A true crowd-pleaser and jack of all trades, the margarita is the ideal cocktail to modify based on your taste preference. Whether you like it spicy or sweet or something totally different (looking at you, umami lovers), we’ve got the perfect margarita recipe for you.
The Old Fashioned, the Mule, the Margarita: classic cocktails like these make the perfect foundation for experimenting with new flavors and modifying the original recipes to your taste preference. Margaritas are especially well-suited for ingredient tinkering, thanks to their simple, clean base spirit and lightly citrusy flavor profile.
That’s why we’ve put together 10 margarita variation recipes to suit 10 different flavor profiles. What’s YOUR flavor? Keep reading to find out!
First, let’s cover the basic margarita ingredients: tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice. The orange liqueur adds that signature citrusy sweetness, so we’ve swapped it for a touch of agave nectar in this recipe (a more neutral sweetener) to let the cheek-puckering lime juice take the lead in this sour-forward margarita.
The Recipe
1 ½ ounces Don Julio Blanco Tequila
1 ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce agave nectar
Lime wheel
In a cocktail shaker with ice, add tequila, lime juice and agave nectar. Shake and strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel
This recipe is for those who like it HOT. That means the folks who wouldn’t be caught dead without a bottle of tabasco sauce on them, who don’t break a sweat at Indian restaurants and who won’t eat fruit without a healthy sprinkle of tajin. This spicy margarita recipe incorporates a tajin rim and muddled jalapeños for maximum heat.
The Recipe
Tajin
Fresh papaya
Jalapeño coins
2 ounces Lunazul Blanco Tequila
1 ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce agave nectar
Lime wheel
Rim a glass with tajin and set aside. In a shaker, add papaya and muddle. Add jalapeño coins and gently break up. Add ice, tequila, lime juice and agave nectar. Shake and strain into prepared glass. Garnish with a jalapeño and lime wheel.
Don’t worry, we don’t mean “rich & creamy” in the White Russian sense. We’re talking fresh avocado blended with cilantro, lime, tequila and orange liqueur. This frozen margarita sips like a smoothie with all the spicy, sweet, herbal flavors you expect in a perfect marg.
The Recipe
Salt
1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
2 cups ice
4 ounces Cazadores Blanco Tequila
2 ounces Cointreau Liqueur
2 ounces fresh lime juice
¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves, optional
1-3 teaspoons agave nectar, optional
1-3 slices of jalapeño, optional
Lime wedge
Rim glass with salt and set aside. In a blender, add ice, avocado, tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, cilantro and a pinch of salt to a blender. Pulse until smooth. Taste and add extra agave nectar to sweeten, and/or extra jalapeño to kick up the heat, if desired. Pulse until smooth. Serve in prepared glasses. Garnish with lime wedge, cilantro sprig and additional avocado slices.
You may not be familiar with the term umami, but you’re certainly familiar with the flavor. Umami generally refers to foods with savory profiles, like broths, cooked meats, mushrooms and cheeses.
We know what you’re thinking: “Um, I don’t want a porcini mushroom margarita, thank you very much.” Stay with us here. Umami can also refer to the addition of certain spices, sauces and oils that give a dish (or drink) just enough savoriness to make it interesting and play nicely with other ingredients.
For our umami-rita, we’ve got a symphony of flavors with peppercorn-honey syrup and turmeric, a powerhouse umami spice. You’ve got sweet, umami and citrusy all in one glass. This one’s for the real adventurers.
The Recipe
1 ½ ounces Astral Blanco Tequila
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce peppercorn-honey syrup*
Sprinkle of turmeric
*Peppercorn-Honey Syrup
½ cup honey
½ cup water
2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
For the peppercorn-honey syrup: In a saucepan over medium heat, bring honey and water to a boil, stirring until honey dissolves. Remove from heat and add peppercorns. Let cool and strain.
For the cocktail: In a shaker with ice, add tequila, lime juice and peppercorn-honey syrup. Shake and strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a sprinkle of turmeric.
If you thought we were going to give you a sugary, cloying margarita recipe for the sweet flavor profile, think again. Sweet can be sophisticated, not syrupy. This recipe heavily features prickly pear, the colorful fruit of the nopales cactus. This underrated fruit’s juices taste like a delicious mix between bubblegum and watermelon, making for a delightful cocktail ingredient. Swap the artificial mixers for a bit of prickly pear juice or purée in your next drink and you’ll never go back.
