The Perfect Margarita
The Margarita. The zesty little party-starter that keeps the country going round.
I must’ve shaken up 1000’s of these things! I’m calling it as Australia’s favourite cocktail, and 2nd place is not even close.
Ingredients
This classic cocktail features only a handful of ingredients. So simple, one trip to the groceries and bottle shop is all that’s needed to shake up some good times in your own home. No fancy cocktail bartender training required.
45ml 100% Agave Blanco Tequila
15ml Triple Sec (not needed if you prefer a Tommy’s Margarita!)
30ml Freshly-squeezed Lime Juice
5ml Sugar Syrup or Agave Syrup
Flake Salt, for the rim of your glass
Method - The Short version
Get a nice, ripe, green lime. Roll it on a surface using your palm to soften the inside of the lime (you’ll get more juice from the lime this way).
Then, hold it end to end, and cut in half width-ways (see image below). Cut again, 2mm from where you’ve just cut. This gives you a lime wheel, which you’ll use as a garnish later on. Have a look here for more help on this if needed.Get your Margarita glass - either a coupette or simply your favourite tumbler / rocks glass, and wipe the open fleshy part of a lime half on the rim of your glass, so that there is lime juice sitting on the glass (this is what will hold the salt to the glass!).
Roll the glass on a plate of flake salt, so the salt sticks to the lime juice you’ve put on your glass.
Get your jigger (or small measuring jug if that’s all you have available).
Squeeze the lime you cut in half earlier, preferably using a mexican elbow (retains the beautiful lime peel oils), otherwise any type of citrus juicer, or simply using your hands. Whatever works. You should get at least 30ml of fresh lime juice. Squeeze another lime if you need more to get that 30ml.
5. Prepare your cocktail shakers. (Or in a pinch, you can use a jar with a lid!)
Measure into your small tin:
- 45ml 100% Agave Blanco Tequila
- 15ml Triple Sec (replace with another 15ml of Tequila if doing a Tommy’s Margarita)
- 5ml Sugar Syrup or Agave Syrup (you can always add more if you like it sweeter)
- 30ml Freshly-squeezed Lime Juice
Fill this small tin with ice cubes. Add your large tin on to close the shakers, and shake hard until you feel the tins create a layer of frost on the outside. Check this out for a quick video on shaking cocktails.
6. Open up the tins, and fine-strain the Margarita into your salted glass. Here’s a quick vid if you need help with straining cocktails. My tools are this hawthorn strainer combined with this fine-strainer. If you’re using a tumbler glass for your Margarita, you can now carefully fill it up with ice.
7. Take your lime wheel from step 1, and make a cut from the outside circle, towards the centre, almost as if you were cutting the ‘long hand from a clock’ into the lime wheel. However, don’t cut the whole way to the centre of the lime wheel, as it tends to make the garnish floppy - just ~15mm from the outside towards the centre is enough. Check this out for a visual. Sit the garnish on the rim of your glass, and you are done!
8. Sip your perfect Margarita, and pat yourself on the back. Rinse and repeat for your friends and family, as they’ll undoubtedly be pestering you for a hundred more of these.
The Long Version
To make the Perfect Margarita, we’ll explore all of the different options for each of our ingredients, and I’ll show you what makes the best. After experimenting with countless variations on this cocktail, with all of the different spirits, citrus, fruits, -you name it- this is what I think delivers the absolute best version of the drink, as voted by the thousands of repeat orders and positive comments. Nothing like the look on your guests faces as they take a sip of perfection! Let’s go.
Tequila
Countless options of the infamous agave spirit, tequila. 3 main categories, which describe how much time the tequila has spent ageing in a barrel or steel tank.
Blanco. Reposado. Añejo.
Blanco has little-to-no time spent ageing. This means fresh, bright, fruity agave flavours, and basically zero colour (hence blanco, which when translated from Spanish, means “white”).
Reposado spends 2 months - 1 year in ageing. This typically brings on more straw/gold colours, and with that more vanilla and caramel flavours from the oak barrels used.
Añejo spends 1 - 3 years ageing. This means a much richer, more complex version of what we’ve seen happen to Reposado tequila. Typically, expect deep amber colours, with flavours of Christmas spices and rich caramel delivered with complexity. The best sipping tequila, for obvious reasons.
Which one makes the best Margarita?
Blanco Tequila.
We’re drinking Margs for a bright, exciting cocktail! We want fresh and zippy. Bright fruit flavours from un-aged agave. I, and many of the margarita enthusiasts I’ve played this experiment with, always land on this as the best Margarita tequila of the 3 main categories. Richer, more complex Reposado and Añejo tequilas have their place in the cocktail kingdom, however I don’t believe it’s in a Margarita. Think more of an Old Fashioned for that.
