The Cocktail Spirit with Robert HessMargarita
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There are countless stories that claim to herald the origin of the Margarita, and to the best of my knowledge none of them have been definitively identified as the real one. Go ahead and debate this topic amongst yourselves if you wish, but in this episode we will instead focus on how to make a proper Margarita using silver tequila, Cointreau, and fresh squeezed lime juice.
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Recipe
Margarita
- 2 oz Tequila
- 1 1/3 oz Cointreau
- 2/3 oz fresh lime juice
Shake with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass
Garnish with a wedge of lime
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Comments
Margaritas based on Jose Cuervo Tradicional Reposado don’t work for me and my customers at all but apparently they work in some other restaurants… I found the Agave Restaurant in Atlanta where they use Cuervo Tradicional Reposado for
what they call Agave Reposado Margatini.
check their menu on:
http://www.agaverestaurant.com/frames/photosframe.htm
By the way, any ideas what they mean by ‘fresh lime & sour’ ?
I tried some aged tequilas in the Margarita but I agree with Robert that the silver one is possibly the best for this cocktail.
A friend of mine showed me a new edition of Harry’s Bar in Paris cocktail guide. Suprisingly the Margarita recipe
calls for lemon juice. We tried and didn’t like it.
Regards from a cocktail bar in Edinburgh
“Fresh Lime & Sour” would mean that they are using fresh lime juice -and- sour mix. In my mind the sour mix in this case is being used to add extra “volume” to the drink, without increasing the cost to the bar.
I’ve got a good friend who swears by using lemon juice instead of lime in his Margaritas, with some slight adjustments to the Cointreau, this can work out well, but I just find limes to be more appropriate.
I tried this recipe this other day and found it to be quite excellent, and as I usually avoid anything with Tequilla in it I was presently suprised. My aversion to Tequilla comes more from the fact that I think it tastes vaguely of vinegar than any unfortunate experience with it.
Out of interest, do people ever get angry if they ask for a margarita (or daiquiri), you give them the drink as you’ve shown on this site, and they expected a frozen drink? I ask this because I am on the younger side (22) and all the people I regularily drink with or make drinks for are of a similar age and seem to believe the only real way to make a drink is what is trendy currently (I still can’t convince half of them to actually try a proper Martini). Do you find that desire for trendy drinks goes away with age, or will I have to deal with this for a long time?
Finally, just a general comment, I absolutely love the site and have been watching the videos since you posted the first one, I’m just a few behind now as I was busy with school and didn’t get a chance to visit the site.
Masecar,
Wow… do you open a can of worms. :->
It can often be a balancing act to identify what “trends” are evolutionary concepts, and which are devolutionary.
Personally I feel that “blended margaritas” are in the relm of two steps back as far as proper cocktail appreciation goes, mostly because they bear too much simularity to “slushiees”, and hence our “childhood” then they do to properly position adult libations.
Cocktails should not remind us of our childhood, insteadn they should advance us into adulthood.
-Robert
aloha! Along the lines of slushies….If one is eating then a slushee is horrible for the gut. this type of drink is better for eating and more in line with true latin tequila drinking, where most often it is served neat and at ambient teperature. Good tequila is worth tasting not hiding! Salut!
Somewhere (wish I remembered the context, sorry) I recently heard or read that Margarita is the word for “daisy” in Spanish and that the drink is the surviving south-of-the-border adaptation of a forgotten cocktail called the Daisy.
Given the Star Daisy made for me at Bourbon & Branch one time when I wanted an older drink, I believe it.
Dinah,
Yes, “Daisy” in Spanish is “Margarita”. You can go to http://translator.live.com and check this out yourself. This is just one of the stories surrounding how the drink got it’s name.
A “Daisy” would be a drink made with Spirits, Grenadine (or Raspberry syrup), and a citrus juice. Conceptually similar to a Margarita, but this style of cocktail (spirit, syrup, juice) is extremely common, with names like sour, fix, and even punch have a fairly similar pattern. One reason for this “not” to be a Daisy, is that the construction of a Daisy was usually quite specific that a red syrup was used. No idea why.
For the time being, I’m satisfied with just shrugging my shoulders and agreeing that we may never know how the Margarita actually got its name, or when.
-Robert
Let me open up another can of worms. I blame the chain rest/bars for forcing me to reprogram my customers of the decade’s worth of shoddy bartending/ingredients they have been subjected to.
If only I had a dollar for every time a customer saddles up to our bar and orders a “top shelf” margarita, only to protest when I use anything other than Cuervo. I usually respond with “do you want Cuervo, or do you want me to use the good stuff?”
Sadly, they have been served so many of these sour mix concoctions that upon sampling the real deal…they assume I am a novice bartender. It’s an arduous task.
