Classic Margarita Recipe

A classic Margarita is tequila, orange liqueur and fresh lime juice, shaken with ice, with salt on the rim if you want it. The official recipe from the International Bartenders Association is 50 mL tequila, 20 mL triple sec and 15 mL lime; the common American build is 2:1:1. Below is the recipe card, the official spec with the numbers behind it, what the ratio and your choice of orange liqueur do to the strength (a 2:1:1 with Cointreau is 2.0 standard drinks; the same drink with a 15 percent triple sec is 1.6), the calorie math, the printed history back to a 1937 London cocktail book, and the answers to the questions people ask most.

Last verified September 14, 2026. The official recipe is the IBA’s; orange liqueur strengths are from the producers; the history is from Difford’s Guide, David Wondrich via Smithsonian Magazine, Barry Popik’s newspaper research and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; standard drinks from NIAAA; calories from USDA FoodData Central and Cointreau’s published nutrition figures. Full list at the end.

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Classic Margarita

Mixing a perfect margarita is easier than you think.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword Margarita

Prep Time 2 minutes

Total Time 2 minutes

Servings 1 person

Calories 169 kcal

Ingredients

• 2 parts tequila
• 1 part lime juice
• 1 part orange liqueur
• salt for rim
• lime wedge for garnish

Instructions

1. Optional: Salt the rim of your glass. Rub a lime wedge around the rim and dip into a plate of salt.

2. In a shaker, combine tequila, lime juice, and orange liqueur with ice.

3. Shake well until chilled.

4. Strain into the prepared glass filled with ice.

5. Garnish with lime wedge.

Nutrition Facts

Classic Margarita

Amount Per Serving

Calories 169

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Our build, in ounces: 2 oz blanco tequila, 1 oz orange liqueur, 1 oz fresh lime juice. Measure with a jigger; a free pour of tequila into a rocks glass is usually closer to 3 oz than 2, and every extra ounce of 40 percent tequila is two thirds of a standard drink.

The official recipe

The IBA lists the Margarita among its Contemporary Classics: “50 ml Tequila 100% Agave, 20 ml Triple Sec, 15 ml Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice. Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.” Garnish: “Half salt rim (Optional).” That is a 10:4:3 ratio, served up, and the IBA asks for 100 percent agave tequila without specifying blanco or reposado. The same list carries Tommy’s Margarita, from Julio Bermejo at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco: “60 ml Tequila 100% agave, 30 ml Fresh Lime Juice, 30 ml Agave Nectar,” shaken and strained into a rocks glass full of ice with a lime slice. It drops the orange liqueur altogether and was added to the IBA list in 2008.

“Tequila 100% de agave” is a legal category under Mexico’s tequila standard, NOM-006-SCFI-2012: the fermentation “may not be enhanced with sugars other than those obtained from the tequilana weber blue variety Agave,” and the product “must be bottled in the bottling plant controlled by the Authorized Producer” inside the tequila territory. Plain “Tequila” without the 100 percent may be made with other sugars up to 49 percent of the total before fermentation. The label tells you which one you have; the classes (blanco, reposado, añejo) are a separate question, covered in Tequila Types Explained.

The ratio, and what it does to the strength

NIAAA counts one standard drink as 0.6 fl oz (about 14 g) of pure alcohol. The tequila is a fixed quantity; the orange liqueur is where the strength moves, because “triple sec” on a US label covers everything from a 15 percent liqueur to a 40 percent one.

The math for any build is ounces × ABV ÷ 0.6 (or mL × ABV ÷ 17.7). A pitcher for eight at 2:1:1 with Cointreau is 16 standard drinks.

Which orange liqueur

Under 27 CFR 5.150, “Triple Sec and Curacao” is a listed type of liqueur (“Orange flavored liqueurs/cordials”), so it is a legal description, not a brand, and any liqueur with at least 2.5 percent sugar by weight qualifies. The products named in most recipes, with the producers’ own figures:

Swapping a 40 percent liqueur for a 15 percent one takes a 2:1:1 from 2.0 standard drinks to 1.6 without changing the recipe. It also changes the sugar, though DeKuyper publishes no nutrition figure we could cite.

Lime juice and sour mix

Fresh lime juice is about 1.38 g of citric acid per fluid ounce, close to lemon’s 1.44 g (Penniston et al., Journal of Endourology, 2008), with 25 calories and 1.7 g of sugar per 100 g (USDA FoodData Central 168156). The liqueur’s sugar is what balances that acid, which is why the IBA holds the lime to 15 mL against 20 mL of liqueur. Bottled “sweet and sour” is a different thing: Finest Call’s Sweet & Sour is described by its maker as lemon juice, citrus oils and simple syrup at 7 percent juice; its Citrus Sour is 19 percent juice; Master of Mixes Sweet ‘n Sour lists 8 percent juice and 80 calories per serving. A Margarita made with sour mix replaces the lime and some of the liqueur with the mix’s syrup, so the standard-drink figures above still hold for the tequila and liqueur but the calorie figures do not.

