Margarita

Q. Why is it so difficult to find a good margarita? A. People are often cheap and lazy when it comes to cocktails.

The worst margaritas occur when you substitute Tijuana toilet cleaner for tequila and put neon Pine-Sol Kool-Aid  mix in water and call it lime juice. There is no reasonable excuse for this when decent, drinkable tequila is easy to find and can be purchased in most locales for around $20. If it doesn't say 100% Agave, leave it on the shelf. A fresh lime is even easier to obtain from a store and squish at home. Natural lime juice can have a slightly green tint to it giving your drink a bit of hazy color. If however it looks like someone mixed your drink with a stick of plutonium, find the nearest exit! Contrary to popular belief, lime juice does not glow in the dark and is not very sweet.  The sweetener in a margarita should come from another source, an Orange liqueur called triple sec.

Run of the mill triple sec can sometimes be off-putting by being either too bitter or too sweet. Bitter, thick, and stinky triple sec can spring to life in a reasonable margarita with a splash or two of homemade simple syrup(1pt.sugar 1pt.water) creating your average budget party drink. If you are unfortunate enough to be dealing with Willy Wonka's cough syrup version of triple sec you may be better off just doctoring the nuclear corn syrup sour mix. Happily there is no need to injure you taste buds trying to find the best triple sec on the market. The French have already taken care of that for us. The stuff is called Cointreau (kwan-tro) and it is the OG (Original Gestalt) of triple sec. It's in a class of its own. Seriously. It's so good some people don't even classify it as triple sec!

It's actually pretty simple. Real estate = Location, Location, Location! Cocktails = Quality, Quality, Quality! The better your ingredients are, the better your drink will be. I don't like the harshness of silver/blanco tequila so I use Reposado tequila. Exact measurement amounts will of course vary depending on your past relationship with the the son of agave. I personally enjoy the complex flavors of tequila so I use a little more. The IBA ratio is the best starting point for newcomers. I also prefer on the rocks but I'm much more interested in the booze quality than the ice style. Some say heresy, I say whatever floats your boat. Double strained straight up, single strained straight up, on the rocks, or frozen, it's all good.

Margarita with a capital M.

1. 2oz. Tequila
2. 1.5oz. Cointreau 
3. 1oz. Fresh Lime Juice

Shake well over ice. Salt the outer rim of a cold glass with a lime wedge and kosher salt. Carefully add ice to salted glass. Single strain over ice. Serve with lime garnish.

• For a sweeter variation add a dash to1oz of simple syrup and/or fresh fruit of your choice.

cheers