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Updated May 15, 2008 |
Margaritas
The margarita has a history long and twisted enough to make it part legend, part myth, an impossible-to-resolve tale that only enhances the drink's popularity. The claims for an inventor has a series of worthy candidates, as well as a host of entertainingly unlikely ones. The first story says the margarita was invented in the 1940s (possibly in 1935 or 1938) at the Rancho La Gloria bar - a popular spot for socialites from the USA heading for vacation at nearby Rosarito Beach, just outside Tijuana. The bartender was Carlos 'Danny' Herrera and his customer was fledgling actress Marjorie (Margarita - see her picture, below) King. King, the story goes, was allergic to most other kinds of alcohol except - fortuitously for the tale - tequila. King refused Herrera's offer of a neat shot of tequila, claiming she didn't like its taste. So  bartender Herrera
tried to concoct something that would appeal to her. He blended three parts white tequila, two parts triple
sec, one part fresh lime juice and a pinch of sugar. Herrera grabbed a
champagne glass, dipped its rim in lemon juice and twirled it in a bowl
of salt, then poured the frothy liquid into the glass for the starlet.
An alternate legends says Francisco 'Pancho' Morales, a bartender in Tommy's Bar in Ciudad Juarez, made the first margarita on July 4, 1942. Morales has also been identified as a bartender from Texas (Texas Monthly, Oct. 1974) possibly working across the border in El Paso. Allegedly, a woman customer requested a Magnolia (brandy, Cointreau, and an egg yolk topped with Champagne). Morales didn't know how to make one, except for the Cointreau, so he improvised and mixed in tequila and lime juice. His creation, of course, became a big hit.
When the woman asked Morales what the drink was called, he called it a "Daisy" which in Mexican is Margarita. Yet another story attributes the drink to Margarita Sames, a Texas socialite who brewed up the cocktail for guests at her Acapulco villa, as a challenge at Christmas, 1948. Her friend Tommy Hilton allegedly took it from there to his hotel chain where it gained popularity. In late 1999, she was introduced as the drink's originator at a book signing for The Original Guide to Margaritas and Tequila (BarMedia) by Tucson authors Robert Plotkin and Raymon Flores.
Author Robert Plotkin writes of the Sames's claim that,
Shortly before Christmas of
'48, Margarita Sames was challenged by several ranking members of the
team to devise a new and exciting cocktail, something to break up their
regimen of beer and Bloody Marys. Her initial attempts were loudly and
unanimously rejected. After each round of successively worse drinks, her
friends - this band of movie stars and distinguished businessmen -
expressed their displeasure by tossing her in the pool.
Undaunted, a soaking wet Margarita
Sames went back to work. She mixed together tequila and Cointreau with
fresh lime juice. Having grown up in France, Sames was familiar with
Cointreau, and after spending years vacationing in Mexico, she had
developed an appreciation for Mexico's native spirit, tequila. She tried several different
formulations; however, some came out too sweet, some not sweet enough.
Then she hit on what she thought was the perfect blend: one part
Cointreau, three parts tequila and one part lime juice. Knowing that
most people drank tequila preceded by a lick of salt, she chose to
garnish her cocktail with a rim of coarse salt. She brought out a tray of Champagne glasses brimming with her new creation. Her friends sipped heartily and the approval was overwhelming. They proclaimed it a triumph. It quickly became the group's signature cocktail, the main course and featured attraction during Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Recently another contender has come forward as the forerunner of the margarita: the Tequila Daisy. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2008, the Daisy was a mix of citrus juice, grenadine and tequila. The cocktail was popular in the late 1930s, and, according to the article, one of the B-24 Liberator crews flying a support mission for the D-Day landings in 1944 named their bomber the "Tequila Daisy." The author suggests, rather astutely, that "the Margarita didn't replace the Daisy, but rather, evolved from it, both in name and content."
Other variations of the margarita's beginnings include:
None of these would-be inventors bothered to patent the recipe, or even publish it in something that might be traced back to them, although several contenders resurfaced many years later to stake a claim on the margarita's origin. Like the mythical origin of the agave, the margarita has become a part of the mystique around tequila. Regardless of its real or imagined beginnings, margaritas are now one of the most - if not the most - popular cocktails in North America and continue to boost tequila sales.
In 1937 an English book called the "Cafe Royal Cocktail Book" published a recipe for a Picador, a tequila cocktail made from Cointreau, lime juice and tequila. But the first documented appearance of a recipe for a "margarita" is credited to Esquire Magazine, in the "Painting the Town" column of December, 1953 (pg. 76, col. 3):
The margarita was later mentioned in the L.A. Times in 1954 when columnist Gene Sherman, writing from Rosarito Beach in Mexico, that, "In the afternoon you sip a Margarita and gaze pensively across the wide strand." The basic, classic margarita contains:
Usually the mix is:
Danny Herrera’s version was:
Other common ratios are 2 parts tequila, 1 part Triple Sec, 1 part lime juice; 3 parts tequila, 1 part Triple Sec, 1 part lime juice; and even 1 part tequila, 1 part Triple Sec and 1 part lime juice). Partida's recipe, using their organic agave nectar is:
A traditional margarita should always be somewhat tart, never sweet. It can be frozen or shaken, served in a glass with a salt rim (wipe the edge of the glass with a lime slice, then invert it on a napkin lightly dusted with kosher or sea salt; pick it up quickly to avoid getting too much on it) or garnished with fresh lime. Good bartenders wipe the inside of the glass first, to make sure it has no salt inside. There is no absolute, perfect recipe, although many bartenders claim theirs is both the original and the best. The margarita is traditionally served in a stemmed, large, wide-mouth, shallow cocktail glass, but can be served in almost any large enough glass.
Blanco is the traditional choice for margaritas, but reposado offers a more gentle and subtle flavour. Añejo tequilas may be too woody and complex for margaritas, although I've had some that still emerge well from under the mix, although their complexity gets diminished. Purists may not agree, but there are other equally good variations such as the strawberry, melon, peach or even mango margarita. In some distilleries, guests can try a tamarind margarita made with the company's own tequila. For a strawberry margarita, add 1oz strawberry liqueur to the standard mix and cut back to about 1/2 oz orange liqueur. For a frozen strawberry margarita, use frozen strawberries and frozen lime concentrate.
Dozens of margarita recipes are available online, some using a variety of fruit juices and techniques, others simple and easy. Plus there are other drinks with tequila, such as the tequila sunrise and hundreds more to select from. Look through the sites below for some ideas about tequila cocktails, margaritas, shooters and lots more.
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You can't have a site on tequila without mentioning margaritas, the world's most popular cocktail,
and one of the reasons for tequila's growing popularity. Many people
who start out enjoying a margarita graduate to appreciating fine
tequila on its own. But for others, the cocktail is the supreme
enjoyment.
Sometimes sugar or a sweet syrup is added to mitigate the lime's acidic bite
- if so, then try using an agave
syrup for additional flavour. It also gives the margarita a stronger agave
flavour and is much healthier than refined sugar. Agave syrup is quite
sweet - as sweet as or sweeter than honey - so be prudent in your use of
it. Sometimes more tequila is called for in recipes, but lime
cordial is never used in a margarita!
The frozen margarita was a later twist on the theme. Mariano
Martinez, who operated El Charro, a restaurant in Dallas Texas, is
credited as the man who made frozen margaritas famous. In the 1950s
restaurants could not sell liquor by the drink in Texas. So
Mariano made frozen margaritas for people who brought their own tequila.
His recipe became another hit.
Personally, I prefer the taste of real juice, without the chemical
additives, artificial flavours and colours, and the generally
overly-sweet concoctions that constitute instant margarita mixes.
If that's your only experience with margaritas, you're missing out on a
wonderful drink. However. for convenience and ease of use, they are hard to beat. They're
sure easier to take on a picnic than a blender. I recommend you add
additional lime juice to these mixes to cut the artificial sweetness.