Mezcal Margarita
- Glass
- Rocks
- Difficulty
- Easy
- ABV
- ~22%
Ingredients
- 2 ozmezcal60 ml
- 1 ozfresh lime juice30 ml
- ¾ oztriple sec or cointreau22 ml
Instructions
If you want salt, rim only half a rocks glass: wipe a lime wedge along half the outer lip and dip it in flaky salt so the drinker can choose. Fill the glass with a large ice cube or a few solid cubes. Combine the mezcal, fresh lime juice, and Cointreau in a shaker with ice. Shake hard for 12 seconds. Strain over the fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel on the rim. The liquid should be a pale, slightly cloudy citrus — not green, not brown. Taste before you add more salt to the glass.
Sips & Tips
Technique
This is a Margarita, not a Tommy’s. Shake the three ingredients, strain onto fresh ice, and stop. Half-salt is kinder than a full crust once mezcal is in the glass — smoke plus a wall of salt is a lot. A large cube keeps the second half of the drink from turning into lime water. Double-strain if you want it clearer; a little lime pulp is honest. Do not blend it.
Balance
Two / one / three-quarters is the house sour: mezcal, lime, Cointreau. Cointreau is worth it; cheap triple sec plus mezcal tastes like a party punch. Use a mezcal with medium smoke — Vida, Montelobos, or Banhez. A big peater needs the lime at a full ounce and still may not sit. If you want it drier, cut Cointreau to ½ oz. If you want it closer to Tommy’s, drop the Cointreau for ½ oz agave syrup and say so.
History
The Margarita’s origin stories are a pile of bars and decades. This is not another one. The Mezcal Margarita is the SipSelect Kitchen three-ingredient spec: the classic sour template with mezcal in place of blanco tequila. Tommy’s (tequila, lime, agave) is the other honest fork; we are publishing the orange-liqueur version because it is the one most home bars can actually make tonight.
A Mezcal Margarita is a Margarita that admits to smoke. Three ingredients, a half-salt rim if you want it, lime wheel. Cheers.
Variations
Tommy’s Mezcal Margarita
Replace the Cointreau with ½ oz agave syrup when you want the drink to taste like roasted agave, not orange. Same shake, same rocks glass. Use it if your mezcal is already complex and liqueur would crowd it.
Split-base Margarita
Use 1 oz mezcal and 1 oz blanco tequila when full smoke is too much for the table. You keep a thread of pit roast and a lot more citrus lift. Say split-base so nobody thinks you watered the mezcal.
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Mezcal Margarita
Glass: Rocks | Difficulty: Easy | ABV: ~22%
Ingredients
- 2 oz mezcal
- 1 oz fresh lime juice
- ¾ oz triple sec or cointreau
Instructions
If you want salt, rim only half a rocks glass: wipe a lime wedge along half the outer lip and dip it in flaky salt so the drinker can choose. Fill the glass with a large ice cube or a few solid cubes. Combine the mezcal, fresh lime juice, and Cointreau in a shaker with ice. Shake hard for 12 seconds. Strain over the fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel on the rim. The liquid should be a pale, slightly cloudy citrus — not green, not brown. Taste before you add more salt to the glass.