VIVA MARGARITA!

By Anthony Dias Blue.

Photography by RJ Hinkle of Quad Photo.

Tequila used to be an obscure provincial Mexican spirit about as little known as that Slavic plum schnapps called slivovitz or the Peruvian grape brandy called pisco. Slivovitz and pisco are still waiting for their day in the sun, but tequila is booming these days. And it’s all due to one cocktail: the margarita. The margarita is one of the most popular mixed drinks in many countries and, for a time, Americans were consuming more tequila than even the Mexicans themselves.

¡Ay carumba! How did it all get started? Tequila fanatics have spent about as much time tracking down the true origin of the margarita as UFO enthusiasts have spent trying to find alien spacecraft at Roswell. There are lots of competing theories, with only thin shards of hard evidence to back them up.

One commonly held theory tracks the margarita to Palm Springs, California, where Hollywood types used to gather in the late 1940s for a little RR&T (Rest, Relaxation, and Tequila). These guys took their tequila by the shot in the classic fashion, with a squeeze of lime and a lick of salt, but their wives insisted upon something more sophisticated. Someone got the idea of mixing the tequila and the lime juice, then adding orange liqueur for a dash of sweetness. The salt component was relegated to the rim of the glass, saving the ladies the embarrassment of slurping it off the back of their hands like deer at a salt lick. This is a neat story, but it fails to explain just who "Margarita" was.

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NAME
Being an adoptive Angeleno, I personally love the story that attributes the margarita to an anonymous post-World War II bartender at Los Angeles’ Tail o’ the Cock restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard. Legend has it that Vernon Underwood, head of the beverage company that held the distribution rights to the Jose Cuervo tequila brand, suddenly noticed a jump in the sales of Jose Cuervo. The normal trickle of tequila out of his warehouse had turned into a geyser. Underwood quickly tracked the sales spike to one of his accounts, the Tail o’ the Cock, where the barman recently had invented a wildly popular new drink consisting of Jose Cuervo tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice. The bartender named the drink after his wife Margaret, translated into Spanish as Margarita.

While the Southern California legends have their followers, other threads lead, naturally, to Mexico. One suggests that the drink was invented in the mid-1930s by Danny Negrete, the manager of the Crespo Hotel in Puebla, Mexico. He named the cocktail after his girlfriend, Margarita, who always liked to take a dab of salt with her drinks. Another south-of-the-border theory says that the author of the first margarita was one Pancho Morales, a bartender at Tommy’s Place, a Juarez nightspot popular with American soldiers from across the Texas state line. Morales supposedly named his drink not after a wife or girlfriend, but after a flower: the daisy (margarita in Spanish).

Then there’s the semiofficial margarita story that comes from the people who make Cointreau orange liqueur. According to their version, Margarita and William Sames were entertaining guests at their Acapulco vacation home over the Christmas holiday of 1948 when Mrs. Sames began experimenting with cocktails containing her two favorite spirits, tequila and Cointreau. This amateur mixologist noticed that her concoction, referred to simply as "the drink," kept her Christmas guests in a perpetually festive mood. Once Mrs. Sames had perfected the definitive euphoric recipe (two parts tequila, one part Cointreau, one part fresh lime juice), it was dubbed the "margarita" by Mr. Sames in honor of his wife. One of the Sames’ houseguests that year happened to be Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, owner of the Hilton Hotel chain, which may explain how the drink spread north of the border as relentlessly as an invasion of boll weevils.

There are myriad other margarita legends, but I’m not going to lend my support to one story or another. The actual truth could be that the drink we know as the margarita was invented several times over, in various places. Citrus flavors and tequila are a match made in heaven, so it was inevitable that somebody, somewhere, would come up with this divinely inspired cocktail.

ESSENTIAL SPIRITS
The ingredients of a classic margarita are simple. Good tequila, the Mexican agave-based spirit, is the first consideration. Use only tequilas labeled "100 percent agave." (All tequila by law must be made from at least 51 percent agave sugars, but cheaper mixto tequilas can be produced using up to 49 percent cane or other sugars.) There are more tequilas on the market than ever before, so finding which one you prefer can take several fun-filled months.

My own preference for margaritas is to use silver (plata) tequila. These clear, unaged tequilas have a much more pronounced flavor of fresh agave. Herradura is a brand originally "discovered" in Mexico and imported stateside by singers Bing Crosby and Phil Harris in the 1960s. The Herradura Silver tequila is still one of the best. Patron Silver is another popular choice, with peppery, leafy tones that put real punch into margaritas. One of the newest entries into the crowded field is Nacional, a limited-production tequila with intense agave flavor and spice.

Using a reposado (rested) or añejo (aged) tequila gives a more rounded, mellow taste that some people prefer. Jose Cuervo Tradicional is a reposado with toasty vanilla flavors. Other reposado brands to look for include Espolon, Reserva del Señor Almendrado, and Sauza Hornitos. Personally, I usually reserve añejo tequilas for sipping neat, but if you want to try one in a margarita, look for the 1800 and El Tesoro brands.

