With summer comes the margarita. Margaritas are a refreshing way to relax, reminding people of beachfront evenings and vacation in faraway, exotic places. Fortunately, your local Mexican restaurants aren’t the only place you can enjoy a good margarita. Below, we’ve pulled together some of the best margarita recipes, perfect for parties, date nights, and even just evenings when you want to relax on the porch by yourself. Never fear, a good homemade margarita is only a few ingredients and a cocktail shaker away!
Frozen vs. On the Rocks
Beyond flavor, a margarita is defined by whether it is frozen or on the rocks. On the rocks is much easier to make than a frozen margarita, but the real difference is pretty simple. The frozen margarita recipe just requires you to add your ingredients to a blender filled with crushed ice rather than a cocktail shaker. You mix them all together by blending them.
Frozen margaritas are cooler and may be the ideal drink for a hot summer’s day or night. However, if dealing with a blender seem exhausting or isn’t really an option at the moment, know that margarita recipes served on the rocks are pretty good at beating the heat themselves.
Best Classic Margarita Recipe
Your normal margarita is pretty simple. A good one is more a matter of proportion than anything else. Learning how to make a margarita is actually quite simple. The classic margarita ingredients are:
- 1 cup of tequila
- 2/3 cups of lime juice
- 2 teaspoons of simple syrup
- 1/3 cups of orange liqueur
- 1 tablespoon coarse salt
- 1 lime wedge per glass
Yields 4 servings
1. Start off by running the lime wedge along the outer rims of your margarita glasses. Dim the rims into the coarse salt. If you don’t like or don’t want slated rims, feel free to skip this step.
2. Combine tequila, orange liqueur, simple syrup, and lime juice in a cocktail shaker (or blender with crushed ice, if you want a frozen margarita). If you’re making a margarita on the rocks, filly our cocktail shaker with ice. Shake it until chilled, which should take about 15 seconds. You want the bottom of the shaker to frost over.
3. Fill your salted margarita glasses with ice (if serving on the rocks) and strain your margarita mix into them. For frozen margaritas, just carefully pour the margaritas out of the blender and into the glasses.
4. If you’d like, garnish the margaritas with lime wedges, then serve.
The result should be savory with a noticeable but not unpleasant kick and pleasant lime-like taste. The orange liqueur adds a smoothness and keeps the margarita recipe from being too sour. Cointreau is really good for this if you can get it, but any kind will do.
Of course, the classic margarita recipe is not the only one out there and may not even be a fit for your mood. You can always add some flavor to it to better suit your tastes!
Strawberry Margarita Recipe
You’re going to want a blender for this one. Because of how the Strawberry margarita ingredients are:
- 1 ½ cups of strawberries
- 1 ½ cups of crushed ice
- ½ cup of tequila
- ½ cup of lime juice
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 teaspoons of orange liqueur
Yields 4 servings
1. If you would like to sugar (not salt with strawberry margaritas) the rims of your margarita glasses, go ahead and do so. Use a lime wedge to get the sugar to stick or water if that’s more easily available.
2. Combine the strawberries, ice, tequila, sugar and orange liqueur in the blender. Blend until smooth.
3. Pour the margaritas into 4 large glasses.
Strawberry margaritas will appeal more to your sweet tooth. They taste very strongly of strawberry, but are otherwise very similar to a classic margarita. Note that because of the addition of blended strawberries, a strawberry margarita recipe will result in a drink with a noticeably different texture.
Mango Margarita
If you’re looking for something more citrusy, a mango margarita is where it’s at. It’s a bit more labor-intensive, though. Like the strawberry margarita, it is made as a frozen margarita. One of the best mango margarita recipes is as follows:
- 1 ½ pounds of fresh of mangos
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 cups of ice
- 4 ounces of tequila
- 2 ounces of triple sec
- Salt
- Lime wedges
Yields 4 servings
1. Peel and it the mangoes, then cut them into large chunks. Place the chunks into a blender with water, sugar, and salt. Blend until smooth. Add more sugar if you need it after a taste test. You now have mango margarita mix.
2. Clean or use another blender. Fill it with ice, then add in your mango margarita mix, tequila, and triple sec. Blend until smooth.
3. Salt your glasses if you’d like. Mint salt tastes really good with a mango margarita.
4. Pour out your mango margaritas into the glasses.
Jalapeno Margaritas
If you’re looking for something different and with a bit of spice, try this margarita recipe out! Like with the other flavored margarita recipes above, it’s made to be frozen. The jalapeno margarita recipe goes this way:
- 1 cup of tequila
- 2/3 cups of lime juice
- 2 teaspoons of simple syrup
- 1/3 cups of orange liqueur
- 1 thin slice of jalapeno (a little goes a long way)
- A handful of celery leaves
- 1 tablespoon of confectioners’ sugar
Yields 4 servings
1. Mix tequila, lime juice, simple syrup, orange liqueur, jalapeno, celery leaves, and confectioners’ sugar in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth.
2. Serve into margarita glasses. Feel free to garnish with lime.
While spicy, this margarita recipe should not be overwhelming. It should have just enough undertone of jalapeno for people to taste, but not so much it sets the mouths on fire.
Margaritas come in a lot more variations than this, from pomegranate to acai and many more. What do you think the best margarita recipes are? Let us know!