Talk:Margarita

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Contents

[edit] Margarita Glass

I Think that glass for margarita isn`t cocktali glass like on picture then margarita glass

[edit] Origin of this drink?

From reading the Japanese version, there's another story on the origin of the Margarita, my Japanese is not very good, can someone translate that story? Thanks. --70.180.165.154 15:58, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Weasel word alert, original research:

"there are plenty of people who recollect drinking Margaritas in the 1930s, so it is safe to assume that the Margarita was not invented anytime after 1940." If that's not weasely, original research, I dont know what is...

[edit] salt

I find it odd that there's no mention in the article of salt. I've always thought of salt as what really gives a margarita its flavor.207.157.121.50 03:38, 20 October 2005 (UTC)mightyafrowhitey

No, salt is an optional garnish. Lime and triple sec are responsible for the characteristic "margarita" flavor. 75.70.161.118 (talk) 20:10, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] origin of name

a girl told me today that the name 'margarita' means daisy.

The girl is perfectly right. One only might have to prove that the drink takes the name after the flower, not some queen/somebody's chick/my neighbours pretty cow that smelt of liquour B302nd 08:12, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

A daisy is any mixed drink with a distilled spirit, liqueur, and citrus juice. See Brandy Daisy for example. So a margarita is just a tequila daisy. Rees11 (talk) 16:56, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Everclear

Isn't it pretty common to put everclear in this drink? Most bars where I live do it. Ken 05:44, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

If you find a bar that adds everclear to a Margarita, as an experienced bartender, I'd suggest finding a new bar. Everclear is good for one thing. Increasing the alcohol content of a mixed drink to an "acceptable" level (usually ~15-20% by volume, stronger than wine, weaker than most liquors) without actually adding much cost to the drink. If they add everclear, and you can still sip it without it tasting like paint thinner, they're skimping on everything else and ripping you off. Lostchicken 06:26, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
Agreed, I had to explain this to a girl at work the other day. Everclear is cheap, tastes nasty and IMO (15 years as a bartender), would destroy the taste of a decent margarita. Well any proper drink. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Booster4324 (talk • contribs) 00:15, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Orange Juice

As a bartender at a Mexican Restaurant, I'm quite surprised that there is no mention whatsoever of orange juice in this recipe, OJ is essential for a margarita, after all, is supposed to have a 50/50 Lime/Orange flavor, hence the addition of triple sec and/or Cointreau or Grand Marnier.

Cointreau is often used and it has something of an orange taste. Substituting orange juice for cointreau sounds like something that's done to save money. 24.161.180.32 17:34, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Triple sec is used to provide the orange flavor, not orange juice. I've been to dozens of "Mexican Restaurants" that don't have a clue about what goes into an authentic margarita so it's no surprise that he/she would add something that doesn't belong. Most restaurants stopped making "real" margaritas when they discovered that they could make more profits by using the artificial flavored "sour mixes" and "margarita mixes". Heck it just might taste better with a scoop of lime ice cream, but that doesn't make it a "better margarita". An authentic margarita contains only tequila, triple sec, and fresh squeezed lime juice. No sour mix! No orange juice! No margarita mix! No simple syrup! Regarding sweetness, the triple sec provides the sweetness. It's not supposed to taste like Koolaid or a dessert drink! While everyone thinks that their recipe is best, only those three ingredients make up a real authentic margarita. If you want to add all kinds of other junk, then call it something else. How about "orange juice and lime tequila cocktail"? I heard one person say that Jose Cuervo was the authority on margaritas. Have you ever tasted their margarita mix? Holy cr^p! It's flavored with artificial lime flavoring. Remember those little green lime lollipops as a child? That's exactly how Jose Cuervo margarita mix tastes. I imagine that if McDonald's started serving margaritas with their Happy Meals that it would taste just like Jose Cuervo margarita mix. Disgusting!! 75.70.161.118 (talk) 21:10, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Simple syrup contradiction