Question:
I recently attended a lecture given by Sofia Partida of Partida tequila. They are big proponents of agave nectar. No doubt you have tried their recipe. What are your thoughts on agave nectar and its place in the margarita?
Yes, we can blame a lot of Margarita sadness on those chain restaurants. I’ve had people write to tell me my Margarita recipe was wrong because it didn’t use sour mix, and since (insert name of famous chain restaurant here) always used sour mix in their Margaritas THAT was the right way to make it.
Agave syrup is a nice “touch” to add to a Margarita, simply because it ties back so nicely to the mother plant. Personally I love my 3-2-1 recipe, and think it is sweet enough. To add Agave to this, I’d probably have to switch to a 3-1-1-1 ratio, but that too would change the flavor.
Robert,
What is the manufacturer of the antique juicer you use? I’d like to try and find one on Ebay.
Blair
It’s an “Ebaloy” juicer.
With all of the interest that these shows have been building in that juicer, I expect prices to go through the roof soon on ebay :->
The margarita is the most popular cocktail in the USA. I believe that it wouldn’t be popular if it was made like this. While this may be the ‘real’ way to make a margarita, the reason people like common margaritas are because they are watered down.
It is considered a ‘girly drink’ for a reason. I dont think a drink with a 5 to 1 alcohol to filler ratio would be considered a girly drink. Most people dont like the taste of alcohol, and I think people dont like the taste of spirits, regardless of the quality or alcohol content either. Thats why they make mix drinks. Otherwise there would be non-alcoholic tequila flavored soda and such. I have tried the 3:2:1 ratio and the IBA 7:4:3 ratio, and I found both undrinkable. Its just too strong for me and most people.
That being said, i also want to say that just because I like a weak drink, doesn’t mean it has to be ‘filled’ with inferior ingredients like ‘sour mix’. For example when I make a margarita I use 2 oz tequila, 1 1/3 oz triple sec, 2 1/3 oz lime juice, 1 1/3 oz lemon juice, and 1 1/3 oz simple syrup. So its the same amount of alcohol, just spread out to make it less unpleasant and more thirst quenching. Its similar to what you would get in any restaurant without the crap bar mix.
And I can understand why a customer would get upset at ordering a margarita and getting a drink that is almost pure liquor.
Darren,
You raise some good issues here.
One of which is “nothing is written in stone”. Gary Regan regularly reminds me of this when I start pontificating a tad too much on the “right’ way to make a cocktail. As it just so happens, he is also the one who “enlightened” me to the 3:2:1 ratio for the Margarita once when I was trying to determine the “right” recipe.
It’s perfectly fine for folks to like “weak” drinks, as well as drinks with a different “balance” to them. Each of us has a slightly different flavor “pattern” which we gravitate towards.
That said, I think that there is something to appreciate about having names “mean” something. The “traditional/classic” Margarita consists of tequila, lime juice, and Cointreau. Ratios of those ingredients can vary a tad, but there is always more tequila, then either of the other ingredients independently. And the key objective is to find the right “balance” of those ingredients so that it is not to sour, and not too sweet. When I order a Margarita at a quality bar, this is almost exactly what I will get every time. If I order a Margarita at a two-bit mexican joint, I’ll get something that tastes nothing like it, but more like a “lemonade, with a slight kick”.
Which one is a Margarita? Can they both be? The cheap “commercial sour mix” version of the Margarita I liken to ordering a Caesar Salad, and getting a wedge of Iceburg lettuce with garlic mayonnaise on it. Sure, it might be a fine “salad”, but can you call it a Caesar Salad? What if your first experiences with Caesar Salad were with this iceburg variation? What if that’s the one you prefer? What if that’s the way everybody made it in the town you grew up in (perhaps because they were the iceburg captal of the world)?
And it’s timely for you to raise this issue as well because we just started the “Saturated on Sazeracs” set of episodes. When I first visited New Orlenas, I made it a point to try a Sazerac at every bar I went to just so I could see how they made “real” Sazeracs down in it’s birthplace. Almost to a one, the drink that came back was WAY too sweet, and far, far, sweeter than I know this cocktail would have been made. The reason is quite simple, kids coming off of Bourbon street, wander into a bar and try a Sazerac, and are slapped across the face with alcohol unrestrained by sugar or fruit juices. Bartenders soon learn that to prevent drinks from coming back, they need to “sweeten it up” to make it more approachable to this inexperienced crowd. Thus destroying the drink for those of us who liked it fine just the way it was.
Who’s right? The alcohol adverse who wants a drink with the alcohol safely hidden, or the alcohol experienced who appreciates the characteristics that alcohol brings to the drink?
In my mind, a “cocktail” is a drink which “celebrates” the spirit, which means that it properly positions the spirit within the rest of the ingredients so that you can taste it, and appreciate it.
