Strawberry Margarita
A Strawberry Margarita is 50ml of blanco tequila, five hulled ripe strawberries, 20ml of fresh lime juice, 10ml of triple sec and 10ml of sugar syrup, blended with a cupful of crushed ice for 10 to 15 seconds and poured into a margarita glass with half the rim salted or sugared and a strawberry on the edge. About 2.4 UK units. It is the Strawberry Daiquiri’s tequila twin: the same fruit, lime and syrup, with blanco tequila in place of rum and half the Margarita’s measure of orange liqueur. The fruit brings colour, body and most of the sugar, which is why the lime runs higher and the triple sec lower than in a shaken Margarita. The syrup is there for berries less ripe than they looked.
Glassware: Margarita Glass
Garnish: Strawberry on the rim, with salt or sugar on half the rim
Ingredients
50ml
A 100% agave blanco at 40% ABV. Its green, peppery edge survives the blender; a reposado’s oak sits awkwardly on fresh berries.
5, hulled
Ripe, or frozen when ripe. They give the colour, the body and most of the sweetness; add a sixth if they are small.
10ml
At 40% ABV, and half the Margarita’s measure of orange liqueur: enough to link agave and berry without covering the fruit.
20ml
Squeezed the same day. More lime than a shaken Margarita, because the fruit adds sugar the acid has to answer.
10ml
One to one sugar syrup by weight, added only if the berries need it. Taste the blend first.
Instructions
Hull the strawberries and squeeze the lime.
Run a lime wedge round half the rim of a margarita glass and dip that half in salt or sugar.
Add the tequila, strawberries, triple sec, lime juice and sugar syrup to a blender.
Add a cupful of crushed ice.
Blend for 10 to 15 seconds, until smooth but still thick.
Pour into the glass and seat a strawberry on the rim.
Our version
Ours follows our Strawberry Daiquiri, five berries, 20ml of lime and 10ml of syrup, with 50ml of blanco tequila and 10ml of triple sec, half the Margarita’s measure, blended rather than shaken.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Taste the fruit before the syrup. Five ripe summer berries may need none of it; a pale winter punnet may need all 10ml. Strawberries do not ripen after picking, so out of season use fruit frozen ripe, which also blends colder and thicker. Stop the blender at fifteen seconds. Longer, and the motor’s friction warms the mix and melts the ice into a thin pink drink. Thick enough that it barely pours is right; it loosens in the glass. Rim only half the glass. Salt brings out the berry and calms the lime, sugar pushes the drink toward dessert, and half a rim lets each sip go either way.
Behind the Strawberry Margarita
Flavour Profile
A Margarita for the Blender
The frozen Margarita belongs to the blender and the machine. The Oxford Companion says that in 1971 Mariano Martinez adapted a soft-serve ice cream machine to make Margaritas at his Dallas restaurant, and its entry on frozen drinks dates his frozen Margarita machine to 1973 and says that by the early 1960s some were already turning the Margarita into a blender drink.
The Companion describes frozen drinks as made by grinding the ingredients and ice together in an electric blender, and says the frozen Margarita machine suited the fruit-flavoured drinks then in fashion, strawberry Margaritas among them. Made from fruit, as here, it tastes of strawberry and lime rather than syrup.
Why the Lime Goes Up
Our shaken Margarita is 50ml of tequila, 15ml of lime and 20ml of triple sec. Five ripe strawberries bring sugar of their own, so this version raises the lime to 20ml and halves the triple sec to 10ml.
The orange still links agave and fruit; at a full 20ml it would cover the berry. The lime keeps the drink a Margarita. Take it down and the glass tastes of strawberry smoothie with tequila in it.
Blanco Under Fruit
In our experience blanco tequila keeps a green, peppery note through the blender, so the drink tastes of agave under the berry. Rum in the same build rounds into the fruit and almost disappears, which is the main thing separating this from a Strawberry Daiquiri.
Reposado is a fair choice in a shaken Margarita. Here its vanilla and oak sit awkwardly on fresh strawberry, and blanco is the cleaner match.
