Margarita

The undisputed champion of cocktails: tequila, fresh lime, and orange liqueur in perfect balance. Whether frozen or on the rocks, salted or naked, it's always the right choice.

The Margarita is the most consumed cocktail in the world by most industry measures, recognized by the IBA as a Contemporary Classic with a formula of tequila, orange liqueur (Cointreau or triple sec), and fresh lime juice, typically served in a salt-rimmed glass. Its origin is genuinely disputed among multiple claimants from the late 1930s through the early 1950s: Margarita Sames, a Dallas socialite, claimed to have created it in Acapulco in 1948; Carlos "Danny" Herrera attributed it to himself at Rancho La Gloria near Tijuana around 1938, reportedly for actress Marjorie King who was allergic to all spirits except tequila; and various bartenders in Texas, Mexico City, and Juárez maintain competing claims. Cocktail historian David Wondrich has noted that the documented evidence does not conclusively establish any single origin. What is historically clear is that tequila-lime-salt combinations were being consumed in Mexico before any of the formal origin stories, and that the Margarita's specific triple-sec formulation was standardized and named through the 1940s and early 1950s. The drink's transformation of tequila from a regional Mexican spirit into the world's most internationally consumed base spirit is perhaps the most commercially significant individual cocktail impact in history.