How To Make A Margarita On The Rocks
A margarita on the rocks is the most traditional way to make a margarita cocktail. Making a homemade margarita on the rocks is simple. Basic recipes combine tequila, triple sec, and fresh lime juice to create a tangy, earthy, and slightly sweet drink. Instead of triple sec, some recipes balance out the drink’s tartness with simple syrup or agave syrup, a natural match for agave-based tequila.
While good tequila is important for a delicious margarita on the rocks scroll down to see how to choose the best tequila for a margarita fresh lime juice is just as crucial. Yes, squeezing limes by hand takes time, but the flavor is far superior to bottled lime juice. As for triple sec, it really depends on your budget. Grand Marnier and Cointreau are top quality but not the most economical options. There are many other, less expensive triple secs, including Bol’s Triple Sec, which will also make a lip-smacking margarita.
Easy Homemade Margarita Mix Recipe
If you love making margaritas, you will definitely want to keep a bottle of this Margarita Mix in your fridge at all times! It makes whipping up a marg so quick and easy because all you need to do is add tequila and triple sec.
Not to mention, this homemade version is a thousand times better than anything you will ever buy at the store. There are no preservatives, no additives, and nothing to make it look neon green. Just water, sugar, and citrus juices.
While many margarita mixes are made with just lime juice, I chose to add some orange juice and lemon juice too. The combination of the three juices really just makes the mix pop and adds so much depth to your cocktail. Youll never want it any other way!
How To Make A Margarita :
Detailed instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a brief overview of how to make a single-serving homemade margarita:
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How To Turn This Into A Cocktail
How do you turn margarita mix into a margarita? Just add alcohol! I love just making a classic margarita with this mix. Two of my other favorites are to make a frozen margarita or a frozen strawberry margarita. Heres exactly how much alcohol to add, to make either a single margarita or an entire pitcher:
- How much liquor do I add to make my margarita? You will use 3 ounces of the mix, 2 ounces tequila, and 1 ounce triple sec.
- Can I pre-make this mix with alcohol, so I just have to pour it instead of mixing it for individual drinks? Yes, if you want to make this into a pitcher drink, you can mix 22 ounces of tequila with 11 ounces of the triple sec into the margarita mix to get your premade margaritas.
How To Make Homemade Margarita Mix:
- Create a simple syrup by boiling water and sugar.
- Mix with freshly squeezed lemon juice and lime juice.
Yes! Thats it.
One important note: For the most flavorful margarita mix, I recommend using freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice. Fresh is beyond compare!
With your mix prepared, I assume youre ready for a cocktail.
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Special Equipment For This Recipe
- I didnt use them in this photoshoot, but if you want a classic glass, here they are.
- Large Cocktail Shaker this holds 30 oz!
- Citrus Juicer this makes juicing all those limes a bit easier.
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AND DONT FORGET, IF YOUVE MADE THIS RECIPE, LEAVE A COMMENT AND PLEASE GIVE IT A STAR RATING LETTING ME KNOW HOW YOU ENJOYED IT!
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Where Was The Margarita Invented
There are a number of stories about where the margarita was created. It’s difficult to say which is true. In the book “Imbibe!,” David Wondrich traces its roots to around the repeal of Prohibition. “Margarita” is the Spanish word for “daisy” and this drink belongs to the daisy family of cocktails.
Drinks like the brandy daisy were very popular in the late 1800s and made with any base spirit, including brandy, gin, rum, and whiskey. They follow a formula of spirit, sweetener, orange liqueur, lemon juice, and soda. When tequila started to reach American bars, the tequila daisymade with tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice, and sometimes sodaappeared. It wasn’t long before it became known as the margarita.
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How To Enhance Your Margaritas With Store
Learn how to use ready-made margarita mix to shake and blend up classic cocktails. Enjoy these sweet, salty, sour drinks with your friends.
This simple drink is a classic around the world. The margarita didnât originate on the tropical shores of Mexico, though. This may be where youâre likely to get a great margarita now, but this recipe originated in either the landlocked Mexican city of Puebla or in Texas. Cocktail buffs dispute the latter legend, but weâll give you both versions and let you decide.
According to reliable expert bar-storians, bartender Danny Negrete created this famed drink to please his girlfriend, Margarita, who liked salt in her cocktails. However, some sources believe that Texas bartenders mixed up this beverage for the first time. These Texan tales vary in the details, but they all have one thing in common: The margarita was an experiment or a mistake. If this isnât enough drama for you, feel free to go down the rabbit hole of margarita stories yourself. Wikipedia alone cites eight different origin theories.