The Recipe
2 ounces Espolòn Blanco Tequila
1 ounce prickly pear purée
1 ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce homemade agave syrup*
Prickly pear slice
Lime twist
*Agave Syrup
1 cup agave nectar
1 cup water
For the agave syrup: In a bottle, combine agave nectar and water. Shake well to combine.
For the cocktail: In a shaker with ice, add tequila, prickly pear purée, lime juice and agave syrup. Shake and strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a prickly pear slice and lime twist.
Margaritas are traditionally made with tequila, but this one uses mezcal for a smoky variation. Mezcal is known for its smoky flavor profile, and the mezcal used in this recipe is perfectly balanced with hints of woodsy sweetness. Combined with the bracing freshness of muddled cucumber, mint and lime, this margarita recipe is a flavor explosion you won’t want to miss.
The Recipe
2 cucumber slices
5 mint leaves
2 ounces Montelobos Mezcal Joven
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce homemade agave syrup*
*Homemade Agave Syrup
1 cup agave nectar
1 cup water
For the homemade agave syrup: In a bottle, combine agave nectar and water. Shake well to combine.
For the cocktail: In a shaker, add cucumbers and muddle. Add ice, mint, mezcal, lime juice and agave syrup. Shake and strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a cucumber slice and mint sprig.
For the Piña Colada lovers who know all the coolest tiki bars in town, this coco-limon margarita brings all the best flavors from the tropics to your home bar. The addition of fresh lemon juice and coconut cream makes for a tropically delicious marg that’s begging to be enjoyed on a beach somewhere with your toes in the sand.
The Recipe
Coconut sugar & sea salt mixture
1 ½ ounces DeLeón Blanco Tequila
1 ounce coconut cream
¾ ounce agave nectar
½ ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
Dried lime wheel
2 pineapple fronds
Rim your glass with coconut sugar and sea salt mixture and set aside. In a shaker with ice, add tequila, coconut cream, agave nectar, lime juice and lemon juice. Shake and strain into prepared glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a dried lime wheel and two pineapple fronds.
You might balk at the idea of a bitter margarita, but consider this: the Aperol Spritz, the Negroni and the Paper Plane are all bitter, citrusy, crowd-pleasing cocktails. Add Campari, the bitter orange liqueur that stars in two of the aforementioned cocktails, and you’ve got yourself a margarita that’s juicy, bitter and oh-so-delicious.
The Recipe
2 ounces Campo Azul Selecto Blanco Tequila
¼ ounce Campari Aperitivo
1 ounce Cointreau Liqueur
1 ounce fresh lime juice
In a shaker with ice, add tequila, Campari, Cointreau and lime juice. Shake and strain into a glass.
In parts of Eastern Europe, it’s customary to follow a shot of vodka with something savory and fermented, like a pickle. If you raised an eyebrow out of intrigue instead of disgust, this recipe is for you. Muddled red beet adds a sweet, earthy depth to this wild card of a margarita recipe. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.
The Recipe
1-2 slices red beet
¾ ounces fresh lime juice
½ ounce agave syrup
2 ounces Jose Cuervo Tradicional Reposado Tequila
Beet greens
In a shaker, add beet slices, lime juice and agave syrup. Muddle then, add tequila and ice. Shake and strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with beet greens.
Finishing off with a trusty banger, we have a fruity-licious grilled watermelon margarita recipe. The kiss of grapefruit juice gives just enough tang to balance out the rich sweetness of the grilled watermelon syrup. Salud!
The Recipe
Tajin
1 ounce Cointreau Liqueur
2 ounces CavAgave Blanco Tequila
1 ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce fresh grapefruit juice
½ ounce grilled watermelon syrup*
Lime wheel
*Grilled Watermelon Syrup
Watermelon slices
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
For grilled watermelon syrup: Cut watermelon into slices and grill until both sides of watermelon have grill marks. Set aside to cool. In a pot over medium heat, add sugar and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved and let cool. In a blender, add grilled watermelon and simple syrup, blend and then fine strain.
For the cocktail: Rim a glass with tajin and set aside. In a shaker with ice, add Cointreau, tequila, lime juice, grapefruit juice and grilled watermelon syrup. Shake and strain into prepared glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel.