This article states that simple syrup (bar syrup, sugar syrup, etc.) is equal parts sugar and water, when it's actually 2 parts sugar to 1 part water - as stated in the simple syrup article. I bartend and that's certainly the only way I ever make it. Peccav1 03:59, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I have removed the statement of equal parts, and left a link to Simple syrup, which has a more in-depth explanation. Thanks for catching that. --Willscrlt 07:07, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
An authentic margarita contains only tequila, triple sec, and fresh squeezed lime juice shaken with ice. The triple sec adds sweetness so simple syrup is not necessary. Some might argue that "simple syrup makes it taste better". To that I say, a scoop of lime sherbet might make it taste so good that Jerry Falwell would drink it, but that does not make it a "better margarita". If you want something that tastes like a dessert then order a brandy alexander or an ice cream sundae. 75.70.161.118 (talk) 23:09, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rigo Tovar, Arriba Matamoros

A sentence reading:

Margarita was invented by the famous mexican singer Rigo Tovar, Arriba Matamoros, is just a popular legend.

was just added to the first paragraph of the article. It's not actually a complete sentence and probably belongs lower down in the article next to the other theories of origin. I can't find enough about this theory, though, to add another section. Has anyone else heard this legend, or have good enough Spanish skills to look into it? If so, another subsection in the history may be warranted. -- Amoore 15:54, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Oops...I accidentally saved the page without finishing my edit summary. Anyway, I removed this section...I Googled Rigo Tovar and margarita and found nothing relating him to the drink...(My Spanish isn't perfect, but I can read it well enough)Also, his Wikipedia article doesn't say anything about it...-Randomglitter 11:31, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Conflicting histories

The following was recently added to the article:

Although these stories are commonly told famous ones, the real story didn't came until later.[citation needed]

The Margarita was born in 1949 at the All American Cocktail Contest.
The one who presented it was John Durlesser, a bartender at the Los Angeles restaurant, Tail 'O the Cock.
He carried a past in which, when he was young, he had gone hunting with his girlfriend who was hit by a stray bullet and died.
The cocktail's name, Margarita, was taken from his girlfriend who had died twenty-three years before the contest.
He probably could never forget his girlfriend who died...but the feeling of regret that one bartender held onto for years, gave birth to a single cocktail.
Thinking of it that way, perhaps his regret-filled past was not completely meaningless.
The birth of the cocktail, it was decades later that it's story was revealed.
In a 1970 interview, the bartender who created this cocktail, John Durlesser, said for the first time that Margarita was the name of his dead lover, long after the competition.

While neither particularly more or less believable than the other four stories concerning the legends surrounding this popular drink, it is presented as "the real story", and not subject to disagreement. It contains much personal speculation as to the motives of the bartender (the lines I struck out above and removed from the article). Most importantly, it does not cite any sources. I am not opposed to including it as another theory (though four was already a greater number than I would prefer to see, and five is really pushing the limits of becoming an archive of urban legends surrounding one drink), but it needs to be phrased as such. Or, better yet, find references to the facts surrounding the matter, and document it in such a way that we can reduce the others to a short paragraph debunking other legends (if that). --Willscrlt 07:04, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

The added section was deleted by SoulSlayer with the notation "deleted a fictional story from a Japanese anime named Bartender". I guess that (hopefully) sets that rumor to rest. Thanks SoulSlayer. If you have any citations to prove it is a fictional story, it would be nice if you could add note it here in case the question ever comes up again. --Willscrlt 00:17, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I intend to resubmit the story on the basis of research done by the writers of that Japanese anime; while it is true there is little information on this "John Durlesser" on the internet, that does not deny the veracity of the perceptions of the drink's origin in the Japanese mind. That is to say, whether this "story" is true or not is up for proper researchers to determine, but the idea of a "John Durlesser" creating the margarita is widely believed by the Japanese, so it does bear mentioning in this article. Ironically, that particular episode deals exactly with popular urban myths like the creation of this drink. I'll do my best to search for a citation beyond a "episode three of Bartender" (since that would be rather silly) but until then, the omitted passage should be replaced with a disclaimer of sorts. 71.9.137.37 01:12, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New Main Photo

As mentioned here, the main photo for this article might be better. And, since the photo is mine, I'll take up the challenge of getting a better one.

So I'm soliciting suggestions for what this picture should look like. When I buy a margarita in San Diego (or anywhere in the Southwest frankly) it usually comes in a tumbler like this. but some people seem to think it's not authentic unless it's in one of those stem and saucer glasses. Also - To me a "real" margarita is made with key limes rather than a mix, so it comes out murky and yellow rather than clear and bright green. Should the main article photo be the yellow cloudy version, or the clear green version?