Calories

Tequila has no USDA entry of its own; the 80-proof distilled spirits figure is used, and the USDA pages were checked through a mirror of the SR Legacy database.

Where the Margarita came from

Nobody has a document that settles it. What exists in print is below; the named inventors come after.

The inventor claims, none of them backed by a contemporaneous document: Carlos “Danny” Herrera at Rancho La Gloria between Tijuana and Rosarito (1938 by one account, 1947 to 1948 by another), for the dancer Marjorie King; Don Carlos Orozco at Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada, October 1941, for Margarita Henkel; Francisco “Pancho” Morales at Tommy’s Place in Ciudad Juárez, July 4, 1942; Santos Cruz at the Balinese Room in Galveston, 1948, for Peggy Lee; and Margarita Sames in Acapulco, Christmas 1948, a claim the 1945 Cuervo ad predates by three years. Difford’s adds Doña Bertha in Taxco (1930), David Daniel Negrete in Tehuacán (1936) and Johnny Durlesser at the Tail o’ the Cock in Los Angeles (1937). Any of them may be true. What the record shows is a tequila Daisy circulating on both sides of the border from 1934 and the drink in a London bar book by 1937.

Frequently asked questions

What is the classic Margarita ratio? The IBA spec is 50 mL tequila, 20 mL triple sec, 15 mL lime (10:4:3). The common home ratio is 2:1:1. Tommy’s Margarita is 2:1:1 with agave nectar in place of the liqueur.

Blanco or reposado? The IBA specifies only “Tequila 100% Agave.” Either class qualifies; blanco is the usual choice in the recipes above.

Where did the Margarita originate? No inventor is documented. The Tequila Daisy is in US newspapers from 1934, the Picador (the same drink) is in a 1937 London cocktail book, and the name “Margarita” is in print from 1945 (an advertisement) and 1953 (a recipe).

When is National Margarita Day? February 22. It was started by Todd McCalla around 2008 and is not registered with anyone.

Can I use orange juice instead of triple sec? You can, but you are removing the liqueur’s alcohol and most of its sugar, so the drink drops to about 1.3 standard drinks at 2 oz of tequila and will need a sweetener to keep the lime in balance. Tommy’s Margarita solves the same problem with agave nectar.

How do I make a pitcher? Keep the ratio and multiply: for eight drinks at 2:1:1, 16 oz tequila, 8 oz orange liqueur and 8 oz lime juice, about 16 standard drinks with a 40 percent liqueur. Stir it in the pitcher without ice and pour over ice in the glass so the last serving is not watered down.

How strong is a Margarita? 1.6 standard drinks for the IBA spec with a 40 percent liqueur, 2.0 for a 2:1:1 at 2 oz tequila, 1.3 to 1.6 with a 15 percent triple sec.

Is there a non-alcoholic version? Lime juice, a non-alcoholic orange syrup or a non-alcoholic agave spirit, and soda water over ice with the salt rim. The lime and salt are what make it read as a Margarita.

Sources

• IBA: Margarita and Tommy’s Margarita, checked September 14, 2026
• Difford’s Guide, Margarita origins and history, Smithsonian Magazine, the Daisy (quoting David Wondrich, 2017), Barry Popik, Tequila Daisy and Esquire December 1953 transcription (ADS-L), checked September 14, 2026
• Wikipedia, Margarita, Cafe Royal Cocktail Book, Tommy’s margarita and SFGate, how Tommy’s Margarita was created, checked September 14, 2026
• National Museum of American History, frozen margarita machine (2005), checked September 14, 2026
• nationalmargaritaday.com, About and Mic, the creator of National Margarita Day (2017), checked September 14, 2026
• Producers: Cointreau, nutritional value and FAQ, Campari Group, brands (Grand Marnier), Bols Triple Sec, DeKuyper Triple Sec and Difford’s listing (15%), Patrón Citrónge, Finest Call Sweet & Sour and Citrus Sour, checked September 14, 2026
• Regulatory: 27 CFR 5.150, Cordials and liqueurs, 27 CFR 5.148, Tequila and NOM-006-SCFI-2012 (CRT English translation), checked September 14, 2026
• Penniston et al., citric acid in citrus juices, Journal of Endourology 2008, NIAAA, What is a standard drink, USDA FoodData Central 174815, distilled spirits 80 proof and 168156, lime juice, raw, checked September 14, 2026

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