Margarita styles compared: Tommy’s, classic, Grand, spicy, frozen and glass

The IBA’s Margarita is 50ml of 100% agave tequila, 20ml of triple sec and 15ml of fresh lime juice, shaken with ice and garnished, if you like, with a half salt rim. At 40% ABV that is about 2.8 UK units.

The rest of the family keeps the tequila and the lime and moves the sweetener. Swap the liqueur for agave and you have a Tommy’s. Raise the liqueur and change its type and you have a Grand. Add chilli, fruit or a different spirit and the sweetener has to adjust to suit.

Strength follows the spirit and the liqueur. Everything is counted at 40% ABV here, so the Grand, with 75ml of tequila and liqueur, is the strongest at about 3.0 UK units. The Picante de la Casa has no liqueur and is the lightest at about 2.0.

The lime is the smallest pour, so the agave leads and the orange liqueur rounds the edge. The Margarita tastes of tequila first and sour second. Measure the lime, because it is the pour most often doubled by eye, and the drink slides towards a plain sour when it is.

Its history is disputed. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, in David Wondrich’s entry, lists at least half a dozen claimants, among them Carlos Herrera at Rancho La Gloria in 1947, Margarita Sames in Acapulco in 1948 and Santos Cruz in Galveston the same year. It advises following the documented timeline, and the first printing of the name it cites is a California newspaper column of September 1953.

The Companion’s entry on the Tequila Daisy records Henry Madden, of the Turf Bar in Tijuana, telling a reporter in 1936 that he invented a tequila drink by grabbing the wrong bottle. If his customer had asked for a Daisy sweetened with orange liqueur, the entry reasons, that mistake sits at the head of the Margarita’s lineage.

The Tommy’s Margarita drops the orange liqueur. The IBA lists it in its New Era group at 60ml of 100% agave tequila, 30ml of lime juice and 30ml of agave nectar, shaken with ice and strained into a chilled rocks glass of ice, with a lime slice.

Agave nectar is thick and slow to mix, so our recipe cuts it one to one with water before measuring 30ml. That keeps the drink from turning twice as sweet. Difford’s Guide prints a different build: 60ml of reposado tequila, 30ml of lime and 15ml of agave syrup.

The drink carries the name of Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, which Tomas and Elmy Bermejo set up in 1965, and Difford’s Guide credits their son Julio Bermejo with it. The date moves with the source. Difford’s Guide says circa 1987 or 1988, Bermejo told Patrón it was around 1989 or 1990, and Punch puts it in the early 1990s.

Without a liqueur, the sweetener comes from the plant the spirit comes from, so the tequila stands at the front. That makes it the plainest way to judge a bottle. The sweet-against-sour reasoning is set out in understanding cocktail balance, which also shows how to fix a sour in 5ml steps.

The Grand Margarita is 45ml of blanco tequila, 30ml of Grand Marnier and 15ml of lime, which are the IBA’s measures. The IBA salts the whole rim of the rocks glass with sea salt and shakes for 10 seconds. Our recipe salts half and shakes for 10 to 12.

Against the classic, the liqueur rises from 20ml to 30ml and the tequila falls from 50ml to 45ml. Its maker describes Grand Marnier as cognac with orange liqueur, with vanilla from the cognac and cognac notes of hazelnuts and toffee beside the orange. In the glass that reads as rounder and less sharp than the classic, which suits a guest who finds a Margarita too tart.

A swap between triple sec, orange curaçao and Grand Marnier leaves the units unchanged, because all three are counted at 40% ABV here. It changes the flavour. Orange liqueurs compared sets out how the bottles differ.

The Spicy Margarita is a Tommy’s with heat: 60ml of blanco tequila, 30ml of lime and 15ml of agave syrup, shaken with three jalapeño slices pressed in the tin. The seeds decide the heat, out for warmth and in for fire. Double strain it, because chilli left in the glass keeps infusing and the last sip lands hotter than the first.

The Picante de la Casa keeps the Tommy’s frame and adds chilli and coriander: 50ml of reposado tequila, 25ml of lime and 20ml of agave nectar. Soho House’s House Notes say Chris Ojeda first created it at Soho House West Hollywood in 2012. A few months in oak soften the tequila’s pepper, which gives the chilli something round to sit against.

The Mezcal Margarita is a Tommy’s with 60ml of joven espadín mezcal in place of the tequila, 30ml of lime and 15ml of agave syrup. It leaves out orange liqueur because orange and smoke compete for the same part of the palate. Tequila or mezcal covers what the swap does.

Fruit brings its own sugar, so the sweetener shrinks. The Passion Fruit Margarita uses the pulp of one passion fruit, 15ml of passion fruit syrup and only 10ml of triple sec, so the orange does not talk over the fruit. The Strawberry Margarita uses five strawberries, 10ml of triple sec and 10ml of sugar syrup, with 20ml of lime against the classic’s 15ml because the berries are sweet.

The Strawberry Margarita is the blended version here. Everything goes into a blender with a cupful of crushed ice for 10 to 15 seconds, until it is smooth but still thick. Blend longer and the motor warms the mix, the ice melts and the drink turns thin and pink.

Blending is older than the machine. The Oxford Companion, in Richard Boccato’s entry on frozen drinks, says some bartenders were turning the Margarita into a blender drink by the early 1960s, and gives 1973 for Mariano Martinez’s frozen Margarita machine. VinePair dates his machine to 1971, at his new restaurant in Dallas, so the date depends on the source.

The IBA lists a half salt rim as optional on the Margarita and garnishes Tommy’s with lime only, so salt is a choice at the bar. Punch suggests salting one half of the glass so each drinker can choose, and that is how our recipes do it.

Wet the outer edge of half the rim with a spent lime half, tilt the glass and roll the wet edge through flaky salt. Salt on the inside wall falls into the drink and dissolves, and the Margarita grows saltier as it sits. That is a salty drink, not a salted rim.

A glass rimmer keeps the salt dry and the wet tray apart. Garnishing like a pro covers rims for other drinks, and salt rim covers the salt itself.

The shaken Margarita served up goes into a chilled coupe, double strained. Served on the rocks it goes into a rocks glass over fresh ice, which is how the Tommy’s, the Grand and the Mezcal Margarita are served.

The margarita glass has a wide, stepped bowl built to carry a long salt rim. We use it for the Spicy, Passion Fruit and Strawberry Margaritas. About 25 to 30cl is enough by our guidance. Restaurant glasses often run to 40cl or more, sized for frozen machine serves, and a shaken drink in one sits shallow across a wide surface and warms quickly.

If you make frozen and fruit Margaritas often, a margarita glass earns a place on the shelf. Otherwise a coupe and a rocks glass cover every version here.

A jug saves the shaking, and the ingredients that last can be mixed early. Ten classic Margaritas need 500ml of tequila and 200ml of triple sec, which can wait in the fridge. Squeeze 150ml of lime on the day and stir in about 200ml of cold water, which stands in for the shake.

How to batch cocktails explains the water and the timings, and the summer cocktails guide has the Margarita jug for a barbecue.

Make the classic when the tequila should lead and the orange should round it. Make a Tommy’s to judge a bottle, because nothing else is in the glass but lime and agave. Make a Grand when a guest finds the classic too tart. Make the Mezcal Margarita for smoke, the Spicy or the Picante for heat, and a Strawberry or Passion Fruit when there is ripe fruit to use.

The tequila guide explains what 100% agave means on the label. Paloma, Batanga and Cantaritos covers the longer tequila drinks.