...at least that is the way it is written on my stones.
-Robert
This discussion reminds me of a quote from David Wondrich’s “Imbibe!”
“In short, any bourbon or rye aged between four and fifteen years and bottled at 90 proof or above will work just fine (anything at lower proof would have generated adverse comment and, most likely, shooting).”
You mention in the video clip that Gold tequilas have artificial colors and flavors. I knew about the addition of caramel color, but the artificial flavors thing was new to me, so I ran a question about it past the folks at Cuervo, since theirs is the best-selling gold tequila. I thought you and your viewers might be interested in their response. Here it is:
“There are NO artificial flavors in any Jose Cuervo products.
Caramel coloring is added as in most other spirits (rum, whiskey, tequila, brandy, etc)
Not only does the CRT allow it but also the regulatory liquor boards in the US and abroad as this common practice is used to standarize the color and not the flavor of the product.
Let me know if you need further clarification. Glad to answer!”
Dan,
I perhaps should have been more specific, and detailed that “caramel coloring” that is added to “gold” tequila imparts not just a color, but a often noticeable flavor as well.
Details can be found here:
http://www.caramel.com/a-156-296-Flavor-Analysis-of-Caramel-Color.aspx
So it’s not that an artificial color and an artificial flavor are added, but that an “artificial” ingredient is added which acts both a coloring and slight flavoring agent.
Hope that clear it up.
-Robert
Robert,
I`m interested in your opinion on putting simple syrup in certain cocktails to “carry the flavor” of the drink.
Chris McMillan mentions it in his video of making margarita. He goes with 1,5 oz tequila ; 3/4 oz cointreau ; 3/4 oz lime juice and a dash of simple syrup “to carry the flavor”.
I made both (3:2:1 and 3:1:1 + syrup) variations, and I must say, while classic ratio highlights tequila more, the second one is more “tasty” and pleasant to drink.
Jamie Boudreau also mentions something about adding simple syrup “for the texture” of the drink.
Sweetness in a drink I feel can do several different things. Just the added sweetness alone can make for a more pleasureable drink, since we tend to gravitate towards sweet things more than we do sour, but I also think in some cases it can help to “finish” the flavor. For example, some folks might take their absinthe drip without sugar, I tried for a while to do mine that way, but then when comparing it to an absinthe drip with sugar, I felt that the sugar was doing more than simply sweetening the drink, it was actually filling in a gap. It is as though the flavor were incomplete without the sugar (to me anyway).
Syrup can also add a texture to the drink as well, especially a richer syrup which has a certain viscosity to it, or even a gum syrup to which as been added gum arabic specifically to add more “body” to the syrup.
More about the science of taste & how it impacts cocktails from Darcy O’Neil here:
http://www.artofdrink.com/2008/03/sensory-perception-and-mixology.php
http://www.artofdrink.com/2008/08/sensory-perception-presentation.php
And Rick’s notes here
http://www.kaiserpenguin.com/totc-friday-live-blogging-sensory-perception-and-mixology/
Robert, first of all let me say that I love the show—you’ve inspired me to restock my bar and I’m having a blast mixing up different cocktails to try. (FWIW, I also just spent about $100 on stuff at kegworks.com. Kegworks, if you’re reading this, the sponsorship is paying off!).
As to sweetness “filling the gap” in a cocktail, I completely agree. I discovered this recently by accident. I had made up a cocktail based on a recipe I found on the web; it was supposed to have bourbon, heavy cream, nutmeg and sugar. But I forgot to put the sugar in the first one, and the resulting drink was completely disjointed—it tasted like drinking nutmeg-flavored cream followed by a shot of bourbon. So I made another one, this time remembering to add the sugar. What a difference! Besides improving the taste, the sweetness somehow connected the initial milkiness and spiciness from the cream and nutmeg with the complex flavors of the bourbon. In short, it tasted like one integrated drink instead of two separate ones. This was a serious eye-opener for me.
I don’t think your margarita recipe has a gap like this that needs filling, but I do think that, for me, a little sweetness would improve the flavor of the drink. Which is kind of funny, because I actually thought your Old Fashioned was a little too sweet. But that’s one of the great things about making drinks at home—we each can doctor them to our liking!
Anyway, keep up the good work. I’m off to mix up another tasty margarita.
My favorite Tequila is Cavalino, Great stuff and inexpensive…also I use Damiana Liqueur in a lot of my margaritas, Mexican Folklore says it was used in the original margarita, but thats for another debate. I like it and its a great change from the same ole “triple sec/orange liqueur” routine…
Hi Robert -
Why is this considered a cocktail if it doesn’t contain bitters (I suppose the same could be asked of the sidecar)?
