11 Different Bartenders Mix a Classic Margarita

[corks popping]

[drinks sloshing]

[upbeat percussive music]

[upbeat jazzy music]

The elements of a classic margarita are a good tequila,

an orange liqueur, which is Cointreau,

freshly squeezed lime juice,

and some sort of sweetener, my agave syrup.

And really, these are the only four ingredients

that you need for a good margarita.

Then I'm gonna put some fresh ice in here.

I'm gonna give it a really, really good shake.

[drink sloshing]

A margarita should be shaken about 15 times

to make it really extremely cold.

So then I'm gonna take a rocks glass.

I like to do a half salt rim

that gives people the choice,

whether they want the salt or not.

The orange allows the salt to go on very easily.

A large ice cube keeps it extra cold.

We finish it off with a little bit of a lime wheel here

to give it some color.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Unlike the martini, unlike the old fashioned,

I am less draconian in how you do a margarita.

I think you could do them many different ways.

Each bar has their own personality with it.

So the margarita I'm making is known as a Tommy's margarita.

It was invented in San Francisco in the '90s

at a bar called Tommy's Mexican.

So when it comes to a margarita, I'm sure you're going

to get a lot of folks on here that does it the classic way.

You're going to have your tequila,

you're going to have your lime juice.

No difference here on that one.

A lot of people are gonna use orange liqueur.

I am going to use agave syrup.

The agave loves the lime,

so we're gonna put a full ounce of lime juice in here.

When it comes to your regular margaritas,

you can pretty much use any kind of tequila you want.

You can use a silver blanco.

I find that with these ingredients,

it works best with the Reposado.

Tommy's Mexican themselves use a Reposado.

Who am I to argue with that?

Now the question of the rim of a margarita.

Some people want absolutely no salt.

Some people want salt, some people want spicy salt,

all those things.

I'm not going to use salt if I have no information on it

because I don't want to do that, but if I use salt,

I have a hard, fast rule,

I'm going to do a half rim of salt around it.

Now we're shaking this margarita.

[ice clinks]

Small glass into large glass.

I filled the small with my spirits.

I filled the large with my ice. Why do I do that?

Because maybe I get distracted and I gotta walk around

and that way the ice is not sitting

in here and the drink is going bad.

Citrus loves agitation and the way that it combines,

it changes the complexion of the cocktail.

Citrus works well with aggressive and violent ice.

When it comes to no citrus, it does not work as well.

You're just trying to dilute the cocktail.

Citrus is meant to change the cocktail.

I always suggest to people to use the chicken wing of here.

That ice is gonna hit every part

of that inner inner cylinder.

I would say eight to 10 seconds is the good amount.

Opening's always hard for people, sometimes use brute force,

but you should be able to just hit it like that.

We are gonna fill our glass with ice.

Then we get to the part that I kind of have a little bit

of an issue with, but I understand it completely.

Margaritas almost universally come with a lime on there.

It looks better. I understand that it adds color to it.

The thing about it is people tend to take this off

so much and squeeze this in there.

It's already got the perfect amount of lime juice.

You're just over...

You're good you're putting too much citrus in it,

but I can't fight tradition.

[upbeat jazzy music]

I work at Paradise Lost, which is gonna be a tiki bar.

We try to use the same templates of classics,

but using unexpected ingredients.

These are gonna be the Bittermen's hellfire bitters.

They just give a really beautiful habanero spice

of the cocktail without totally overwhelming it.

You're gonna start off with smaller,

more intense ingredients that cost a little bit less.

So if you mess up, you can just toss it out

and you won't have to worry about wasting any booze.

I'm gonna be using some lime cordial,

Galangal agave and hibiscus grenadine.

These will all speed in the margarita, that's way too much.

She's going in.

It's just not a margarita without lime juice,

even at a tiki bar.

For our spirits, instead of the traditional tequila,

I'm gonna be split basing.

Split basing is a technique using tiki cocktails

that elongates the base

that you're gonna be using for your drink

Instead of just using tequila, we're going to switch it up.

The basis today that we're splitting up are going

to be a far [indistinct], a strawberry liqueur.

This is substituted for your traditional Triple Sec,

a little bit of spicy jalapeno tequila,

and some accrete leaf infused mescal.

We're gonna be using this Hamilton Beach blender

in order to flash blend our cocktail.

[blender whirring]

Flash blending is a technique

that's ubiquitous within the tiki scene.

It just aerates dilutes and chills your tiki cocktail,

especially when you're using crushed ice.

We're gonna add a little bit of soda into the bottom

of our glass so it fully incorporates into this cocktail.

This cocktail, since we flash blended it,

has way more head that really nice frothy top

that's just kind of laughing and smiling at you

while you're drinking it.

A common misconception with tiki drinks

is that because they have so much ice in them,

you're actually watering down your drink.

