Oh, the lengths to which we go to be of service to our beloved readers. Eighteen restaurants. Almost 100 margaritas. The Holy Grail: Margarita perfection. The final results, for those of you who can’t wait, is that there are some absolutely smashing margaritas in town, but the average isn’t very good. We found that most places are of the “more is better” school. Standard operating procedure is to fill a 16-ounce glass to the brim, and I promise you they are not giving you more booze. That costs too much. What you are getting is more sweet and sour mix. There seems to be a pecking order amongst Mexican restaurants in Austin. At the bottom are those that use a purchased mix (the most common being Mr. T’s) and at the top, those that craft their own mix, sometimes adding some truly unexpected ingredients. The invidious presumption here is that the original recipe is not adequate. What is the original recipe?
The origins of margaritas have been written about extensively, and they all boil down to one thing … no one knows for sure. Most lore says the drink was either invented in Tijuana by Danny Herrera in the late Thirties, in Ciudad Juarez by Pancho Morales in 1942, in Acapulco by Texan Margarita Sames in 1948 or in Puebla by Danny Negrete in 1936. Suffice it to say that in the beginning, people made margaritas with roughly equal parts tequila, Cointreau, and lime juice. Now understand, Mexican limes are different. If you’ve been to Mexico and tried the small, thin-skinned, incredibly juicy, and sweet limes there, you have an idea of what should be going in the drink. Sweeter than even our key limes, they are an integral part of the margarita. Other limes taste bitter and brassy in comparison. The bartender’s solution is simple. Never underestimate the public’s love of sugar. Get one of the big Persian limes and douse it with simple syrup (sugar boiled with water). Ever since, bartenders have looked for other ways to add more and more sugar. Anyone want a coconut margarita? Our tasting panel complained more often of sugar hangover than alcohol hangover. Sweet and sour mix, something made from chemicals and used in other drinks like whiskey sours, became the standard. Then, some places, noting the rising standards of consumers, began to put some lime juice in. Then came the habit of using ever more expensive tequila in the drinks.
Putting a reposada or anejo tequila (see box for definition) in a margarita is analogous to using tenderloin for hamburger. It might sound like a good idea, but the burger falls apart from the lack of fat it would have if you had used cheaper chuck instead. Using an $80-a-bottle tequila might sound like fun, but both anejos and reposados are mellow liquors, obsessed over by their makers in an attempt to create something subtle and special. Orange liqueur and lime juice obliterate these more mature tequilas’ elusive pleasures. Older tequilas deserve to be drunk by themselves, which is precisely how Mexicans drink them, typically with a side glass of spicy hot sangrita. Margaritas need bright, young, and aggressive tequilas, silver tequilas.
The other aspect that has changed dramatically over the years is the potency. The original margarita was far more potent than what we get now. A few examples: Straight tequila is 40% alcohol. A gin martini is 37% alcohol. Our recipe for a margarita (see box) is 30% alcohol. The original margarita recipe is 23%. Wine is 12%. Most beers run about 5%. The average margarita we tasted around Austin was about 6% alcohol. As we found on our trip, most of us could drink a couple of margaritas and feel virtually no effect other than a sugar high. There were some exceptions — places that had potent drinks — but the average drink was not too heady.
If it isn’t yet apparent, we have biases about what a margarita should be. We have included a recipe in case you want to check our taste buds. If you prefer a sweeter, less potent margarita (the typical sort of margarita) look on the chart for margaritas that scored an “average” rating from us. If, on the other hand, you like our recipe, the drinks listed as “very good” and “superb” will be more to your liking. We understand from the beginning that some of you will disagree with our findings. And we haven’t gone everywhere. But we did work three long nights and a total of 10 people participated, including most of the Chronicle’s food staff, Paul Wintle, food writer Rachel Feit’s husband; Dudley and Mari Houghton, local margarita mavens; and my wife Emily. We would show up en masse at the restaurants. We did not identify ourselves as critics, just asked for a large table. We always ordered some appetizers (see box) to see how the drinks went with the food. Finally, we passed the margaritas around so everyone could get a taste of each drink. We ranked the winners by quality in the “Winners” chart. Below the Winners section, we sorted the restaurants alphabetically in the chart reserved for “The Others.” Where appropriate, we included comments by the tasting team. We’ve also listed the date and time of our visits to the various restaurants. (Some restaurants have more than one location. Listed are the locations from which we sampled.)
This article appears in August 25 • 2000.