Three Related Drinks
Margarita, Strawberry Margarita and Strawberry Daiquiri compared
Margarita
- Spirit
- 50ml blanco tequila
- Lime
- 15ml
- Orange liqueur
- 20ml triple sec
- Sugar
- None
- Fruit
- None
- Method
- Shaken
- UK units
- About 2.8
Strawberry Margarita
- Spirit
- 50ml blanco tequila
- Lime
- 20ml
- Orange liqueur
- 10ml triple sec
- Sugar
- 10ml syrup
- Fruit
- Five strawberries
- Method
- Blended
- UK units
- About 2.4
Strawberry Daiquiri
- Spirit
- 50ml white rum
- Lime
- 20ml
- Orange liqueur
- None
- Sugar
- 10ml syrup
- Fruit
- Five strawberries
- Method
- Blended
- UK units
- About 2.0
| Drink | Spirit | Lime | Orange liqueur | Sugar | Fruit | Method | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Margarita | 50ml blanco tequila | 15ml | 20ml triple sec | None | None | Shaken | About 2.8 |
| Strawberry Margarita | 50ml blanco tequila | 20ml | 10ml triple sec | 10ml syrup | Five strawberries | Blended | About 2.4 |
| Strawberry Daiquiri | 50ml white rum | 20ml | None | 10ml syrup | Five strawberries | Blended | About 2.0 |
How to Serve It
Thick and cold in a margarita glass with half the rim salted or sugared and a strawberry on the edge. Blend each round just before pouring, since a frozen drink separates within minutes, and keep the glasses in the freezer between rounds.
For the shaken original, make a Margarita; for the rum version, a Strawberry Daiquiri; for agave syrup in place of orange liqueur, a Tommy’s Margarita.
Make it at home
The Spirit
TequilaTequila is a Mexican spirit distilled from the blue agave plant, made, the Oxford Companion says, only in Jalisco and municipalities of four other states; our recipes use 40% ABV. A label reading 100% agave means every sugar came from the plant, where plain tequila needs only 51%. Most of our 26 tequila recipes ask for 100% agave blanco.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Strawberry Margarita?
Fresh or frozen strawberries?
Salt or sugar rim?
Why is my Strawberry Margarita watery?
How is it different from a Strawberry Daiquiri?
Can I shake it instead of blending?
Can I make a jug of it?
How strong is a Strawberry Margarita?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (David Wondrich), “The Margarita” (secondary source: Mariano Martinez adapted a soft-serve machine to Margaritas at Mariano’s Mexican Cuisine, Dallas, in 1971; some made the Margarita in the blender by the early 1960s; strawberry Margaritas followed).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Richard Boccato), “frozen drinks, blender drinks” (secondary source: drinks made by grinding ingredients and ice in an electric blender; the frozen Margarita machine introduced by Mariano Martinez in 1973).
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Strawberry Daiquiri
A Strawberry Daiquiri is 50ml of white rum, five hulled ripe strawberries, 20ml of fresh lime juice and 10ml of sugar syrup, blended with a cupful of crushed ice for 10 to 15 seconds and poured into a hurricane glass, with a strawberry seated on the rim. About 2.0 UK units, all of it from the rum. It is a frozen Daiquiri with fruit in it, and the lime is what keeps it one. The berries bring the colour, the body and the bulk of the sweetness; the syrup is there for fruit that turns out less ripe than it looked in the shop. Difford’s Guide’s frozen Strawberry Daiquiri blends strawberries, rum, lime juice and cane sugar syrup with crushed ice. Made from fruit, it tastes of strawberries and lime rather than sugar, and the whole method is one short blend.
Margarita
A Margarita is 50ml of 100% agave blanco tequila, 20ml of triple sec and 15ml of fresh lime juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe with half the rim salted, with a lime wheel. About 2.8 UK units. Strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, it is the same drink, longer and cooler. These are the IBA’s measures. The lime is the smallest pour, so the agave leads and the orange liqueur rounds it: the drink tastes of tequila first and sour second. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, in an entry by David Wondrich, calls the origins of the Margarita one of cocktail history’s most notorious swamps, with at least half a dozen plausible claimants, among them Carlos Herrera at Rancho La Gloria in 1947, Margarita Sames in Acapulco in 1948 and the bartender Santos Cruz in Galveston in the same year. It finds the drink under the name Margarita in print in September 1953, in a California newspaper column, followed soon after by Esquire.
Passion Fruit Margarita
A Passion Fruit Margarita is 50ml of blanco tequila, the pulp of one ripe passion fruit, 15ml of passion fruit syrup, 10ml of triple sec and 15ml of fresh lime juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained over fresh ice into a margarita glass with half the rim salted. Half the empty shell floats on top. About 2.4 UK units. Tequila and lime match our Margarita. What changes is the sweet side. The fruit brings scent and sharpness but almost no sugar, so the syrup supplies the sugar, and the triple sec drops from 20ml to 10ml so the orange does not talk over the fruit. It is a modern variation, and the shell on top is a habit borrowed from the Pornstar Martini.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026