National Margarita Day on February 22nd rims a glass with salt and serves up a beverage that tastes like the summer sun.
- 1000 BC – The first alcoholic drink from Agave is produced by the Aztecs, the indigenous people of Mexico.
- 1500s – After the Spanish ran out of their own brandy, they started to distill agave to produce tequila.
- 1930 – A recipe for a tequila-based cocktail first appeared in the 1930 book My New Cocktail Book by G.F. Steele.
- 1936 – Without noting a specific recipe or inventor, a drink called the Tequila Daisy was mentioned in the Syracuse Herald as early as 1936.
- 1937 – The 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book contains a recipe for a Picador using the same concentrations of tequila, triple sec and lime juice as a Margarita.
- 1938 – Carlos “Danny” Herrera honors a customer by giving her the first-ever margarita.
- 1941 – One ‘Origin’ Myth about the Margarita is that in October 1941, a bartender at Husson’s cantina in Ensenada, Mexico created the drink for Margarita Henkel, a well known German celebrity.
- 1942 – There are also claims that the margarita was first mixed in Juárez, Mexico at Tommy’s Place Bar on July 4, 1942 by Francisco “Pancho” Morales.
- 1945 – Jose Cuervo was already running ad campaigns for the margarita three years earlier, in 1945, with the slogan, “Margarita: It’s more than a girl’s name.” According to Jose Cuervo, the cocktail was invented in 1938 by a bartender in honor of Mexican showgirl Rita de la Rosa.
- 1948 – The original Margarita was invented in 1948 by socialite Margarita Sames. According to the legend it was during a party at her hacienda in Acapulco that Margarita began experimenting with ‘the drink’. Looking for something to cut the dust of a hot afternoon, she mixed Tequila Herradura, Cointreau and fresh lime juice. Her cocktail kept the party going for two weeks and today the Margarita is the #1 most popular cocktail in the U.S.
- 1953 – Esquire magazine publishes a recipe calling for an ounce of tequila, a dash of triple sec and the juice of half of a lime or lemon. Although a similar drink called “Tequila Daisy” is published 20 years earlier, this is the first with the name, “Margarita”.
- 1971 – The first frozen margarita machine was invented in 1971 and it was based on a soft-serve ice cream machine
- 1977 – The margarita was further popularized with the 1977 release of Jimmy Buffett’s song “Margaritaville.”
- 2008 – 185,000 – the number of margaritas consumed per hour by Americans in 2008.
- When it comes to sorting out the legends associated with the origin of the margarita, there are many. Two things are certain; the cocktail included tequila, and the bartender edged the rim of the glass with salt.
- In Mexico, when drinking straight tequila (especially if the quality was bad), the best course of action was to down it in one swallow, suck on a wedge of lime and lick a dash of salt off the back of your hand.
- On average, Americans consume 185,000 Margaritas per hour
- Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis and Nashville are among the best major metro cities for the Margarita
- The U.S. is the number one tequila market – larger and more important than Mexico
- The South accounts for the majority (34.9%) of the nation’s margarita sales.
- The Tucson Originals and the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance get together every year to bring the public the World Margarita Championship. Renowned bartenders from Tucson come to duke it out for the honor of best margarita in Arizona. Visitors also vote for their favorites in a People’s Choice category.
- MARGARITA MEANS DAISY IN SPANISH. The daisy is an old prohibition drink with a base spirit, sugar, and a sour. The cocktail later inspired the sidecar, which is basically a margarita with cognac and lemon. Some believe that the margarita is just a spin on a tequila daisy.
- The salt is there to bring out the sweet and sour flavors of the drink; even just a pinch will help subdue the bitterness and enhance the important flavors. On top of this, salt intensifies the drinker’s perception of the drink’s aromas, making the flavors even more powerful.
- 8,500 gallons – the serving of the largest margarita in the world.
- 300 hours – the time it took to create the largest margarita in the world.
- $120 – the price of the world’s most expensive margarita.
- $$64,360.25 – the price of a margarita that came with a pair of diamond earrings.
- 56% – the percentage of US consumers who pick the margarita as their top drink of choice.
- $9.49 – the average price drinkers are prepared to pay for a margarita.
- 44% – the percentage of people who enjoy tequila as the base for cocktails.
- The largest margarita glass is made in Las Vegas. It took 300 hours and 60 people to finish it.
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