· By Maanav Mohan
How to make a Margarita
The margarita has more arguments attached to it than almost any drink alive. Frozen or on the rocks? Salt rim or Tajin or nothing? Blanco or reposado? Everyone has a position and everyone is ready to defend it loudly. The good news: learn the base recipe first. Then develop opinions. You will have them. You always do.
The Ingredients
Frozen or on the rocks. Both are correct. Both are legal. Both are good.
The Recipe
Rim your glass first. This is not negotiable.
Run a cut lime around the rim, then press it into salt or Tajin on a flat plate. If you skip this step, you've made a tequila sour. Fine drink. Not a margarita.
Combine tequila, Cointreau, and lime juice in a shaker.
All three. Together. In the shaker. Not the glass. The shaker. Add lots of ice.
Shake. Hard. For at least 15 seconds.
This chills it properly and dilutes it slightly. That dilution is flavour, not weakness. Shake like you mean it.
Strain into your rimmed glass over fresh ice.
Don't pour in the shaker ice. It'll water it down while you drink. Strain it. Fresh ice in the glass.
Garnish with a lime wheel and feel good about yourself.
You just made a proper margarita. That's something. Not many people can say that with confidence.
🧂 Do the rim. We are begging you.
The salt rim is not decoration. It is architecture. Your lips hit the salt before the liquid, which makes the lime taste sharper and the tequila taste cleaner on every single sip. Skip it and you have a perfectly fine tequila drink. Do it and you have a margarita. These are genuinely different things. We know people who skip the rim. We think about them sometimes.
Triple sec, Cointreau, and where to find either in Gurgaon
What is triple sec?
Triple sec is a sweet, orange-flavoured liqueur and one of the oldest cocktail building blocks around. In a margarita, it adds sweetness and citrus depth that the drink needs to hold together. Without it, you have tequila and lime juice. Which is fine, technically. But it is not a margarita.
What is Cointreau?
Cointreau is triple sec — the French, premium, considerably better version. It is made from a blend of sweet and bitter orange peels, and it is noticeably cleaner and more refined than most generic triple secs. In a margarita, where you are only using 30ml and every ingredient counts, the quality of your orange liqueur shows up in the glass. Use Cointreau if you can.
Where to find it in Gurgaon
Most thekas in Gurgaon carry Cointreau — expect to pay around ₹3,000 for a bottle. If that feels steep right now, some thekas also stock local triple sec at around ₹1,500, though you may have to look around a bit. Your best bets are the theka at Jalsa or the large, well-stocked one on Golf Course Road. Either of those should have what you need.
Or — honestly — do you want to make that run, measure everything out, shake, strain, and salt the rim? Or do you just want a great drink? Brohmos exists for exactly this situation.
Skip the shaker.
If you want something citrusy, strong, and ready in under 30 seconds, check out Brohmos Mixers. All the fun, significantly less squeezing.
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