Since orange liqueur is a major component in the margarita, choosing the right one deserves some serious consideration as well. The standard called for in many recipes is triple sec. Triple sec is a dry (i.e., not so sweet) version of curaçao, a liqueur made from the peels of oranges grown on the island of Curaçao in the Dutch West Indies. Triple sec is typically less sweet than standard curaçao, although recipes vary according to brand. Blue curaçao is a popular variant that’s been dyed blue with vegetable dyes or food coloring.

Any brand of triple sec or curaçao can be used in a margarita, depending how sweet (or how blue) you prefer your cocktail. The widely available Marie Brizard line is a good choice and contains both a triple sec and a blue curaçao. The orange liqueur you use doesn’t have to be labeled triple sec or curaçao, however. GranGala Triple Orange Liqueur (from Italy) or Citrónge (from Mexico) are other good choices.

Mrs. Sames’ preference was for Cointreau, the French orange liqueur first created in 1849 by the Cointreau brothers, Adolphe and Edouard-Jean. Cointreau is distilled from fresh and dried peels from oranges grown in the Caribbean, Spain, and Brazil. It’s crystal clear and intensely orangey, with a gorgeous, slightly bitter finish. It’s not cheap, but some aficionados insist on this brand in their margaritas, and believe it’s well worth the extra cost. I tend to agree.

Another option is to use Grand Marnier, a classy French orange liqueur made by the Lapostolle family. It differs from Cointreau in that it’s based on cognac and is less sweet. Grand Marnier has a lovely golden hue and adds gorgeous toasty and oaky notes to a margarita. This is the perfect choice for margaritas made with reposado or añejo tequilas.

THE MAIN SQUEEZE
The third ingredient is citrus juice. Although some argue for using lemon, in my humble opinion fresh-squeezed lime juice is absolutely essential to a true margarita. There’s something magical about the taste of tequila and lime together. Whichever you choose, make sure it’s fresh. If you see a bartender or your host reaching for prepackaged margarita mix, run for the hills. (Would Frida Kahlo paint by numbers? No way, amigo!) Your margarita deserves the freshest ingredients, and that means fresh-squeezed juice.

The final element to consider is the salt. Salt is just salt, right? Wrong! The preferred salt for margaritas (and for lots of other uses as well) is kosher salt, which is available in just about any good supermarket. Kosher salt is free of additives and has a cleaner, milder taste than ordinary table salt. Also, because of its more complex shape, it adheres to the glass more easily. You can find kosher salt specially packaged for margaritas in small flat containers, which make coating the rims of cocktail glasses easy. Another option is rock salt, but it has to be ground first in a salt grinder. Some recipes call for a half-and-half mixture of salt and sugar, but my own preference is for salt alone.

Now that you have the essentials, you’re well on your way to Margaritaville. Margarita purists will tell you that slushy frozen margaritas made in a blender are not true margaritas. Perhaps not, but who cares? I personally love frozen margaritas on a hot summer day, especially with spicy Mexican food. And, in any case, experimenting with mixed drinks is fun. After all, once upon a time somebody experimented with tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice … and now we have the margarita.

Anthony Dias Blue is the wine and spirits editor of Bon Appétit, a commentator for CBS radio, and author of The Complete Book of Mixed Drinks, a best-selling mixology bible.

THREE MARGARITA RECIPES

BASIC MARGARITA

• lime slice

• coarse salt

• 1-1⁄2 ounces tequila

• 1 ounce orange liqueur

• 1 ounce lime juice

• 2-1⁄2 cups crushed ice

Moisten the rim of a cocktail glass with the lime slice. Press the rim into the salt. In a shaker, combine the tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice, and ice. Mix and strain into the glass. Garnish with the lime slice.

FROZEN MARGARITA

• 2 cups crushed ice

• 1-1⁄2 ounces tequila

• 1⁄2 ounce orange liqueur

• 1 ounce lemon or lime juice

• lime slice

• coarse salt or sugar-and-salt mixture

Combine ice, tequila, orange liqueur, and juice in a blender. Blend until slushy, but not too watery. Moisten the rim of a large chilled cocktail glass with the lime slice. Coat the rim with coarse salt or sugar-and-salt mixture. Pour the contents of the blender into the prepared glass and garnish with the lime slice.

STRAWBERRY MARGARITA

• lime slice

• coarse salt or sugar-and-salt mixture

• 1-1⁄2 ounces gold tequila

• 1⁄2 ounce triple sec

• 1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

• 2-1⁄2 cups crushed ice

• 2 ounces pureed fresh or frozen strawberries

• whole fresh strawberry for garnish

Moisten the rim of a cocktail glass with a lime slice and roll the rim in coarse salt or a salt-and-sugar mixture. Combine all other ingredients, except the strawberry garnish, in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the blend into the prepared glass. Garnish with the fresh strawberry.