National Margarita Day Celebrated Nationwide

Yesterday was national Margarita Day, a celebration of the popular tequila-based beverage.

Margaritas are said to have originated sometime in the late 1940s. As the story goes, a Dallas socialite by the name of Margaret “Margarita” Sames who favored tequila and the triple sec Cointreau created the first cocktail in 1948. Inspired by her Acapulco vacation home, she added lime juice and a salted rim to the mixed liquors.

“America loves margaritas. It’s the number-one-selling cocktail in the country,” Kyle Ford, a New York City-based mixologist and brand ambassador for Cointreau, told the New York Daily News. “There’s a holiday for almost everything, so how cool is it that there’s one for a cocktail?”

Why are margaritas so popular? “It’s extremely well balanced. It’s strong, sweet and sour,” Ford explained. “And that sets you up for an infinite amount of variations.” Tequila Avoin president Jenna Fagan has another theory. “When you’re having a great drink it transports you emotionally,” Fagan told NYDN. “A margarita transports us all to summer, sitting on that beach with a margarita in hand.”

While the traditional cocktail contains tequila, triple sec and lime juice, these days margaritas have plenty of variations. Some popular flavors include strawberry, pomegranate and prickly pear.

Learn how to make a margarita in the video below via Epicurious: