Tequila · around 1938, Mexico

Margarita

Tequila, lime, orange liqueur and salt on the rim: the Margarita is the freshest strong drink in the world.

Sweet3

Sour8

Bitter1

Strong7

Fresh8

Ingredients

5 cl tequila blanco
2.5 cl fresh lime juice
2 cl Cointreau or triple sec
optionally 0.5 cl agave syrup

Glass: Coupe or tumbler, rim with salt
Garnish: Lime wheel, salt rim

Method

Moisten the rim of the glass with lime and turn it in salt.
Shake all ingredients hard with ice.
Strain into the coupe or over fresh ice into the tumbler.
Garnish with lime.

Three bars in Mexico and one in Texas have argued for eighty years about who invented the Margarita. Only one thing is certain: it is a sour, the basic formula of spirit, citrus and sweetness, and it brought tequila out of its niche and into the bars of the world.

The best Margarita is the simplest: good tequila from one hundred percent agave, fresh lime, no ready-made mix. On the beach with ice, in the bar stirred and straight up, in Barcelona and on Ibiza smoked with mezcal.