar trivia nights.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What are the three classic ingredients of a margarita?
Tequila, triple sec and lime juice
A classic margarita is tequila, triple sec and lime juice, shaken with ice; it is served on the rocks, straight up or frozen and is the best-selling tequila cocktail in the United States.
Q 02What does the Spanish word 'margarita' mean in English?
Daisy
Margarita is the everyday Spanish word for the daisy flower; the same word is also the Spanish form of the given name Margaret.
Q 03What is traditionally rubbed on the rim of a margarita glass?
Salt
Salt is the traditional rim: the glass edge is wiped with a lime wedge and dipped in coarse salt, while Tajín chili-lime seasoning is a common modern alternative.
Q 04What spirit-to-liqueur-to-citrus ratio does the IBA's 2020 margarita specification give?
10:4:3
The IBA's 2020 specification calls for 50 ml tequila, 20 ml triple sec and 15 ml freshly squeezed lime juice, which simplifies to 10:4:3.
Q 05For which dancer, allergic to every spirit but tequila, did Carlos Herrera claim to invent the margarita in 1938?
Marjorie King
Marjorie King, a former Ziegfeld dancer, is the customer for whom Carlos 'Danny' Herrera said he mixed the first margarita at his Rancho La Gloria, between Tijuana and Rosarito, in 1938.
Q 06Which Ensenada bar claims the margarita was created there in 1941 for a customer named Margarita Henkel?
Hussong's
Hussong's Cantina in Ensenada says bartender Don Carlos Orozco mixed the first margarita there in October 1941 and named it for regular Margarita Henkel, reputedly a German ambassador's daughter.
Q 07In which city did Francisco 'Pancho' Morales say he first mixed a margarita on July 4, 1942?
Juárez
Francisco 'Pancho' Morales said he improvised the first margarita at Tommy's Place, a bar in Ciudad Juárez, on July 4, 1942, after a customer ordered a Magnolia he could not remember.
Q 08Dallas socialite Margarita Sames said she invented the drink in 1948 at her holiday home in which resort?
Acapulco
Margarita Sames said she first mixed the drink for houseguests at her Acapulco holiday home in December 1948, using three parts tequila to one part Cointreau and one part lime.
Q 09Which singer supposedly had the drink named after her by Santos Cruz in Galveston in 1948?
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee is the singer in this version: bartender Santos Cruz at Galveston's Balinese Room is said to have named the drink for her in 1948, Margarita being the Spanish form of Margaret, the root of Peggy.
Q 10Which magazine published the first known margarita recipe as its 'Drink of the Month' in December 1953?
Esquire
Esquire printed the margarita as its Drink of the Month in December 1953, calling for an ounce of Sierra tequila, a dash of triple sec and the juice of half a lime or lemon.
Q 11Substituting Grand Marnier for triple sec makes which variation?
Cadillac margarita
A Cadillac margarita is the top-shelf version, made with a premium tequila and Grand Marnier in place of (or floated over) the triple sec.
Q 12Tommy's margarita, an IBA new-era drink, replaces the triple sec with what?
Agave nectar
Agave nectar (agave syrup) replaces the triple sec in Tommy's margarita, created by Julio Bermejo at Tommy's Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco in the late 1980s.
Q 13Who introduced the dedicated frozen margarita machine in Dallas in 1971?
Mariano Martinez
Mariano Martinez adapted a soft-serve ice-cream machine to dispense frozen margaritas at his Dallas restaurant in 1971; the original machine is now in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Q 21In 2023, 'Margaritaville' was selected for preservation by which institution?
The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress added 'Margaritaville' to its National Recording Registry in 2023, seven years after the song entered the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Q 22Which British band released the 1983 single 'Marguerita Time'?
Status Quo
Status Quo released 'Marguerita Time', written by Francis Rossi and Bernie Frost, in December 1983 as a single from their album Back to Back.
Q 23Tequila must be made from which plant?
Blue agave
Mezcal can be made from many agaves; tequila only from Agave tequilana Weber blue variety.
Q 14Where did Albert Hernandez popularise the margarita at the La Plaza restaurant from 1947?
La Jolla, California
Albert Hernandez ran the bar at the La Plaza restaurant in La Jolla, California, from 1947 and is credited with popularising the margarita across San Diego.
Q 15Which grapefruit-soda variant is the margarita's closest cousin?
Paloma
The Paloma is tequila topped with grapefruit soda, in Mexico usually Squirt or Jarritos, served over ice with a squeeze of lime; the Greyhound, by contrast, is vodka or gin with grapefruit juice.
Q 16Swap the tequila for vodka and a margarita becomes which drink?
A kamikaze
A kamikaze is vodka, triple sec and lime juice in equal parts, the margarita's structure with vodka in place of tequila; the cosmopolitan adds cranberry and the gimlet uses lime cordial.
Q 17What is a 'beergarita' or 'Coronarita'?
A beer bottle upended into a margarita
A Coronarita is a bottle of Corona (or another beer) upended into a large margarita so the beer slowly drains into the drink as it is sipped.
Q 18Which citrus are margaritas usually made with in Mexico, rather than Persian limes?
Key limes
Key limes, known in Mexico as limón and also called Mexican limes, are smaller, thinner-skinned and more tart than the Persian limes sold in the United States.
Q 19Whose 1977 song 'Margaritaville' helped make the drink famous?
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett released 'Margaritaville' in 1977 on the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes; the song's name later went on a chain of restaurants and resorts.
Q 20What position did 'Margaritaville' reach on the Billboard Hot 100?
Number 8
'Margaritaville' peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977 and topped the Easy Listening chart, the singer's best Hot 100 showing as a solo artist.
Q 24Tequila production is centred in which Mexican state?
Jalisco
Jalisco is home to the town of Tequila, about 65 km northwest of the state capital Guadalajara; the surrounding agave landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Q 25What is the name for the workers who harvest agave?
Jimadores
Jimadores are the field workers who harvest agave; the name comes from jimar, the verb for harvesting the plant, and the trade is traditionally passed from father to son.
Q 26What is the harvested heart of the agave plant called?
The piña
The piña, named for its pineapple-like look once the leaves are stripped, is the agave heart; it can weigh 40 to 90 kg and is baked to convert its fructans into fermentable sugars.
Q 27What is the special knife used to trim the agave leaves called?
A coa
A coa is the long-handled tool with a sharp, rounded blade that harvesters use to slice away agave leaves; the tahona, by contrast, is a stone wheel for crushing cooked agave hearts.
Q 28What is unaged tequila called?
Blanco
Blanco, also sold as silver or plata, is bottled unaged or rested under two months in steel or oak; joven or 'gold' is usually blanco with added caramel colouring.
Q 29How long must añejo tequila be aged in oak?
At least 12 months
Añejo tequila must rest at least 12 months in oak barrels of no more than 600 litres; reposado needs two months and extra añejo, created in 2006, three years.
Q 30What alcohol range must a spirit fall within to be legally sold as tequila?
35 to 55 percent
Mexico's tequila standard (NOM-006) sets 35 to 55 percent alcohol by volume; production is also restricted to one core state plus listed municipalities of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit and Tamaulipas.