Grand Margarita

A luxurious upgrade on the classic Margarita, the Grand Margarita replaces triple sec with Grand Marnier — bringing cognac warmth and orange depth to blanco tequila and fresh lime juice.

The Grand Margarita's story begins with a name: the Cadillac Bar, a celebrated cantina in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, whose San Antonio, Texas branch opened in 1974 and became a sensation along the border. By 1979, a drink called the Cadillac Margarita had appeared by name in the Playboy Bartender's Guide, though that early version used cranberry liqueur rather than Grand Marnier and bore little resemblance to the modern recipe. The definitive version took shape in Southern California in the early 1980s. El Torito, the Mexican restaurant chain founded by WWII veteran Larry Cano in Encino, California, popularized the idea of swapping standard triple sec for Grand Marnier — a French liqueur crafted from cognac and distilled bitter orange — and the upgrade transformed the drink. Where triple sec delivers a clean, sharp sweetness, Grand Marnier adds warmth and weight from its cognac base, making the finished cocktail noticeably richer. El Torito was selling 7 million Margaritas a year by 1984 and eventually trademarked the Cadillac Margarita name by at least 1991. From there, the drink spread across the country, inspiring top-shelf Margarita variations at dozens of chains through the 1990s. The Cadillac Margarita and the Tommy's Margarita — which replaced orange liqueur with agave syrup around the same era in San Francisco — became the only two Margarita variations to earn genuine cocktail canon status. In November 2024, the IBA formally recognized the Grand Margarita as part of its New Era category, standardizing the recipe as blanco tequila, Grand Marnier, and fresh lime juice and cementing its place among the world's official classic cocktails.