Tim Huckaby’s “infamous” Margarita guidance
Some simple guidance and a recipe for making great margaritas from the master
- Margaritas are always on the rocks with a salted rim and a full tumbler of ice. Never blend them. Blended margaritas are for ice dancing fans. Some people do not like a salted rim. That is acceptable because even communists have a place in the world.
- The best thing about this ancient margarita recipe developed over centuries is that it should be modified (and has been) easily to make uniquely your own – giving me (Tim) full credit, of course. It’s also one of those recipes, that, if you are missing an ingredient, you can substitute easily.
- Done the “hard way”, these Margaritas can be a real pain (a lot of work) to make, so make them in batch in a large container and simply pour them over a salted glass full of ice as needed. I have found that making them one by one is like fishing for bluegill with 10 kids. You never get a chance to fish because you are always baiting hooks and pulling fish off hooks – it’s still fun…just not as fun…
Basic Directions
The basic idea is you end of with ½ alcohol, the next 1/4th lime juice and the remaining fourth will make it uniquely your own. This may seem like a lot of alcohol, but the ratio of lessened significantly because of a full tumbler of ice. Be somewhat careful, though, because the heavy concentration of the lime with mask the alcohol and tee-totalers can be easily overwhelmed when power-drinking 4 of these an hour for 3 hours.
Cheap tequila is all you ever need for Margaritas. Good tequila is a waste because the lime will mask the flavor of the tequila. Cuervo gold is perfect for margaritas and really bad for shots.
The Alcohol portion (1/2):
The alcohol portion of the margarita should be 2/3 cheap tequila and 1/3 triple sec, cointreau or any citris based liquor.
The Lime Juice Portion (1/4):
If you really want to make the best margaritas you need to squeeze limes…a gazillion of them to produce enough fresh lime juice. It is very hard work. Regular limes are fine, but “mexican limes”, often called “key limes” are best. A good alternative to this is bottled lime juice or concentrated frozen lime juice. The net-net is you need a lot of lime juice – a full 1/3 of the concoction. A margarita in many places in baja is simply a bartender squeezing limes into a glass of tequila.
The remaining mixer Portion (1/4):
This is the most important part of the margarita and the portion that will make your margis rock. My favorite recipe is fresh orange juice and lime flavored seltzer water in equal proportions and a dash of fresh lemon juice.
I believe orange juice and some form of carbonated beverage is a must because it backs the bite off tanginess of the lime. You can use a myriad of options for the carbonated beverage from a lite beer (I use coors light quite frequently) to hansens soda. A strawberry soda and/or cranberry juice works well here too.