By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com
Like many famous and popular cocktails, the origin of the margarita is as mixed as its ingredients.
PubClub.com has attempted here to uncover the fascinating history of margaritas and its various claims of origin in this article. From Hussong’s Cantina to Bar Andaluz and beyond, learn about the birth of this popular cocktail.
Let’s start with Bar Andaluz, which claims to have created the margarita in 1948. Located inside the Centro Social Cívico y Cultural Riviera de Ensenada, a community and cultural center in Ensenada, Mexico, its website states that “the popular and world famous drink ‘Margarita’ was invented on August 21, 1948, by Mr. David Negrete in honor of the owner of the Rivera del Pacifico Hotel, Ms. Majorie, ‘Margarita’ King Plant.” (Apparently Margarita King Plant was her nickname).
At least this account gives an exact date, which makes it either true or is just a really good PR move to make it look authentic.
Except that a couple miles the the north is Hussong’s, “the peanut-shells-on-the-floor, mariachis-at-your-table cantina that has lubricated Ensenada gringos since 1892” according to an LA Times article. Hussong’s claims its bartender, Don Carlos Orozco, created the margarita in 1941.
Then again, it could have been Carlos “Danny” Herrera at the Rancho La Gloria restaurant in Baja. According to Wine Enthusiast magazine, in 1938 restaurant owner Herrera supposedly mixed it for a Ziegfeld showgirl, Marjorie King, who only drank tequila. Herrera supposedly added lime juice and salt to the drink.
Or it was the creation of Johnny Durlesser, a Los Angeles bartender at McHenry’s Tail O’ The Cock. He told the Van Nuys News that he invented the margarita in 1937. Durlesser’s recipe matches the recipe for a drink called a Picador, whch was published in the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book in 1937.
Maybe it came from Francisco “Pancho” Morales of Tommy’s Bar in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Morales told Texas Monthy that in 1942 he invented the drink on the fly when a customer asked him for a drink he didn’t know how to make. He mixed tequila, Cointreau, and lime juice – a margarita. During World War II tho? Hmmm.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t created at a bar at all. One account has it that Texas socialite Margaret Sames (a.k.a Margarita) made one t a house party in Mexico in 1948. Another tale has it that the name of the drink came from actress Rita Hayworth, whose real name was Margarita Casino and worked in Tijuana in the 1940s.
Cocktail historian David Wondrich theorized in his book Imbibe that the margarita is a spinoff of another cocktail, The Daisy, that mixed citrus juice and grenadine with alcohol, tho not tequila. There is a spinoff of this spinoff: the margarita came about when a bartender in Mexico was making The Daisy for an off-duty newspaper reporter from Iowa and grabbed the wrong liquor bottle. The Spanish word for daisy is margarita, and well, that makes sense. Kind of, although I don’t know about you but I refuse to believe the national drink of Mexico has any connection to anyone from Iowa.
Whatever the origin, it makes for stories as colorful as the drink itself. And I can’t help but think that a few margaritas were consumed when coming up with these various versions of the history of this popular cocktail.
. Next On the PubClub.com Cocktaik Party Bus:
• Where Was The Pina Colada Invented?
Kevin Wilkeson is an award-winning journalist who has been publishing PubClub.com for more than 20 years. He’s had his share of margaritas in that time. And beyond. This article was writen by a human with no assistance from AI.
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