The notion of a “cocktail” being required to include bitters has sort of fallen by the wayside. I don’t think that there is anybody today who is actively promoting that standard is re-established. Heck, if that was the case, then the only common drinks which would be considered cocktails would be the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, and Champagne Cocktail. Few other drinks (outside of dedicated “craft” bars) include bitters at all. I’m happy if folks consider cocktails to be a drink made with with attention to their culinary properties.
Thanks for the quick response, Robert.
Excelente Maestro!
I’m sorry I was too busy to get in on this discussion up front, since this is such an important drink. Personally, I make mine 4-3-2, straight up and no salt. But that’s just my taste.
I also want to second the plug for Cavalino. I really don’t think there’s a better quality-to-price tequila around.
The problem is that it’s just so hard to get one of these! It seems like I can count on one hand the number of bars that will use fresh lime juice. I recently went to a very fancy (non chain) restaurant at one of this country’s premier ski resorts. I wasn’t going to have a drink, but the waitress really talked up their margaritas. So I told her that I’d be happy to have one if they made me a real margarita, and I spelled it out: pick me any nice tequila, use Cointreau and not cheap triple-sec, and use *fresh* lime juice, straight up, no salt. I even told her to charge whatever she liked (since I was on an expense account.) Otherwise, just bring me a beer.
The waitress returned with a passable margarita, but she was really upset, because the bartender essentially refused to make it, and told her she’d have to mash limes herself if that’s what she wanted.
I’d guess the “world-class” margaritas they were pushing were just glasses of lime-ade with expensive tequila wasted in there.
It just points out how hard it is to get a real margarita made. In fact, this is in line with my entire cocktail experience. I essentially can’t stand to go out to drink anymore, since I’ve learned to make such great drinks at home. Perhaps one bar in 100 will do things right, and it’s just not worth the pain to find those. Sucks.
—George
George,
I was out with some friends the other night at a bar that literally had hundreds of spirits. They had eight different cachacas and five kinds of absinthe for instance. I asked the bartender to make me a drink with something unusual in it. He ended up making me a genever, lime juice and simple syrup on the rocks. Pretty cool. When the bartender asked what everyone else wanted, they opted for Belgian beer.
Later on I asked why they didn’t order any cocktails, they said it was because they knew they could get better ones from me at my home bar. A compliment, but also a bit disappointing in a way. I’ve got these people spoiled!
Cheers!
Blair Frodelius
http://goodspiritsnews.spaces.live.com
Robert,
Great episode as always. One of my favorite drinks to boot. I have a question though. Wouldn’t a 3:2:1 ratio be 2oz tequila, 1oz cointreau (rather than 11/3oz) and 2/3 oz of lime juice? Or am I missing something?
Greg
Greg, it’s a math issue… If you treat “2 oz” as “3 parts”, that means a single part is 2/3 of an ounce. and 2 parts is 1 1/3 ounce. Which gives the recipe as presented, even if 1/3 ounce measures are fairly rare in cocktails.
Robert,
Thanks for the quick reply. I was looking at it the wrong way. Instead of starting with the 2/3 oz and going up, I started with the 2 oz and went down. This is why I never did well in math. Ah well, the only to do now is to have a drink!
Bottoms up!
Greg
I just did a taste test between a “Grand” Margarita (made with Grand Marnier) and a regular Margarita (made with Cointreau). I used the same proportions and two halves of the same lime (with 1800 Silver tequila). I definitely found the one made with Cointreau to taste better, though I struggle to say exactly why. The one with Cointreau is more balanced, with a sharper and more pronounced kick to it, whereas the one with Grand Marnier is somehow softer and too round in taste.
I know one in principle should use less Grand Marnier than Cointreau if substituting, but I do think Cointreau works best.
Yes, that’s the same way I find it as well. It’s not that Grand Marnier isn’t as good of a product, nor is it that Cointreau is better in cocktails than Grand Marnier. It’s just that for this particular cocktail, to get the right flavor profile, Cointreau provides a better character than Grand Marnier.
The reason I prefer Cointreau to Gran Marnier is because the Gran Marnier, by bringing brandy into the equation, adds a little extra complexity. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but with a refreshingly simple drink like a Margarita I think it’s out of place. To me, drinking a Margarita should be a relaxing experience that makes your mouth say “tequila”. With Gran Marnier, there is more going on and it’s distracting
.
I think the reason bars often call this a “cadillac” Margarita is because you’re getting Gran Marnier instead of some disgusting bottom-shelf triple-sec, not because it is substituting for Cointreau, which costs almost as much.
So, I’d usually choose Cointreau over Gran Marnier, but I’d take Gran Marnier over the discount triple-sec every time.
Unfortunately, most bars just dump them into 12 oz of lime-ade with a shot of tequila, and then I can’t tell the difference.