Any other suggestions are very welcome.--y6y6y6 15:30, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I suppose it depends on where you experience the drink as to the type of default drinkware that is used. Got to a typical chain restaurant bar, and the typical welled margarita glass[1] is pretty much the standard (at least throughout the rest of California, where I live and travel). However, the margarita saucer [2] is not uncommon either. The only places I have seen tumblers used is inside of Mexican restaurants (not the Tex-Mex kind, but the ones that tend to be a little more dimly lit, a little more spicy food, and a lot less glitzy). This would lead me to suspect that the tumbler is more "authentic", which would explain the popularity of that glass in San Diego, where you are closer to the Mexican border. All that ruminating aside, I like seeing the contrast between the "traditional" margarita picture (yours), and the festive frozen margarita picture I found and added. It helps illustrate just how differently essentially the same drink can appear. If you were going to retake the picture, I would suggest aiming for the most authentic look you can reasonably find and capture it. The other thing I would suggest is seeing if you can get the image a little more brightly lit. When the current photo is reduced to a small thumbnail, it is so dark it is very difficult to tell at what you are looking. I do love the clarity of the salt on the rim, the skin of the lime, and the "wetness" of the drink. I actually thought it was one of the better drink pictures on here, except for the darkness. While you're at it, you might look at my Wikimedia Commons page and see what other drink photos I have been gathering and how they are composed. Some totally suck, but they were the best I could find, and others are pretty darn good. (I can say that since I'm not the photographer and am therefore unbiased. :-) --Willscrlt (Talk|Cntrb) 00:08, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
I'll be doing a series of photos this weekend, with various lighting. I'll post the best ones so people can provide feedback.--y6y6y6 18:25, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree. A margarita should not be "green" in color. A "real" margarita, made correctly with fresh lime juice, triple sec, and tequila, is NEVER "green". The photo (at this writing) obviously contains green coloring often found in cheap mixes. For increased profits and convenience, most bars now serve sub par margaritas made with commercially available "mixes" that often contain artificial coloring, flavoring, high fructose corn syrup, and other cheap ingredients. Can someone please replace the photo with a photo of a "real" margarita? I make authentic margaritas for guests in my home and everyone comments how much better they taste than the ones they get at bars. Ask most bartenders to make a hand squeezed margarita and they react as if you asked them to wash your car. Demand REAL margaritas!!! 75.70.161.118 (talk) 20:50, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Frozen Margarita

The article mentions frozen margaritas as a margarita blended with ice, but there are no instructions about how much ice to use.

A rather simplistic ratio I have been using for 40 years or so with few complaints is: In a 32 ounce (standard size) blender add: 6 ounces of frozen limeade mix 6 ounces of pretty good tequila (harder to come by now than before) Optional splash of triple sec, highly optional dash of Angostora bitters fill with ice, blend until smooth pour into salt rimmed (or not salt rimmed, your option) glasses. Makes about 4 drinks, so you have to start another batch at once, under usual Margarita swilling conditions. The noise is obnoxious, but the drinks are fine! ```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Roncho (talk • contribs) 10:40, 30 September 2007 (UTC) --Roncho 08:27, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] the Rita Hayworth connection

I added an entry in the origins sections about the stories that link the drink to actress Rita Hayworth (aka. Margarita Cansino). These are most likely legends, but I think they merit a mention based on their popularity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Traherne (talk • contribs) 17:15, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Variation

I noticed that the ratio for the Variation section is weird.

  • 2:1:1 = 6:3:3 (50% tequila, 25% Triple Sec, 25% fresh lime or lemon juice).
  • 3:2:1 = 6:4:2 (50% tequila, 33% Triple Sec, 17% fresh lime or lemon juice).
  • 3:1:1 = 6:2:2 (60% tequila, 20% Triple Sec, 20% fresh lime or lemon juice).
  • 1:1:1 = 6:6:6 (33% tequila, 33% Triple Sec, 33% fresh lime or lemon juice).

How is it that 6:3:3 (50% tequila, 25% Triple Sec, 25% fresh lime or lemon juice) is the same as 6:2:2 (60% tequila, 20% Triple Sec, 20% fresh lime or lemon juice), and others? Prottos007 (talk) 21:38, 3 April 2008 (UTC)