More ice built on top actually makes it water down less.

If I didn't put this much ice into this drink,

it would actually water down much faster

and you wouldn't be able to enjoy it

at the proper balance that you'd like.

Now it's time for the fun garnishes.

We're gonna add a little bit of fresh mint.

What I'm doing here is what we call spanking the mint.

It just wakes up a lot of those oils that are inside

of the leaves, giving it more aromatics

when you first pull that drink up.

Up next is Makrut lime leaf.

These are the leaves that we use to infuse into the mescal.

We wouldn't really be a tiki bar without a fun little serve.

So we got a custom paradise slot in here as well,

as a little skeleton toy.

This is our variation on a classic margarita.

So I work at the Bush, it is a lesbian bar,

cocktail bar during the week,

nightclub on Friday and Saturday night.

So after 11:00 PM, we switch to plastic cups.

People are drunk, they're breaking things.

We don't want them breaking our glassware.

So nonetheless, I still rim the glass with Tajin.

We're gonna start with lime juice,

some Cointreau 'cause it's better than Triple Sec.

The girls at the Bush like their drinks a little bit sweet,

so I do a couple dashes of simple syrup

in the margarita and no one ever complains.

Espolon, it's a good mid-level tequila.

It's pretty non-controversial.

You wanna shake the hell out of it.

We just dirty drop, it's quicker and it's still delicious.

If you want a little extra lime, boom, I keep saying boom.

I don't know why I like think I'm on a cooking show.

It's a perfect margarita.

The margarita to me is the party cocktail,

and flair is sort of the party aspect of bartending.

Flair is just manipulating your tools

in a really fun and exciting way to give your guests

a little extra experience.

We're gonna make a margarita,

so first I need to grab a tin to pour stuff into.

We're gonna start by putting

just a quarter ounce of simple syrup.

Again, the idea behind a margarita is that it's supposed

to be a beautiful balance of sweet and sour.

We're gonna do fresh squeezed lime juice.

So many bars and restaurants cut corners

and they buy pre-juiced juice.

[upbeat jazzy music]

When you use a blanco tequila,

you get sort of notes of minerality to it,

like a slate Combier.

I think it is one of the better Triple Secs out there.

To me, you don't need salt in a margarita.

I find that salt was used back in the day for the fact

that salt kind of dulls your senses in your taste buds.

By using salt,

it's kind of allowing you to use lesser products.

I have no judgment on it, I just don't think it's necessary.

I like the expression that when you shake a cocktail,

you wake it up and a margarita

is certainly a cocktail that you wanna wake up.

So we're gonna give it a nice good shake.

[drink sloshing]

Another thing a lot of bartenders make the mistake of

is they don't put fresh ice in their glass.

They just do what is actually known as a dirty dump,

which is where you simply take the cocktail

and just dump those ingredients

that you just shook into the glass.

So I'm gonna add fresh ice so that way

the drink doesn't over dilute

and we're gonna straighten it out

with our Hawthorne strainer.

So we'll strain this out. We'll make a beautiful margarita.

[ice clinks]

So some people just put it on the glass,

but I'd prefer to throw it in like that.

Margarita, enjoy.

[person applauding]

I got an applause, boom.

I work at a neighborhood bar

and margaritas are a common order.

People expect their margaritas to be in a glass this large

and it's just not really the traditional margarita.

So I've kind of come up with an adaptation

that you don't have acid reflux for the next four days.

Starting with ice in the glass,

I add the tequila, Espolon's a fantastic tequila,

doesn't have any artificial flavors.

Triples Sec would be next, or Cointreau, whatever you have,

any orange liqueur would be fine.

So most neighborhood bars would use a sour mix off the gun,

but I do my own because they find it to be too acidic,

so I do lemon lime, and that being said,

I even add a little simple syrup into mine just to cut

the acid just a little bit.

I just do a quick rim of the glass with the lime.

A lot of people will just use salt,

but I like to use Tajin.

And then in the glass you're gonna wanna put some fresh ice

and then just give it a really good shake.

[drink sloshing]

No strainer because I do everything wrong.

And there's just a margarita.

Donahue's is a family run steakhouse

on the upper east side of Manhattan.

People order margaritas,

I'd probably say maybe a quarter of the time.

We ever shaker glass and fill it with some ice.

Cointreau is a classic addition to margaritas.

It's an orange liqueur, very smooth.

A lot of people if they wanna cut cost will use Triple Sec.

If I don't use this, I'd use Gram Monet.

Now I'm pouring my lime juice. It's smooth.

Some of the lime juice you use is bitter, so it's no fun.

Trasamana, it's a very smooth blanco tequila.

I free pour all my drinks at Donahue's,

all of my bartenders free pour all the drinks at Donahue's.

There's no measurements.

