Cocktail Recipe Cards

Classic · tequila

Margarita

Blanco tequila, lime, and orange liqueur, shaken. The most-ordered cocktail in America and the one most often made badly at home.

Margarita

Shaken
  • 2 oz 60 ml Blanco tequila · 100% agave
  • 1 oz 30 ml Lime juice · fresh
  • ¾ oz 22.5 ml Cointreau
  • ¼ oz 7.5 ml Agave syrup · optional
Method Shake hard with ice for 10–12 seconds. Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass, half-rimmed with salt if you like. Garnish with a lime wheel.
Glass Rocks · Fresh cubes
Garnish Lime wheel, salt rim (half) optional
1930s–40s · Mexico Cocktail Recipe Cards
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Card updated September 7, 2026. Measures use 30 ml per ounce, the spec-sheet convention.

The spec

Two ounces of blanco tequila, an ounce of fresh lime, three-quarters of Cointreau, and a quarter ounce of agave syrup if the drink tastes sharp to you. That last line is the honest modern spec: a straight 2 : 1 : 1 with a good orange liqueur is sweet enough for a lot of people, and the agave version is for everyone else.

100% agave tequila. Mixto tequila (the kind that doesn’t say “100% agave” on the label) is where the “I don’t like tequila” memory comes from. A mid-priced blanco is the biggest single upgrade a home Margarita can get.

Cointreau, or a triple sec you’d drink alone. The orange liqueur is a third of the drink. Cheap triple sec is mostly sugar and makes the drink taste like a mixer.

Half rim. Salt on half the glass lets the drinker choose per sip. It’s a small thing that signals the drink was made on purpose.

Where people disagree

  • Cointreau vs agave. The Tommy’s Margarita drops the orange liqueur entirely: 2 oz tequila, 1 oz lime, ½ oz agave syrup. It’s cleaner and shows the tequila more. Worth its own card.
  • Up or on the rocks. On the rocks is the default at home; up in a coupe is how a lot of bars serve the same spec. Same card, different glass line.
  • Reposado. An aged tequila makes a rounder, slightly vanilla drink. Not wrong, not the classic.

Make it yours

The Margarita batches better than almost any cocktail on this site, which makes it the card that gets scaled the most. The maths is the same as the batching guide: multiply everything except the citrus, then juice the limes on the day. A pitcher for eight is 16 oz tequila, 8 oz lime, 6 oz Cointreau, 2 oz agave syrup, shaken or stirred in batches with ice.

If you add jalapeño, grapefruit, or a smoky mezcal split, you have a new card. Keep the classic one untouched so you can find your way back.

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