How to make the Perfect Margarita at Home

Have you been trying to figure out How to make the Perfect Margarita at Home without success? Well, today we are sharing how to make tequila margaritas with you to make sure that you always have the very best margarita!

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How to make the Perfect Margarita at Home

Here at The Mixer HQ, we weren’t surprised when our recent survey revealed the Margarita as the nation’s favorite cocktail to make at home. It’s also one of the most ordered drinks in America!

There are so many different versions of the Margarita cocktail around these days!

You’d be forgiven for not realizing that the deceptively humble Lime Margarita is actually the original drink that started the whole craze. It’s made with tequila, lime, and orange liqueur, and often finished with a salt rim.

Let’s start with the key elements of a classic Margarita:

Traditionally, the strong element in the Margarita is tequila, but using other agave distillates can give your drink a delicious and unique flavor.

The sour element in a drink is what brings acidity; lemon juice and lime juice are the most popular sour agents but you could also use key lime, tart cranberry juice, vinegar, malic/lactic acid, etc. Lime juice is tart, bright, and the perfect pairing for the spice and citrus notes of tequilas and mezcal.

The sweet element in a drink balances the sour and strong elements. Sweetness can come from many different sources such as white sugar, brown sugar, agave syrup, honey, maple syrup, custom syrups, liqueurs, etc.

Margarita is a sour that is sweetened with a liqueur, orange liqueur specifically, though many popular variations include other sweeteners.

The Margarita is often served with a salt rim that helps to enhance the taste and elevate the flavors, but it can also be mixed in the drink or sprinkled on top.

There are many different kinds of salt and they can all bring something different to your Margarita:

• coarse sea salt (avoid fine salt for drinks),
• kosher salt,
• volcanic black salt,
• Himalayan pink salt,
• chili salt,
• flavored salts, etc.

How to put salt on your margarita glass:

Before you make your drink, pour your chosen salt onto a plate.

Then, rub the side of a lime wedge against the outside lip of your glass and gently roll the edge against the salt on the plate. Try to keep the salt on the outside edge of the glass so it doesn’t fall in your drink.

Are you looking for other Quick & Easy recipes to serve like my How to make the Perfect Margarita at Home tutorial? 

Check out these super delicious cocktail recipes that I have shared over the years. They are all tried and true recipes that I have made over the years, or my trusty food writers have made.

How to serve a Margarita 

Most Margarita recipes are designed to be single-serve and shaken by hand. Combine ingredients in a mixing tin/glass, add ice to the top, place the top tin on firmly, and shake vigorously back and forth until the tin has frost on the outside and is cold to the touch.

Frozen Margaritas are also a fun and delicious option which will impress your guests. Whether blended or made in a machine, frozen Margaritas need to be made a little differently than the shaken variation because achieving optimal texture and flavor is a science.

When making a Margarita in a blender, adding the correct amount of ice is important for temperature, consistency, and dilution. Not all ice is the same size, but a good rule of thumb is to estimate about 130g (about 1-1.5 cups) of ice per drink.          

If you’re going large, you can serve your Margaritas in a pitcher, it’s one of the best cocktails to be enjoyed with a group. Any recipe can be multiplied by four and prepared in a pitcher for a group serve. Remember to add lots of ice for proper dilution.

If you’d rather serve it individually, choose a stemmed Margarita glass which is iconic, playful and perfectly suited for frozen Margaritas and creative variations. The Double Rocks Glass usually holds more and is perfect for shaken Margaritas.

A float of Grand Marnier takes your Margarita from good to Grand. These sidecars, or “tooters” as they are called, make service simple. Fill with Grand Marnier, clip to the side of the glass, and serve.

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Twists on the classic margarita

The Margarita’s ingredients can be stretched into new forms - offering lots of opportunities to experiment and get creative. It is similar to an iconic pop star; constantly trying on new looks and personas, yet remaining true to its core.

Spicy Margaritas are on the rise as drinkers’ palates embrace bolder flavors like chiles and other peppers. Spice can stand alone or be a great complementary element in any Margarita. Smoke is also a rapidly growing flavor trend.

The flavor of smoke can be put into a Margarita in many ways including using smoky spirits, infusing syrups with smoky flavors, and directly capturing smoke in the glass.

Here are our favorite margarita variations:

Pineapple Anchorita Margarita Recipe

Ingredients needed to make this Pineapple Anchorita Margarita Recipe

• 1 part verde chile liqueur
• 1 part tequila blanco
• 1 past pineapple juice
• 5 parts fresh lime juice
• 5 parts agave syrup

Method: Add all ingredients to tin and shake with ice. Strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with dried pineapple and a lime half wheel.   

El Bandito Margarita Recipe

Ingredients needed to make this El Bandito Margarita Recipe

• 1 part mezcal
• 1 part verde chile liqueur
• 1 part fresh lime juice
• 5 part agave syrup

Method: Add all ingredients to the tin, shake with ice until chilled, and strain into an old fashioned glass over ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and dried chili. .

Smoked Bergamot Sour Margarita Recipe

Ingredients needed to make this Smoked Bergamot Sour Margarita Recipe

• 5 part mezcal
• 75 fresh lemon juice
• 75 part bergamot syrup
• 1 dash aromatic bitters             

Method: Add all ingredients to tin and shake with ice. Strain into a double old fashioned glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

Horse With No Name Margarita Recipe

Ingredients needed to make this Horse With No Name Margarita Recipe

• 5 parts tequila blanco
• 5 Grand Marnier
• 5 oart pear liqueur
• 5 prt fresh lime juice
• Stick of incense/palo santo

Method: Prepare a chilled coupe/cocktail glass by placing it upside down on a flat surface. Burn the end of a thin palo santo stick, extinguish the flame, and trap smoke under the glass. Set the burnt palo santo aside safely.

Let the smoke filled glass rest while making the cocktail. Add all ingredients to the cocktail shaker, add ice and shake thoroughly until chilled. Double-strain into the chilled & smoked coupe/cocktail glass.

Garnish with the thin smoldering palo santo stick used to smoke the glass, placing it carefully on the glass rim & float a single sage leaf on the surface of the cocktail.

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