We canât solve the mystery of where the margarita originated, we can certainly tell you how to make one. Weâll teach you how to make a margarita mix cocktail, which is the easiest of all margarita recipes. And, for all the burgeoning mixologists out there, weâll also show how to make traditional margarita recipes with triple sec, tequila, and lime.
Preparation time: 3 minutes
Brent Hofacker â stock.adobe.com
How To Make Margaritas
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How To Use The Mix:
For a classic margarita, I use:
- 3 ounces of margarita mix
- 2 ounces of silver tequila
- 1 ounce of triple sec.
Shake it up with ice and serve in a salt-rimmed glass with a wedge of fresh lime. Oh, my! Its so good.
If you prefer a frozen margarita, just add the ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth.
Also, you can adjust these amounts to your own taste. However you fix yours, Im certain youll love this recipe as much as we did.
If you enjoy margaritas, youre in luck because I have a blog post dedicated to my favorite margaritas recipese. You can find all of those recipes HERE.
Tips And Tricks To Make Homemade Margarita Mix
Looking for a way to make this mix NA? How about the right way to zest those limes? Find the answers with these tips and tricks.
- Zesting limes: A fine microplane gets just the right amount of zest off the lime and none of the white pith underneath. Also, dont feel like you have to strain this with a fine strainer. Some lime zest floating around lets your guests know, Hey! Theres real lime in there!
- Non-alcoholic mix: Swap out the Cointreau with orange juice and zest. You may need to adjust the sweetness up or down depending on the type of orange you choose, so taste as you go! Offer your guests this nonalcoholic alternative margarita mix with sparkling water or tonic for a bubbly alternative to tequila.
- If youre looking for something other than tonic water as an alcohol substitute in your NA cocktails we have a whole list of our favorites in this article on The Best Non-Alcoholic Spirits for Building a Sober Bar.
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How To Make A Margarita
Whether sipped by the pool, at a fiesta, or just because it’s Tuesday, are a guaranteed crowd-pleasing drink. An instant celebration, this refreshing cocktail of tequila, orange liqueur , and fresh lime juice is typically served in a festive glass with a salted rim. We’ll show you how to make a margarita in several different ways, and share favorite recipes to try.
There are plenty of ways to make margaritas shake them with ice, blend them into a frozen treat, or if you’re in a rush, short-cut your way to success with a margarita mix.
This handy guide shows you three ways to make a classic margarita at home, plus plenty of tasty variations, so you can plan your next cocktail party.
How To Make A Frozen Margarita
Frozen margaritas are thicker, slushier versions of traditional margaritas. They’re ultra refreshing when it’s hot outside, and whipping them up makes any occasion instantly more festive. Frozen margaritas are great for a crowd, plus they’re even easier to make than margaritas on the rocks.
To make frozen margaritas, you’ll need a blender and plenty of crushed ice. Unlike a margarita on the rocks, we don’t recommend using fresh lime juice in a frozen margarita. Because frozen margaritas require a good amount of ice to blend, you need a tangy ingredient that packs more punch than lime juice.
Frozen lime concentrate, which you’ll find in the freezer section of most grocery stores, has just the right amount of intense lime flavor to stand out in a frozen margarita. Plus, its cold, icy texture will also give your margarita a smoother consistency. Here’s one more thing to love about frozen lime concentrate you can use the empty container as a measuring cup for the tequila.
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Why Dont My Margaritas Taste Good
If youre experiencing your margarita is too sour, thats probably because of too much lime juice. You may have followed the recipe correctly but since limes acidity varies this may have caused it to be too sour. Add more sweetener to balance a too sour margarita. For a classic margarita, thats the orange liqueur.
Variations On The Classic Margarita Recipe
Once you’ve mastered the classic margarita recipe, there are various other variations to try. Here are a few of our favorites:
- For a fruity twist, try adding your favorite fruit to the mix. Strawberry margaritas are always a hit!
- For an on-the-rocks margarita, simply add all of your ingredients to a shaker with some ice and shake until mixed, and then pour into your favorite glass.
- For something truly unique, try making a smoked margaritarim your glass with smoked salt and add a drop or two of liquid smoke to the blender with the rest of your ingredients. Be careful, thoughliquid smoke is strong stuff!