Blanco tequila pairs beautifully with fresh lime juice and the bright orange citrus flavours from Triple Sec, without creating a confusing drink with extra spice and vanilla complexity. If you’re adding fruit or chilli for a Margarita twist, then Blanco plays off this even moreso!
Now, when shopping for a Blanco Tequila, it is essential that you look for “100% De Agave” somewhere on the label. If you don’t see this, the tequila is a “mixto” which means it’s full of additives, fake colouring and generally a whole bunch of garbage that not only tastes incredibly average, but makes you feel horrible the next day.
For the economic cocktail enthusiast, I’ll simply find the most wallet-friendly 100% agave Blanco Tequila at the shops. For my fellow Australians, the best prices I’ve found recently on tequila (and everything else spirit-wise, actually!) is Olmeca Altos Plata Tequila at Cheapest Liquor’s online store. Ordered Tuesday morning and it was delivered to my place in time for a weekend gig, stoked. Great tequila, too.
Triple Sec
Or in “I’m not a booze nerd” language, Orange Liqueur.
You can choose to omit this if you’re looking to make a Tommy’s Margarita, but I’m strongly of the opinion that Triple Sec makes a more delicious Marg, as the orange flavours help tie the sharpness of the blanco tequila with the lime citrus, and the result is a delicious, rounded flavour. A Tommy’s won’t have that - the result is a sharper, often dryer Margarita.
What Triple Sec should you buy?
Simple.
If you’re going the wallet-friendly approach, get basically anything around $30-$40. In my humble opinion, Vok is simply too cheap and nasty, and tastes like chemicals vs anything resembling fresh orange. Brands like De Kuyper, Marie Brizard and Giffard all make tasty Margaritas. Massenez, even better.
The all-time best option: Cointreau. Without a doubt, the biggest show-stopper for your triple sec options. Of course, it requires shelling out a few extra dollars, but you can absolutely taste the difference. If it’s a special occasion, or a special someone, grab Cointreau, and expect beautiful, bright citrus notes to sing through your Margarita.
Lime Juice
The easiest of the ingredients to talk through. Simply, because there is only one option for a banging Margarita.
Fresh.
That’s it. None of this pre-packaged garbage you might see at bottle shops, or Margarita Mixers that might look green, cheap and enticing.
Just do fresh.
Limes aren’t super cheap, but neither is life. So let’s not waste all of this effort on making an epic Margarita at home and mixing it with anything besides freshly-squeezed lime juice.
Sugar or Agave Syrup
The flavour difference here is super subtle, so I won’t make a big deal out of your choice of sweetener. You can buy agave syrup at the shops, and that will definitely make life easy.
Sugar syrup, on the other hand, is super easy to make. And, it’s way cheaper. Sugar & water, baby.
My favourite method for making sugar syrup is adapted from Dave Arnold’s book, Liquid Intelligence. (Science genius steps into the cocktail kingdom, changes the game on everything).
- Weigh (if you want consistent results, you must weigh!! No cups or measuring spoons) plain white sugar. If you’re doing many Margaritas, 100g of sugar is plenty.
- Measure the same volume in water. If you’re doing 100g of sugar, measure 100ml of water.
- Blend the sugar and water on high for 30 seconds. Done!
100g sugar + 100ml water gives you approx. 175ml sugar syrup, which is one hell of a Margarita party.
Easy as pie.
I use this method for a science-genius-level of consistency. Boiling on a pan or using boiled water can result in the water evaporating into steam, meaning your 100ml of water might turn into 90ml of water, resulting in a higher sugar:water ratio. This means your sugar syrup will be sweeter than normal, and your favourite measurements are all thrown out of whack.
Flake Salt
Another super easy one. Use flake salt! Best texture in town, and creates a really satisfying dimension to your Margarita. In my experience, ground/powdered salt often ends up with too much salt in your mouth when you sip.
Conclusion
And there you have it. All of the bells and whistles to making a banging Margarita, and without any bartending courses. To sum up:
- 100% Agave Blanco Tequila (no mixto tequilas!)
- A decent quality Triple Sec, or Cointreau if you’re going all out
- Freshly-squeezed lime juice (no ‘if’s or ‘but’s)
- Sugar or Agave Syrup, your choice
- Flake Salt, because we’ve come so far with this already, and texture is something we like.
But of course, if you’d rather save the hassle, let us come and shake a bunch of these for you and your guests. Even with all of the know-how, making a hundred of these in a night is a lot of work. Work we do with a smile ear to ear.
Don’t hesitate to leave a comment with any questions or discussion!
Muchas Gracias.
- Zak.