Mom raised me on 1 part TripleSec, to 2 parts Tavern sweet ‘n’ sour, to 4 parts Tequila.
Currently drinking a more classic 1/3 diluted lime juice (these limes are strong) to 1/3 TripleSec to 1/3 Tequila. Give or take.
3:2:1 (tequila:triple sec:lime juice) is the standard, I think.
My favorite unconventional margarita I ever had was this:
-3 parts jalapeno infused tequila (put a bunch of jalapenos in a bottle of tequila for a while)
-2 parts triple sec
-1 part fresh lime juice
-Brown sugar around the glass as opposed to salt.
Was a pretty great combination of spicy, sweet, sour, and boozy.
Go to bar.
Order Margarita.
Drink.
Aw yeah Rims is gettin’ his drink on.
Okay, your basic ingredients are as follows.
3 oz margarita mix
1 1/4 oz tequila
1/4 oz Grand Marnier orange liqueur
1/4 oz orange liqueur
1/4 oz triple sec
1/4 oz herbal liqueur
1/4 oz fresh lime juice
Now you take all of that and look at it for a while. Then you take the top of your little salt thing off and play with it a bit cos it looks like a little plastic sombrero. Then put the top of the salt thing back on, shrug, throw it all away an drink a beer.
Current favorite:
2 oz tequila
1 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz lime juice
4 Tequila: 1 of anything else.
Go get your drunk on.
My usual recipe is simply to drink the tequila without all of that other pussy shit, and don’t you goddamn dare chill it or use salt and lime.
However, in polite company, 3:2:1 tequila, gran marnier, lime juice mixture with powdered sugar to taste will certainly do. Only heathens freeze it or use sour mix.
Sauza Gold is perfect in a margarita. Relatively inexpensive, doesn’t taste like ass, and there’s no point using anything better in a margarita.
For straight tequila, give me Corazón de Agave Reposado or Añejo, please.
The best tequila I ever took shots of was Corazón de Agave Blanco infused with habañeros. It burned so good.
Going down. I’m sure it burned pretty bad coming out.
You need to start making better margaritas. The better the Tequila, the better the margarita. You may think it’s a waste, but I think both drinks have their charms.
That said, if I’m drinking a top shelf and I don’t want it straight I usually make what the the Germans call a “fresca”. That’s basically the juice from half a fresh lime straight into the shot glass with the tequila. Simple, clean, tasty.
With the maragaritas I tend to go for:
1 part Tequila
1 part Lemonade or Limade
1 part Triple Sec
Juice of three fresh limes (at least)
2-3 scoops of Orange Juice Concentrate
This is a far cry from my original recipe, but I’ve been making the margaritas for about over decade now, and it’s all about giving the people what they want.
The OJ was a tip from a bartender who told me that’s how he managed to make great margaritas no matter what bar he was at.
Yes, technically that’s pushing it towards a “Tequila Sunrise”, but what people don’t know won’t hurt them.
BTW, if you’re at a bar and have a particularly clean and delicious margarita, and when you ask what’s in it they tell you that they’re using a “secret ingredient” it’s always agave nectar. Always.
This, but eliminating all the steps but the last. Serve cold!
Awwww man. Don’t use mix, plz plz. Poncho Villa did not die for your sins in order for you to use foul lime green pre made mix.
I don’t know where you guys are from, but those mixes run about $2-3 here. For that amount you can get about 10-15 limes. It only takes a minute to squeeze fresh lime juice and it makes the margarita soooo much better. Plus, there is great pleasure in MAKING a drink not just drinking it. I think making a mixed drink is half the fun.
My recipe:
3 parts decent Tequila (Jose Cuervo Gold at least).
Trust me, you will taste the difference between this and crappy $5 tequila. There is a WORLD of difference for about $.50 - $1 extra per margarita.
1 part Orange flavored liqueur.
I use normal Triple Sec because it’s cheap but you can use Contreau or Gran Mariner if you are snooty or have piles of cash laying around.
1 part freshly squeezed lime juice.
Use any extra limes for your Corona. Don’t get your thumb caught in the squeezer like Clark in Superman II. I use a plastic manual one and elbow grease.
