The Margarita gives you more bang for your buck than any classic cocktail.
Three ingredients and a salt-rimmed glass deliver sweet, sour, and saltiness in seconds. That simplicity is why it’s the most-ordered cocktail in the US – drinkers love it, bartenders love making it.
But what if the classic recipe wasn’t the finished product? What if it was just the base? These three recipes elevate the Margarita to new heights.
How 321 Cocktails Works
321 Cocktails offers three meaningful alternatives to the world’s most popular classic cocktails, suited to the beginner, the intermediate, and the expert at-home bartender.
The Twist: The easiest of the three, the Twist changes the classic recipe with subtle ingredient swaps and simple additions. Easy to do, with tasty results.
The Upgrade: Often calling for custom ingredients that require a touch of preparation, the Upgrade is suited to the ambitious at-home bartender looking to impress guests.
The Maverick: If you’ve been making cocktails at home for a while and are ready to take them to the next level, try the Maverick. These bar-grade variations may have you hunting for niche ingredients in specialist stores, but the results are spectacular.
Origins of the Margarita
As with all classic cocktails, the Margarita has many fathers. There’s no firm answer on who created it, but one of the earliest traces is the Picador—tequila, lime and Cointreau—which appears in William J Tarling’s 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book, published in London. Same three ingredients, 16 years before the Margarita’s first printed mention in Esquire.
We’re not for a moment suggesting the Margarita was created in London, and the most likely origin is fuzzier. The sour-plus-liqueur family of cocktails called the Daisy emerged in the 1930s, and the Margarita likely emerged organically from that trend.
The Classic Margarita
Ingredients
- 2oz (60ml) blanco tequila
- 1oz (30ml) triple sec or Cointreau
- 0.75oz (25ml) fresh lime juice
- Sea salt (rim)
- Lime wedge (garnish, optional)
Method
Run a lime wedge around half the rim of a chilled rocks glass and dip it in fine sea salt, brushing away any excess from inside the glass. Combine the tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake hard, then strain into the glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.
The Twist: Fiesta on Warren
This Margarita has a split base of tequila and mezcal, and a dose of blanc vermouth for complexity. I developed this for the opening menu of Lawrence Park in Hudson, NY, and the cocktail gets its name from the street where the bar was located.
Instead of lime juice, the cocktail uses acid-adjusted grapefruit juice, which is easy to make. Because grapefruit juice lacks the acidity of lime juice – the typical citrus used to balance syrups in classics like the Cosmo – the juice is dosed with citric and malic acid powders to bump up the acidity. If you love a Paloma, but don’t love its carbonation, the Fiesta on Warren is the answer.
Ingredients
- 1oz (30ml) blanco tequila, preferably Don Fulano blanco
- 0.5oz (15ml) mezcal, preferably Derrumbes San Luis Potosí
- 0.5oz (15ml) Mancino Bianco vermouth
- 0.5oz (15ml) agave nectar
- 1oz (30ml) acid-adjusted grapefruit juice*
- 2 dashes 20% sea salt solution**
- Half grapefruit wheel (garnish)
- Sea salt (rim)
Method
Prepare your salt rim by taking a chilled rocks glass from the freezer and dabbing it in fine sea salt to coat half the rim. Tidy the rim using a napkin. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a chilled rocks glass over ice. Garnish with half a grapefruit wheel and enjoy.
Custom ingredients
Acid-adjusted grapefruit juice
- 12oz (350ml) fresh grapefruit juice
- 9.5g citric acid powder
- 4.5g malic acid powder
Method: Weigh out all of your ingredients. Pour the acid powders into the fresh grapefruit juice and stir until all the acid powders have dissolved. Store in the fridge for up to one week, checking for freshness every two days.
20% sea salt solution
- 2.75oz (80ml) water
- 20g fine sea salt
Method: Combine and stir until the salt has dissolved. Funnel into a tincture bottle with a dropper, and store in a cool, dry place. Use within two weeks.
The Upgrade: Garden Margarita
Think of this savory Margarita as summer in liquid form. Inspired by the feeling of wandering through a flourishing kitchen garden at golden hour, it layers crisp cucumber, ripe tomato and fragrant herbs over a split base of tequila, mezcal and sake.
