by Pat Tyson
photos Courtesy Traveler Publications

As your tongue touches the salty rim of a glass, it’s shocked by the sweet-sharp flavor on citrus and tequila as it passes your lips; your eyes widen and your body slowly relaxes.  You’ve just had a close encounter with a margarita.

What makes this exciting combination of flavors so special?  What makes one margarita different from another?  Although we have written about this drink before, with both sides of the border claiming its origin and questions still persisting, we’ll again take a look at how the drink came about.

 Where did it all begin?  The margarita is really an extension of a traditional Mexican ritual: lick your wrist, pour some salt on your skin, lick the salt, sip some tequila, then bite into a wedge of lemon.  If you combine all these ingredients in a glass, plus a shot of orange liqueur–or any other preferred flavoring–chill it on ice, down it goes as a margarita.

Stories range from romantic to pedestrian.  Legend has it that during the Thirties a bartender in Puebla, México, was in love with a girl named Margarita who liked salt with her drinks.  To save her reaching for it, he created a drink with salt on the rim of the glass and gave it her name.  Other tales credit bartenders in Acapúlco, Taxco, Ensenada, Tijuana’s Caliente Racetrack, Fresno and even Chicago.  But the most traceable evidence came from Vernon Underwood, the first official importer of tequila in Los Angeles around 1944, when he noticed that a bar on La Cienega Boulevard was buying a lot of tequila.

 “I asked the owner of The Tail o’ the Cock why he was selling so much,” said Vern.  “He told me the bartender, John Durlesser, had concocted a drink that had become very popular, but he hadn’t yet given it a name.  A few of us sat around discussing a name and Durlesser suggested ‘Margarita.’”  Nobody knows why.  The bartender would say only that he liked the name because it was pretty and Mexican.  The new “star” became the rage of Hollywood as people flocked to try it.

Because there was a shortage of whiskey during World War II, the bartender decided to try and convert people to José Cuervo tequila, which was easy to get.  He knew the “different-tasting” spirit needed additional ingredients to make it appealing to American tastes.  Recalling that Mexicans used lime and salt with tequila, he tried putting salt in the drink, but didn’t like it.  Then he tried putting it on the rim–with instant success!

At that time, it was fashionable to sail from Los Angeles to Ensenada.  The drink apparently caught on with the yachting crowd and word of the popular drink traveled south.  The margarita began to make its appearance south of the border, at Hussong’s in Ensenada.  Since then, this popular cantina has laid claim to the margarita‘s origin. 

“Margarita…more than a girl’s name” was an advertising slogan created in 1959.    It appeared in the New Yorker and Playboy magazines–thereby spreading the word of the margarita across the country. 

So, there you are–not very romantic.  Unless, of course, there really was a girl named Margarita with a taste for tequila and salt.  And a bartender in love.