My father years ago would have me set up

with bottles of water and ice cubes,

and have the proportions correct

so you knew exactly what you were doing.

I don't know why it adheres to the rim

of the glass the way it does,

but coarse margarita salt works the best for us,

so we use it.

[drink sloshing]

And then you just pour it in and there's your margarita.

I like to squeeze the lime into my margarita at the end

of making the margarita

'cause the flavor of the lime

will be sitting right on top of your cocktail.

As a home bartender,

I know that it can get far more complicated than this,

but I like a classic simple lime margarita,

and if you can just get some fresh limes,

juice 'em real quick, it's gonna be a much better margarita.

And then I've got just a little bit of simple syrup,

which is really easy to make.

It's equal parts, sugar and water.

I'm gonna be using the Espolon Blanco tequila.

I personally really like the Blanco tequilas for margaritas

and this is a pretty good price for one.

And let's face it, I'm a home bartender,

so I like it a little bit strong, and then we're gonna go,

just a hint of this Triple Sec.

I'm gonna give this a little bit of a mix

and then I'm honestly gonna taste it just

to see if it needs anything else.

So let's give it a taste.

You know what? That's pretty good as it is.

A lot of people will salt the outside of their glass.

I personally have never been very good

at salting the outside of the glass.

So I just put it in.

Throw in that lime to make it a little bit fresher,

and we're in.

First thing I'm going to do

is I'm actually going to salt my glass.

I like a half rim.

Just kind of gives people the option for salt.

I work in a high volume bar and I make so many margaritas.

I have to make them super fast too.

Today, I am making a mescal Tommy's Margarita.

Mescal, it's roasted,

which is why you get that smoky flavor that's very distinct.

Tommy's Margarita by trade is one ounce of lime juice,

versus three quarter ounce of agave,

so I'm gonna go ahead,

and then I'm gonna follow that up with two ounces of mescal.

I'm gonna throw some ice.

[drink sloshing]

I am going to garnish

with a beautifully sliced lime wheel.

A lot of garnishes are just there as simply a garnish.

It's not meant to be expressed into the cocktail.

It's supposed to make it look cute.

Today, I'm gonna make you my favorite version

of Margarita, which is a take on a take

of the classic margarita.

So a Cadillac margarita is a margarita

that substitutes the Triple Sec for Grand Marnier.

Cadillac is the most popular margarita

after the classic margarita and the Tommy's margarita.

Grand Marnier is gonna be an orange liqueur,

just like a Triples Sec made in Cognac, France,

and adds kind of like a deeper vanilla spice kind

of note to it.

The Grand Marnier kind of darkens the color

of the margarita a little bit more,

so it might look a little bit different

than your nice light green margarita.

My margarita variation is going

to be a Calamansi Cadillac margarita.

I take a coronary approach to cocktails.

When working with different chefs and different restaurants,

I try to use ingredients they already have in-house.

So we're using rose's lime juice now,

which is a shelf stable lime juice.

We're using what I call my agave Trinity.

Reposado tequila is an aged tequila.

You have Raicilla.

With Raicilla, you're gonna have a greener,

more earthy kind of vibe, but it's still agave.

This next thing we're using,

even though I say it's in the agave trinity, it's not agave.

Sotol is made from a plant that closer resembles asparagus.

It really resembles like dark,

super dark green grass or [indistinct]

It's really fun to play with in cocktails.

So I rim the glass with kind of like my house made Tajin.

I use Gochugaru, which is a Korean chili flake.

I use a little bit of salt,

a little bit of citric acid and a little bit of MSG.

[upbeat jazzy music]

So I'm going to make Yukari margarita.

Let's make.

The first the last ex pro mescal,

eight years [indistinct]

It gets a lot of fluoro notes.

It's like a red berry, some acid.

This is ume liqueur, homemade.

This is a replacement of the Triple Sec.

Ume is a Japanese plant.

The lime can be like you a more green flavor profile,

Ume and Yukari.

This more kind of lemon citrus image of the cocktail.

So I always taste and I adjust it. Perfect.

For example, tomorrow lemon

and today's lemon is a different acid,

so you have to manage it all the time.

That's why every single time I try to taste before shake.

So the char powder has red shiso flavor

with the touch of salt.

Yukari is a Japanese seasoning,

usually making for the rice bowl in Japan.

Yeah, our shaking process is very, very specific.

[drink sloshing]

It's called Japanese hard shake.

That means not gentle, gentle but at same time.

So you can see like control the ice.

Very precise of the temperature

and try to control the aeration.

Shiso so on the top.

Enjoy.

And of course every margarita

should start with a lick of the salt.

[Speaker] Thank you, Tommy's Mexican.

I could drink that.

Saturday. Refreshing.

Best margarita.

Wonderful. It's really strong.

But really good. [laughing]