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Is Triple Sec Required In A Margarita
Triple sec is one of the key ingredients in a margarita. It acts as the drink’s sweetener and adds a hint of orange flavor. You can use another orange liqueur, such as curaçao, and the Cadillac margarita uses the brandy-based Grand Marnier. Though definitely not an authentic margarita, some people prefer to skip the liqueur and use simple syrup with a squeeze of fresh orange juice instead . With these changes, you will need to play with the proportions to create a well-balanced margarita.
Orange You Glad You Bought Liqueur
The easiest ingredient to overlook is the orange liqueur. Triple sec seems like a weird thing to buy for just one cocktail, right? Cant you just add a splash of orange juice or something?
Not if you want a well-balanced drink. Triple sec, a term used interchangeably with curaçao, is a type of orange liqueur that provides fruity flavors as well as sweet and bitter notes all of which are essential for a well-made Margarita. Popular labels include Cointreau, Combier, Pierre Ferrand Curaçao, and Grand Marnier.
Swanson likes to use Cointreau in her Margaritas because its made with bitter orange peels, so she finds it drier than many brands of triple sec, and considerably less sweet than brandy-based Grand Marnier, she says.
Kearns opts for Cointreau or Combier, the 1834 orange liqueur that purports to be the worlds first triple sec. David Mor, beverage manager at Cindys in Chicago, prefers Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao in his Margaritas.
The most important thing there is to avoid anything that is simply called Triple Sec, Kearns says. This was a marketing statement devised by Cointreau at one point in its long history, and knock-off brands latched onto it. Consider yourself warned.
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The Best Margarita Recipes
Make some margaritas for Taco Night! Check out the full Taco Tuesday Guide for more tips, ideas, and recipes.
I hope this guide helped you learn how to make margaritas and find some new recipes! Dont forget to try out some for yourself, your friends, or at your next Cinco de Mayo party. And dont be afraid to get creative and try new flavors! A classic margarita is great, but you really cant go wrong here.
Meet Becky Hardin
Becky woke up on her 30th birthday and realized she didn’t know how to cook, anything! She started The Cookie Rookie as a way to document her journey to learn how to cook, one recipe at a time! The Cookie Rookie is a place to find easy recipes that anyone can make, and everyone will love!
Most Unique Mix: Barsmith Hatch Chile Margarita Mix
Barsmith’s hatch chile mix was a personal favorite of mine in this mix, but it’s definitely not for all drinkers. If you don’t appreciate a bit of spice with your cocktail, then this won’t be the mix for you. But for more adventurous palates, the subtle heat in the hatch chile plays remarkably well off the citrus in the rest of the mix. If you know someone who enjoys their spice, this margarita mix will be a welcome gift.
Buy It: $6.99 Instacart
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How To Make Margaritas With Margarita Mix
Here is how I make a margarita using this homemade margarita mix recipe:
- Rim a glass with salt, and set aside.
- Measure 1 ½ oz. tequila, 1 oz. triple sec and 2 ½ oz. margarita mix into a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Shake vigorously until very cold, then strain and pour into your prepared glass.
- Garnish with a lime wedge, and enjoy immediately.
If you want to make an 8-serving pitcher of margaritas from this homemade margarita mix, combine the following in a pitcher:
- 8 oz. triple sec
- 20 oz. margarita mix
Chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, and serve over ice!
How To Make A Margarita With Margarita Mix
If you have the time, make your margaritas from scratch. But if you’re in a hurry or if you’re making margaritas for a large crowd, using margarita mix can be a valuable shortcut. While you’ll miss the fresh lime flavor of a homemade margarita, you’ll be able to fill a pitcher in a fraction of the time.
Of course, not all margarita mixes are created equal. Avoid mixes that are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and other artificial ingredients. Instead, look for margarita mixes made with real lime juice, cane sugar, or agave syrup. With better quality ingredients in the mix, your margaritas will taste closer to the real thing.
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How To Make A Homemade Margarita
Ingredients:homemade margarita mixice
Add 1 shot of tequila and half a shot of triple sec to a . Add the ice and fill the rest of the glass with homemade margarita mix.
Its super simple! Dont forget to salt your rim and try a lime-flavored salt if youd like.
This homemade margarita mix is perfect for parties. You can easily tweak the proportions to make a large or small batch depending on how many youll be serving!
You could even use a cast iron pot like this when making a bigger batch of mix.