A bit of sugar to taste.
Powdered is best because it dissolves almost instantly. But if you don’t bake you might just need to use regular granulated, in which case you will have to stir for a bit more in order for it to dissolve. You can also use simple sugar syrup etc. I use about 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar for a full mixer.
Kosher salt.
Which can also be used for almost all of your other cooking. If you are Alton Brown, you will poo poo anything BUT Kosher salt.
Mix up with ice, or blend with ice. Wipe lime juice on the rims of glasses and crush rims upside down into salt. Pour out of pitcher (if over ice) or blender (if making frozen).
Kick back and enjoy Season 4 of The Wire.
Nothing made by Jose Cuervo is decent.
Even their pure agave liquor tastes like paint thinner.
I’ve also had to do a lot of hand holding to help people understand that 100% pure agave tequila is essentially a different drink.
It doesn’t get any better than frozen margaritas scraped out with an ice cream scoop into your glass on a hot day. Fuck the haters.
Way less than a minute if you’re using one of these babies. Best lemon/lime juicer ever, and easy to operate outside at a makeshift backyard bar while three or four sheets to the wind.
And yeah, a drink you made instead of poured just tastes better.
Definitely agree on the mixer hate; I’ve never had a bottled margarita mix that didn’t taste like crap.
Cointreau definitely tastes better to me, but I may just be snooty. I don’t actually keep any normal triple sec around anymore, because I realized I’d just rather drink some other drink entirely than have the low-end overly-sweet triple sec.
Simple syrup is easy to make and keeps a pretty long time in the fridge, so I’ll make a couple cups of it, pour it into squeeze bottles, and keep it in the fridge. It’s great to never have to fiddle with trying to get sugar to dissolve.
Oddly enough, this thread is really making me want a drink, but it’s not a margarita. Time to go grab some lemons and whip up a couple sidecars.
I had to give up sugar-loaded drinks, depriving me of my beloved Whiskey Sours and Margaritas. I’ve never found a good WS sub, but I enjoy my Margarita approximation:
2 shots Tequila over ice (Cuervo’s good, and Jimmy Buffett’s brand is actually decent)
fill the rest of the glass with Coke Zero
add a splash of Rose’s concentrated lime juice
Not perfect, but it scratches the itch.
1 part good silver tequila
1 part Cointreau
1 part fresh squeezed lime juice
That’s all you need for a perfect margarita. Shake with ice and strain into a salted martini glass.
So, elaborate. Is your normal supermarket shelf tequila an abomination with .5% agave?
Ding Ding Ding (wonder’s is probably a bit too sweet but, eh).
I’ve been a huge fan of Don Eduardo, which seems to run a little cheaper than Patron.
Most times with the really good stuff I shake it in Ice with a sqeeze of lime and then strain it and drink it neat.
Lately I’ve been knocking back -
Bloody Maria’s
Tequila (a decent one, but don’t cheat yourself, I like Hornitos Sauza (or Sauza Hornitos, can’t remember)) to taste.
Bloody Mary Mix - again, don’t cheat yourself, there are some really good bottled Bloody Mary Mixes. For my NW homies I’ve seen a lot of this stuff in liquor stores -
http://www.garliclady.com/recipes.ihtml
Here’s where it gets good, mix BACONSALT in with your Kosher Rim salt. (Baconsalt contains no actual pork products, so you stay Kosher - word to the Torah). Don’t just use baconsalt, mix it in.
Then throw in olives and pickled asparagras stalks or what-have-you.
Its a meal. Its like Jenny Craig for lushes.
I finally got around to trying some of these, and wow, Cointreau is what does it. All other varieties of orange are shit by comparision.
I like the Mr. Boston one:
2.0 tequila
1.0 Cointreau
0.5 Lime juice
Then I add agave nectar to taste. Mmmm, so much better than that high fructose corn syrup & preservative swill.
I’ve also been experimenting with how cheap you can get the tequila and still drink it. Looks like $30/liter is the floor.
Edit: My ass. Anything less than Petron silver gives you a hangover.