The result is bright, vegetal and quietly complex — equal parts juicy, savory and refreshing. Finished with a mint dust and salt rim, each sip captures the aroma of freshly picked herbs before giving way to a long, clean finish that keeps you coming back for another.
Ingredients
- 1oz (30ml) Lost Explorer Reposado tequila
- 0.5oz (15ml) Lost Explorer espadín mezcal
- 0.5oz (15ml) Sakari junmai daiginjo sake
- 1oz (30ml) cucumber cordial*
- 1 barspoon La Tomato tomato liqueur
- Mint dust and sea salt, 3:1 (rim)
Method
Blend mint dust with fine sea salt at a 3:1 ratio and put on a plate for garnishing. Prepare your glass by taking a chilled rocks glass from the freezer and dabbing it in the mint dust-salt mixture, coating half the glass, then set aside — preferably back in the freezer. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir to chill and dilute, then strain into the rocks glass, add a large, clear ice cube, and enjoy.
Custom ingredients
Cucumber cordial*
- Cucumber, grated or roughly blended
- Citric acid powder (3% of cucumber weight)
- Lactic acid powder (2% of cucumber weight)
- Sugar (50% of strained liquid weight)
Method: Weigh the grated cucumber. Based on the weight of the cucumber, measure the citric acid powder (3% of the base weight) and lactic acid (2% of the base weight) and combine in a sealable container or vacuum bag. To speed up the extraction, put in a vacuum bag and sous vide for two hours; otherwise, let the acid extract moisture from the cucumber for at least four hours.
Once the acidic cucumber water has started to form, strain the mixture through a cheesecloth and chinois or fine strainer. Squeeze the strained solids that remain in the cheesecloth to maximize liquid yield, then weigh the acidic cucumber water. Once you calculate the weight of the acidified cucumber water, add 50% of its weight in sugar. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved, then store in the fridge.
The Maverick: Margherita Fresa
The Margherita Fresa reimagines one of Italy’s most iconic flavor pairings in cocktail form. Inspired by the classic margherita pizza, it layers vine tomato, fragrant basil and ripe strawberry into a serve that’s savory, bright and elegant. Like the first bite of a margherita pizza on a sun-drenched Italian terrace, this savory Margarita captures the feeling of long lunches that effortlessly become evening aperitivo.
Italicus lends delicate notes of bergamot, lavender and Mediterranean citrus, while aromatic yuzu softens the lime, and bacanora adds an earthy backbone. Finished with a spoonful of strawberry boba and a basil leaf, it’s playful yet sophisticated, a vibrant aperitif designed to spark conversation, sharpen the appetite, and transport you somewhere along the Italian coast, no passport required.
Ingredients
- 1oz (30ml) tomato vine-infused Kilinga Bacanora blanco*
- 0.5oz (15ml) St. George Basil Eau de Vie
- 0.5oz (15ml) seasoned strawberry-tomato syrup**
- 0.375oz (10ml) Italicus
- 0.75oz (20ml) lime juice
- 0.375oz (10ml) yuzu juice
- Basil leaf and strawberry boba pearls (garnish)
Method
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake to chill and dilute, then strain into a chilled rocks glass over ice. Garnish with a basil leaf and a tiny wooden spoon — one used for serving salt works well — holding strawberry boba pearls, available online.
Custom ingredients
Tomato vine-infused bacanora*
- 17oz (500 ml) Kilinga Bacánora Blanco
- 25g tomato vines, washed and chopped
Method: Add the bacanora and washed, chopped tomato vines into a non-reactive container to infuse in a cool space for 12 hours, or overnight if left in the fridge. Filter through a cheesecloth-lined chinois and bottle for use.
Seasoned strawberry-tomato syrup**
- 150g fresh organic vine tomatoes, chopped
- 150g fresh strawberries, sliced
- 5oz (150ml) filtered water
- 7g basil leaves and stems
- 1.5g sea salt
- Citric acid powder (0.5%)
- Sugar (see method)
Method: Weigh out the strawberries, tomatoes, filtered water, basil and basil stems, sea salt, and citric acid powder. Combine all in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain and filter through a cheesecloth-lined chinois, or superbag, to get your strawberry-tomato water. Weigh the water, then add equal parts sugar. Stir to combine and add gentle heat if necessary, via microwave or on the stovetop, to dissolve all the sugar. Bottle and refrigerate for up to two weeks.
